MENTALHEALTHCARE IN JAPAN: ANOVERVIEW Psychiatric hospitals

Western countries suggest that a reduction in the number of beds reserved for inpatients may have caused an increase in the need for psychiatric services, particularly among people with schizophrenia (Tsuchiya & Munk-Jørgensen, 2002). The lessons learned from the consequences of deinstitutionalisation need to be considered in countries in which ‘social’ admission prevails and where mental health care systems are being reformed; this is especially the case when considering the long-term hospitalisation of mentally ill individuals who might otherwise live in the local community. Japan’s Mental Health and Welfare Law 1995 has been translated into English by Shiraishi et al (2000) and we have used the terminology of that translation in this paper.