Police in Tokyo have served fresh warrants on four people on suspicion of defrauding an elderly woman by persuading her to buy an apartment at an inflated cost.
Police say the four suspects pushed the victim, who is suffering from dementia, to buy part of an apartment unit near Tokyo, and defrauded her out of 34 million yen, or about 213,000 dollars, in June last year.
A company that the suspects, including 41-year-old Yamazaki Kazuma, had been involved with had allegedly bought the unit for less than one-tenth of that amount.
The four suspects were arrested earlier this month for defrauding the same woman out of about 100,000 dollars in a similar case.
Police seized from locations linked to the suspects a list of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of about 90,000 people aged 80 and older, as well as a manual on how to deal with them on the phone.
The suspects are believed to have called those on the list to determine their mental capacity, whether they were living alone, and the state of their assets.
Police suspect the group inked more than 50 similar contracts with elderly victims. The group may have earned about 4.4 million dollars in one year.
The welfare ministry report from May estimated that dementia cases in Japan will amount to more than 4,700,000 in 2025, and exceed 5,800,000 by 2040.
The report projects that about 15 percent of elderly people will have developed dementia in 2040.
A private think tank estimates that, as of 2023, elderly people with dementia held a total of about 118 trillion yen’s worth of financial assets. The figures are based on household financial data from various ministries and the Bank of Japan.
The think tank says the amount could grow to 197 trillion yen by 2040.