The city of Iruma, north of Tokyo, has introduced the free service to keep track of people with dementia.
A local company developed the technology, which uses small water-resistant QR fingernail stickers, each with a unique identity number, to help families find missing loved ones.
If a person becomes lost, police simply have to scan the bar code on their nail to find their name and contact details.
“Being able to attach the seals on nails is a great advantage,” a city official said. “There are already ID stickers for clothes or shoes but dementia patients are not always wearing those items.”
The initiative is a first in a country where the safety of people with dementia is a big issue.
In 2015, over 12,000 people with dementia were reported missing, with around 500 eventually found dead.
Just last month, we reported here that Japanese police had begun offering discounts on ramen noodles to elderly drivers who gave up their driving licenses.
