Lost Senior Citizens Can Be Tracked By New Japanese Tool

A Japanese company is tracking lost senior citizens through their fingers and toes with adhesive barcodes, according to the Agence France Presse. 

The company, in the city of Iruma, developed them for the elderly people who tend to get lost due to dementia. 

The adhesive QR code is made to seal to a person's fingernail, and is part of a free service this month in Japan. 

"Being able to attach the seals on nails is a great advantage," a city worker said to AFP.

"There are already ID stickers for clothes or shoes but dementia patients are not always wearing those items."

When an older person gets lost, police will find the local city hall, its telephone number and the person's ID embedded in the QR code. 

According to the report the chips stay attached for two weeks, even if they get wet. 

Japan's population is quickly growing older and its senior citizens are expected to make up forty percent of the entire population by 2060. 

The new tracking device comes after a series of deadly accidents involving elderly drivers--a problem in a country with 4.8 million people who are 75 and older.