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Please take good care of me since it's dementia

• Naoko Nobutomo (author),Yoon-young Choi (a translator) SIGONGSA  August 17, 2021 original title : ぼけますから、よろしくお願いします

A Heartwarming True Story That Moved 190,000 People! The Time of Bonding, Effort, Dependence, 

and Relief of an Elderly Couple Facing Dementia Alongside Their Daughter

The author, Naoko Nobutomo, a documentary film director, has maintained a long-standing 

habit for nearly 20 years.

Every time she visits her parents' home, she turns on her camera and films their everyday lives.

However, in 2014, following her mother’s dementia diagnosis, the lives of the three took an 

unexpected turn.

Despite the daughter’s desire to return home to care for them, the parents insisted on 

maintaining their independence, opposing her move. Eventually, she stayed in Tokyo, embarking 

on the challenges of long-distance caregiving.

Briefly putting down her camera when her mother’s symptoms appeared, she picked it up again 

after her mother asked, “Are you not filming because I’m acting strange?”

What began as home videos capturing the couple’s life, both before and after dementia, 

unexpectedly aired on TV, resonating widely with viewers and later adapted into a documentary 

film that moved over 190,000 people.

The essay Please Take Care of Us Because of Dementia includes the author’s private reflections 

and episodes that didn’t make it into the film.

This book vividly portrays how life changes for patients with dementia, their families, and those 

around them, offering us a quiet lesson.

It teaches that a life cannot be defined or remembered solely by a disease, that we are all 

connected, destined to grow old and vulnerable, ultimately relying on one another, and that 

caregiving is not a one-sided sacrifice but an act of mutual care.