Psychiatry and psychiatric services in Japan

odernisation of Japan began in the Meiji era (1868-1912) after learning from Western countries about various institutions, industries, technology, arts, educational systems and medi-cine. The influence of western medicine, including psychiatry, on Japanese medicine has mainly come from Germany, but also partially from England and France, and following World War I1 also from the United States of America. Modernisation of Japan further enabled its internationalisation. Today Japan has strong ties with many countries, both western and non-western, and plays complementary and supplementary roles with fellow nations. As a result, Australia and Japan are now good partners in trading and financial issues, but both coun-tries ’ cultures and social institutions including Dsvchiatric- 1 i services have not been sufficiently exposed to each other. In this article I will give an outline for Australian readers of the history and current trend of psychiatry and psychiat-ric services in Japan. History In the Ancient and the Middle ages of Japan, as in other worlds, psychiatric disorders were regarded and treated mainly as non-medical conditions, to which considerable stigma was attached. Such disorders were attributed to supernatural forces such as spirits or animal possession. As people with psychiatric disorders were considered to be bewitched, they were treated with prayers, traditional folk medicine or Chinese herbal medicine. These people were permitted to live with their family members, but were often confined in private jails, secluded in the asylums of temples or abandoned in the community. The first time psychiatric patients were officially protected by the legal system was by the Mentally I1