By 2025, dementia is expected to impact one in five individuals in Japan, a country renowned for its super-aging population. Under such conditions, Japan and the rest of the globe have taken notice of a novel social experiment.

The "Restaurant of Mistaken Orders" is a restaurant where deliveries and orders occasionally go wrong. Indeed, we have arrived at a location where every waiter and waitress has some form of cognitive disability. An encounter between the creator, Shiro Oguni, and a group home for those with dementia served as the catalyst for the opening of this pop-up restaurant.

Dementia is an aspect of a person's identity, not who they are~ 

Source: Google images

I truly believe ’Humans’ are human. They cannot bring about the change; society must.

To prevent errors, the restaurant has been meticulously designed. Its success is the result of the management's and others' tremendous, laborious work. The proprietors of the restaurant aimed to create a warm and inviting space where everyone is at ease. Isolation is facilitated by the fact that two out of three Japanese people with dementia reside at home. With the mindset that “rather than receiving assistance, I want to work, to be useful to the community,” the pop-up restaurant provides them with a positive environment in which to carry out their mission.

Saying A Big ‘No’ to Isolation~ 

Source: Google images

The videos that have been produced to document the initiative show everyone having a good time. The senior employees appear as involved and productive as those a third their age in their straightforward, upbeat outfits. Almost exactly the reverse is true: diners describe dementia as adorable, happy, amusing, sociable, and comfortable, rather than as terrifying, gloomy, and brutally isolated.

More than the desired food itself, the restaurant's real commodity is now the mild surprise of the unintentional human errors. The pleasurable shock of seeing what you are actually, unexpectedly, being served is the source of a large portion of the laughing that surrounds the restaurant. You may occasionally even use a straw to get your coffee! So yes, it’s an innovative and brilliant approach in order to support people with special needs.