WEBVTT - Japan’s $2 Trillion ‘Dementia Money’ Cliff 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:11.119 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, This at All. 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.600 Chizuko is a seventy six year old retyree who lives 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.919 in the Japanese rural district of the Kui just north 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:25.080 of Kyoto. Her daughter Ma is fifty five. Chizuko and 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.639 my are pseudonyms that they've asked us to use for 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.640 privacy because they're talking about their family's finances. They were 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:33.440 interviewed by Bloomberg in October. 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.000 So, Chizuko, she lives in, you know, one of the 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.600 rural parts of the prefecture, kind of surrounded by by 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.600 a lot of forestry and ricefield. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:46.120 That's Alice French, who covers the Japanese stock market out 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:46.680 of Tokyo. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.080 She's been an active stock investor since she was kind 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.199 of in her thirties or forties, So her finances are, 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.480 you know, important to her. She she's built up quite 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:57.400 a nice nest egg or, but she's a pensioner now 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.560 and she relies quite heavily on those savings that she's 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:01.080 built up. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.720 Like many Japanese families, the pair rarely talk about money, 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.959 but recently Chizuko's downer heard something that pushed her to 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:13.440 finally broach the topic of financial planning with her mind. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.840 My the daughter was telling us that she's kind of 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.120 been hearing stories recently, one of which came from another relative, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:30.679 one of her relatives. Basically, their account was found frozen 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:32.640 after they passed away. 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.360 My said, the children of her elderly relative had no 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.839 idea the account had been frozen. When it came time 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.560 for them to handle the state, they were shocked to 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.400 discover that they couldn't access their parents' money. 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.320 And this kind of really triggered an anxiety for my 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:51.640 you know, she's thinking, you know, her parents are also 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.400 kind of getting to that age. They're relying on a pension, 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:57.880 and obviously, you know, one never really wants to have 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.480 to think about your parents kind of becoming able to 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.720 handle things themselves, but it is a reality and something 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:04.880 that you have to think about. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.959 It's a reality playing out all over the world as 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.400 population's age and families plan for their futures. In Japan, 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.080 home to the world's oldest population, there's a greater sense 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.480 of urgency to the planning. That's because almost a third 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.560 of the country, around thirty six million people, are over 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:24.920 the age of sixty five. 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.720 More and more seniors are now reaching that age where 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.960 they might be experiencing dementia or you know, these kind 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.320 of financial risks that come with aging, whether that be 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.080 kind of rash purchases, sudden selling. 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:44.040 In Japan, these financial risks aren't confined to small pocketbook issues. 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.840 Seniors with symptoms of cognitive decline now control trillions of 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.800 dollars in liquid assets. That's cash and investments in stocks, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.680 bonds and other securities. Assets that are at risk of 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.600 being mismanaged are not being put to you in the economy. 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.480 It's almost half of Japan's GDP that falls into this category. 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.520 And you know, from health economists to think tanks to lawyers, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:11.560 all of the people that we spoke to are basically saying, 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.960 as that pile of assets grows, it's going to slow 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.079 down consumption, it's going to slow down markets, it's going 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.160 to start impacting economic growth. It's kind of got to 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.760 a level now where I think it's becoming difficult to ignore, 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.160 and that's really started to raise alarm bells in Japan 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.600 but also across other economies. 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.040 This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.120 Every week we take you inside some of the world's 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:45.080 biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tyccoons, and 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.160 businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today, on the 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:54.080 show Japan's Dementia Dilemma, a growing share of the country's 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.119 financial assets are controlled by the elderly, many at risk 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:02.320 of cognitive decline. Why that's a problem for everyone, not 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.800 just Japan, and what the Japanese are doing about it. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.440 In Japan, older people have a lot of financial power. 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.919 Those over sixty five control more than half of the 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:29.120 fourteen trillion dollars in cash and securities held by Japanese households. 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.479 But Bloomberg's Alice French says a big chunk of those 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.200 liquid assets is held by people with dementia and cognitive issues. 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.719 We understand from data from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank that 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.360 it's at around two trillion dollars, which is around three 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.560 hundred and fifteen trillion yen. Now that includes people who 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.400 have an actual dementia diagnosis, but it also encompasses people 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.960 with something called mild cognitive impairments. Now, this is usually 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.240 something that comes in kind of in the years before 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.520 you might get in a dementia diagnosis, you know, sort 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:06.120 of from the age of sixty five onwards, many older 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.160 people do start to experience kind of lapses in memory, 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.000 you know, struggling with judgment and things like that, and 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.040 just kind of overall cognitive decline. 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.800 People may develop cognitive decline in dementia due to a 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.880 variety of factors, including genetics and lifestyle choices, but age 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.479 is the strongest known risk factor, with research showing that 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:31.520 the risk of developing dementia rises after sixty five. In Japan, 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.800 the population of elderly with cognitive decline is growing fast, 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.080 and Alice says there are big financial risks associated with 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.200 what some are calling dementia money. 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.880 I've heard stories of seniors with dementia or kind of 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.440 cognitive issues, for example, suddenly donating huge amounts to charities 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.640 that they love, or you know, buying into into schemes 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.000 that it's not necessarily scamming, but it's sort of just 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.440 perhaps what one would describe as ill advised spending. It 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:04.600 can also creep in in ways like missed bill payments 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.680 that obviously affects credit scores, and then kind of on 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.400 a bigger scale, you know, obviously fraud is a huge problem. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.920 We know that in Japan over sixty percent of financial 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.279 scams in twenty twenty four were targeted at over sixty fives, 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:22.280 which is pretty staggering. The older population is seen as 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.119 more vulnerable to this, and of course that's only exacerbated 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.080 if you have dementia or some you know, cognitive issues. 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.480 Financial firms can freeze accounts or place limits and restrictions 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.279 on them if they identify what they considered to be 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:41.680 erratic spending patterns. Research from Tokyo's Kale University shows that 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.880 about eleven percent of adult children who take over their 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.720 elderly parents' finances have found those accounts frozen. 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.920 In terms of how they're actually implemented these freezes, it 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.520 really does vary from sort of company to company and 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.920 from bank to bank. One of the firms that we 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.520 spoke to said that their staff make annual visits to 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.080 clients who are aged over seventy five instead of judges 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:07.760 their cognitive ability is now. Of course, you know, in 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.440 most of the cases these sort of securities firms employees 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.000 they don't have a medical background, and instead of having 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.040 to just use their best judgment, obviously one would assume 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.720 with the client's best interests, you know, at heart, but 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:21.440 it is a very difficult judgment. 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:24.640 Called money in a frozen account can't be stolen by 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.560 a scammer or squandered by an older person who might 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.400 not understand how they're spending. But it can't be accessed 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.840 by the account holder's children either, and that's a problem. 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.560 They might need that money to pay for their parents' care, 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.320 and if they can't access it, they might end up 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:45.440 paying for that care themselves. The accounts can be unfrozen, 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.880 but that can be a long bureaucratic process, and it 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.440 doesn't always happen. In some cases, money in those frozen 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.280 accounts is not claimed at all and ends up in 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:56.480 the hands of the government. 0:07:57.840 --> 0:07:59.640 So that means that a lot of this money ends 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.960 up doing whether it's in cash piles unde seni as 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:06.160 mattresses at home, or whether it's sitting in bank accounts. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.000 Alice says this growing pile of dormant dementia money has 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.840 implications for Japan's economic growth. Japan is struggling to boost 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:20.200 its economy after decades of deflation. The country needs its 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.040 people to spend that money, not let it sit idle 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.240 in frozen or dormant bank accounts. 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.200 One of the think tanks that I spoke to for 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.560 the story, for example, had this stat that said that 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.480 if the kind of dormant money the over sixties are 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.280 sitting on, if only zero point two percent of that 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.320 money was actually actively spent, it could boost GDP by 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:39.920 one percent. 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.480 There's an irony here. Some banks are worried that their 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:46.880 older customers might be taking too many risks with their money. 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.600 Some corporations, on the other hand, are concerned that their 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:54.640 older investors might not be taking on enough risk. Forty 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.359 two percent of retail investors in Japan or over sixty. 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.839 Alice says if those people become too risk averse as 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.600 the age, that could affect a company's liquidity and even 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.000 its corporate strategy. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.120 If a big chunk of your shareholders, for example, have 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.840 dementia or are either unable or unwilling to kind of 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.839 actively use their shareholding rights, that can get in the 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.240 way of acquisition deals, That can get in the way 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.199 of things like corporate governance decisions. 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.160 She says, it's becoming a big issue for family owned companies. 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.280 More than ninety percent of businesses in Japan are family owned, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.400 and over half of companies are run by people aged 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.760 sixty and older. This all adds up to a looming 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:39.240 issue for corporate Japan. 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.119 For example, if the founder is still the majority shareholder 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.280 but maybe has dementia or is just aging and is 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.000 unable to use those shareholder rights. M and A deals 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.560 have been collapsing. You know, you can't even do something 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.800 as simple, for example, as appointing a new board member 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.600 if you can't get a majority shareholder approval. And of 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.120 course this is all happening against the backdrop of Japan 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:03.520 trying to push forward with corporate governance with better capital efficiency. 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.920 We've got an M and A boom that's continuing here 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:09.120 and is expected to boom even more in twenty twenty six. 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:11.559 So this kind of is I think a real tangible 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.240 risk and that will start to have I think a 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.839 rippling effect across the markets and across lots of different 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.800 asset classes. 0:10:26.400 --> 0:10:30.080 What is Japan's government doing to protect its aging investors 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.520 and how does it plan to tap into those dormant 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:51.880 trillions that's after the break. Japan's population is aging faster 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.640 than any other in the world, and the number of 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:59.080 Japanese people with dementia is growing fast too. That makes 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.680 the problems that with having assets controlled by people living 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:07.800 with cognitive issues hard to ignore. Luombrig's Alice French says 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:12.280 that Japanese government is taking action that includes reviewing Japan's 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.840 guardianship law. Similar to power of attorney in the US. 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.320 The law allows family members to take legal control of 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.480 a relative's finances if dementia sets in. 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.319 Only around five percent of dementia suffers in Japan right 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:28.920 now are using that system, and the government would like 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.840 to boost that now. It seems that one of the 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.440 main reasons that people are a little bit wary of 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.679 using the system right now is that once you're in it, 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.040 once you sign on for this guardianship system, you can't 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.800 get out. That does kind of put off some people 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.880 who might, for example, change their mind. So the government 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.280 is looking at the possibility of bringing in that option 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.400 that you could withdraw at a later stage once you're 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.280 in it, and they hope that that kind of new 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:57.000 level of flexibility will bring more people into the guardianship system. 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.760 Alice says the committee reviewing changes to the existing law 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.360 could propose amendments as soon as this year, but it 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:08.520 could take years for those changes to take effect. Until then, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:11.840 banks and securities firms are coming up with their own 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:16.239 solutions to ensure that their elderly clients' assets are protected, 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.360 and some older people alert to their circumstances are working 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:26.079 with them. Chizuko and Mi, who we met at the 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.000 beginning of this episode, had a frank conversation about Chizuko's 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:34.440 financial situation. They decided that Chizuko would make My a 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.320 guardian of a special family support account offered by a 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:42.600 local securities firm. Now, if Chizuko is unable to manage 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.040 her finances, My can make decisions on her behalf. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.480 I think in many ways, this Moldota couple were kind 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.000 of a best case scenario, and the challenge here is 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.640 kind of scaling them to be the majority. The sense 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:57.840 that I've got for sure is that the finance industry 0:12:57.920 --> 0:12:59.760 is rarely kind of out the forefront of sort of 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.800 this issue forwards and raising the awareness. So Ima Murdo, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.160 who I spoke about, which physical uses, they were very 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.000 frank with us, you know. They were telling us that 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:13.000 they've seen a spike in in fraud and scams, particularly 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.600 amongst their elderly clients, and they really want to kind 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.760 of crack down on that because it's a risk for 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.320 them too, and in recent years, they have started, like 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:24.720 I say, bringing in these kind of solutions for their 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.840 senior clients so that they can manage their assets alongside 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.680 a younger family member. So these family support accounts are 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.920 kind of gaining traction. There's another company called Kagawa, which 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.400 is on Hikoku, one of the sort of more southern 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:42.840 islands of Japan, which has brought in a similar system 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:44.560 just in the last set of eighteen months or so 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:47.559 and has said that they've been surprised by the amount 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.200 of demand. The steps are gradual and small at this stage, 0:13:51.240 --> 0:13:54.120 but there's definitely a sense that momentum is building. 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.120 And companies are beginning to look for ways around the 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:01.320 issues that come with having too many older shareholders. Japanese 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.679 telecoms provider MTT found in twenty twenty three that almost 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.520 half of its shareholders were aged over seventy. The company 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.240 solved the problem with the stock split, which had the 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.400 effect of diversifying the age of its shareholders. 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.000 So NTT, for example, did a twenty five for one 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.840 stock split in mid twenty twenty three, and they've now 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.280 seen the proportion of over seventies among their shareholders down 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.280 below twenty percent. So in that sense, it was pretty effective, right, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:31.600 and we've seen stock splits kind of shooting up over 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.400 the past few years. There are lots of reasons for it. 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.680 It's partly because of the sort of corporate governance drive 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.520 and the drive for better shareholder returns. Of course, if 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.840 you can attract younger shareholders, they'll hold your stock for longer. 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.160 But Alice says, one of the biggest challenges is the 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.400 lack of awareness of this looming financial dilemma. 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.320 It is quite a taboo topic and it's one of 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.560 the biggest challenges that we found actually in trying to 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:58.680 report on this theme, right, is that a lot of 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.840 people don't really want to talk about it. It is 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.320 a bit of a touchy subject. And I think that's 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.360 not just in Japan. I think all across the world. 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.080 Part of the problem is almost a kind of unwillingness 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.640 to want to confront your own weaknesses. We know that, 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.880 you know a lot of market players across the world 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.120 obviously fall into the over sixty five category, and nobody 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.680 kind of wants to think that they might not be making, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.720 you know, the best financial decisions on the day to day. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.240 So I think there is definitely that resistance there to 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.440 kind of confront the reality people don't necessarily want to 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.800 think of themselves potentially losing independence in the ability to 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.440 handle things by themselves and having to rely on their kids. 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.360 That's if they have children to rely on. More seniors 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.520 are living alone in Japan. A government study estimates that 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.720 by twenty fifty, as many as twenty percent of Japanese 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.880 households could be occupied by elderly people living alone and 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:58.960 potentially handling their finances without any support. That means the 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.560 burden would all tutimately fall on the government and the 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:09.000 financial industry. Japan is working hard to find solutions, and 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:13.040 the world is paying close attention. That's because dementia and 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.640 cognitive decline are beginning to take a toll on economies 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:18.040 across the world. 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:22.680 In the US, around six trillion dollars could be owned 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.320 by dementia sufferers in the States right now. Now, that 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.880 is not a number to sniff at, and obviously that's 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.000 something that again is only going to grow as the 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.520 population continues to age. South Korea, another Asian nation that 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:38.280 is often in the headlines for its aging population, over 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.080 one hundred billion dollars held by dementia sufferers a lot 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.000 of that in illiquid real estate. 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.560 There's a lot of talk about the rising tide of 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.440 dementia in Japan's population, and a lot of worry about 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.320 the knock on effect that this dementia money is having 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.240 on economic growth. But Alice says she's not seeing much 0:16:58.400 --> 0:16:59.640 in the way of solutions. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.520 I think for me, what surprised me, or I suppose 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.960 worried me the most, was kind of how haphazard the 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.080 solutions are at this stage. So for the financial industry, 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.240 they are desperately trying to get a handle on a 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.960 problem that I think has somewhat crept up on them. 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.240 You know, there is no overarching playbook about how to 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.119 deal with this. The pace of aging in Japan is 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.359 so fast, and I think a lot of people didn't 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:27.560 really think about the risks that will then come with 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:38.480 that from the financial side. 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.360 This is The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wanha. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:52.760 To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.840 to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at Bloomberg 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:59.160 dot com slash podcast offer. If you liked the episode, 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.480 make sure it's a subscribe and review The Big Tick 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.920 Asia wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps people 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:07.400 find the show. Thanks for listening, See you next time.