Special reprinted editions of primary school textbooks on the Japanese language and other subjects are being increasingly used in Japan to treat dementia.

The utilisation of old textbooks for the treatment of patients suffering from senility was introduced in the United States in the early 1960s as a means to stir their memories of their earlier life in hope of stimulating brain activity.

A growing number of care facilities in Japan are adopting such material to look after the elderly psychologically.

The textbook on language was used to teach first grade children in primary school the "katakana" square form syllabary from 1904 to the end of World War II in 1945.

It contains well-known phrases such as, "saita saita sakuraga saita" (the cherry trees are in bloom).

The reprinted version is printed on coarse paper to give the elderly the same rough touch of the original textbook when they were young. The illustrations are also printed in the light tones of the initial textbook.

A woman aged 101 said the republished textbook gave her a nostalgic feeling and she recited a sentence she remembered: "A pigeon, beans, a measuring cup...There's a crow in front (of us)...and a sparrow, too."

Yukiko Kurokawa, a clinical psychologist and the director of Keisei-Kai Institute of Gerontology, got together with five persons aged 98 to 104 and, using the old textbook as a subject of discussion, heard what they had to say about when they were in primary school.

They reminisced, saying such things as, "The textbook I studied was even older than this." "The textbook was not free and I bought mine." "I used an empty 'mikan' (tangerine) box because there weren't enough desks." "A Shinto shrine priest and his wife taught me due to the shortage of schoolteachers."

Kurokawa, 49, said that even persons with perceptual disturbance find it easy to remember things they learned in the early stage of their life or those which they learned by rote.

"Textbooks they read repeatedly at the age of 6 or 7 perfectly meet the conditions" for old people to remember something they learned during their childhood, she said.

Reprinting of the old textbooks poses no problem since the copyrights expired 50 years after their publication.

Officials at the education ministry said the ministry has received 17 reports on republication of such textbooks in the past three years.

Kaneki Bookstore Co. in the city of Yokote, Akita Prefecture, sells some 10 different kinds of old textbooks, including songs for school music classes, ethics, and Japanese language, for 945 yen to 1,890 yen a volume. It gets about 20 orders a month on the internet from people such as children who want present them to their grandfathers or grandmothers, as well as from care facilities for the elderly.

Pharmaceutical companies Eisai Co. and Pfizer Japan Inc. distributed reprinted ethics and Japanese language textbooks last year to hospitals they deal with as part of a program the two companies carry out jointly to help patients with senility and their families, and also to assist nursing care personnel find topics for conversation with their patients.

The town office of Shikatsu in Aichi Prefecture has textbooks for loan, as well as "menko" game cards, old rice pots and straw sandals, in an attempt to help residents of the town from becoming senile.

Kurokawa said what is important in getting patients to recollect the past is to listen to them.

"It's a kind of self-affirmation for the elderly to recall the past. It's important to maintain the posture of 'please teach me' in listening to your elders."