Eisai has launched a tracking tool in Japan for people with dementia and the elderly.

The firm has teamed up with Japanese smartphone app network Mamorio to launch Me-Mamorio, a lightweight button-shaped tag that uses Bluetooth to communicate positional data.

Small enough to be sewn into a jacket or hat or attached to a bag or wallet, Me-Mamorio’s data can then be accessed by family members or care workers.

The wearable’s launch is being bolstered by a further collaboration with insurance company Tokio Marine Group to offer services such as a 24-hour emergency medical advice telephone hotline.

Japan’s National Police Agency has seen year-on-year increases in the number of missing persons who also have dementia since starting to track the figures five years ago, and in 2016 registered 15,432 such cases.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that by 2025 one in five people aged 65 or over in the country will suffer from dementia.

Eisai’s partner Mamorio is best known in Japan for its tag of the same name, which uses the same internet-of-things technology as Me-Mamorio to track lost items, tapping into fixed receivers in locations such as stations and department stores. These will also be usable for the rollout of Me-Mamorio.

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