Japanese Style Informed Consent on The Bases of Defense Mechanism of Denial Compared with that of Germans

This study investigated Japanese characteristics of attitude to disclosure of information to cancer patients, in order to find Japanese style of informed consent, comparing it with those of Germans. Ordinary people and students in Japan and Germany answered a questionnaire about themselves and their family. Results are as follows: 1) Though most Germans and Japanese demanded disclosure to both themselves and their family, some Japanese demanded disclosure to themselves but it to their family. 2) German students think of family as the same as German ordinary people, but Japanese do not. 3) The reason of disclosure for themselves is \u22I have to prepare to death\u22 in the case of Japanese, and \u22reliance\u22 in the case of Germans. 4) Reasons of closure to family in Japanese were \u22considering family\u27s shock\u22 and \u22their mental suffering over their family\u22. The fact that Japanese have a tendency towards disclosure, compared with Germans, suggests that Japanese have strong defense mechanism of denying disclosure to their family and one of the Japanese style of disclosure is hiding the truth