Background:As policies aimed at deepening the understanding of dementia have become a global issue, to reduce the stigma of the condition and to realize a society of symbiosis, we will clarify the conceptions that the general public have about people with dementia. We will also examine the effects that existing initiatives and social resources have on public understanding of people with dementia.Methods: In this study, we prepared 18-item questionnaire polling respondents' conceptions of people with dementia and conducted an attitude survey using this questionnaire among 12,410 citizens. Using our obtained data, we extracted the latent factors that make up the conceptions of people with dementia through exploratory factor analysis. Further, we ascertained whether respondents had attended dementia supporter training courses, the extent of their knowledge of social resources related to dementia, and their level of experience with people with dementia. We tracked differences in factor scoring to examine how these factors contributed to positive conceptions of people with dementia.Results: As a result of our factor analysis, we extracted the following factors as making up conceptions of people with dementia -Factor I: Person-centredness, Factor II: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, Factor III: Forgetfulness, and Factor IV: Unknown anxiety. Further, we found that the group that had attended dementia supporter training courses, the group that was highly aware of social resources such as long-term care insurance, dementia cafés, and supporter groups, and individuals who had frequent opportunities to interact with people with dementia all had significantly higher factor scores for Factor I, Person-centredness.Discussion: In Japan, positive and negative conceptions of people with dementia often exist alongside one another. To reduce stigma and encourage person-centredness, it is important to provide opportunities to learn about dementia, to spread awareness of social resources, and to interact with people with dementia.