Review of mental‐health‐related stigma in Japan

Abstract

The aim of this study is to understand the nature and characteristics of mental‐health‐related stigma among Japanese people. We searched relevant studies in English or Japanese published since 2001 using MEDLINE and PsycINFO, and found 19 studies that examined mental‐health‐related stigma in Japan. Regarding knowledge about mental illness, reviewed studies showed that in the Japanese general population, few people think that people can recover from mental disorders. Psychosocial factors, including weakness of personality, are often considered the cause of mental illness, rather than biological factors. In addition, the majority of the general public in Japan keep a greater social distance from individuals with mental illness, especially in close personal relationships. Schizophrenia is more stigmatized than depression, and its severity increases the stigmatizing attitude toward mental illness. The literature also showed an association between more direct social contact between health professionals and individuals with mental illness and less stigmatization by these professionals. Less stigmatization by mental health professionals may be associated with accumulation of clinical experience and daily contact with people who have mental illness. Stigmatizing attitudes in Japan are stronger than in Taiwan or Australia, possibly due to institutionalism, lack of national campaigns to tackle stigma, and/or society's valuing of conformity in Japan. Although educational programs appear to be effective in reducing mental‐health‐related stigma, future programs in Japan need to address problems regarding institutionalism and offer direct social contact with people with mental illness.

Development of a Japanese version of the Reported and Intended Behaviour Scale: Reliability and validity

“…Responses to the items are rated as 'agree strongly', 'agree slightly', 'neither agree nor disagree', 'disagree slightly', 'disagree strongly' and 'don't know'. For each item, a score of 5 was allocated for strong agreement, while a score of 1 was assigned to strong disagreement (score range of the subscale: [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. The response option 'don't know', is coded as neutral (i.e., 3).…”

“…9,10 Japanese studies in particular have rarely reported discrimination towards people with mental health problems, although Japanese adults and children both tend to hold more negative attitudes than individuals in other countries. 11,12 This lack of research evidence on discrimination could be attributed to the absence of scales to accurately assess individuals' behavior towards people with mental health problems. In fact, most of the scales that assess such stigma focus only on others' knowledge of mental health issues and attitudes towards people with mental health problems.…”

Education towards Urban Sustainability: Lessons Learned from the Welfare Business Models of Kanazawa City, Japan

“…Huge potential for the regional revitalization in the declining society of Japan. Still in Japan, disability is considered the limitation and one of the students in his report explained how inspiring it was to see people with disabilities working in café and providing services for the customers in Kanazawa: ìThe 2013 study entitled ìReview of Mental-Health-Related stigma in Japanî (Ando, Yamaguchi, Aoki & Thornicroft, 2013) states that 61 % of employers would not consider employing someone with a history of mental health illness. And only 20 % of psychological professionals believed that people struggling with mental illness do not require hospitalization to recover.…”

How Japanese public health nurses manage neighbors’ complaints toward mentally ill persons with problematic behaviors?

“…Under this condition, Japanese people have minimal contact with MIPs and do not have an adequate understanding of their disabilities 6) . As a result, they had more negative attitudes toward MIPs than people of other nations [7][8][9] . In addition, mental health care services have remained insufficient in Japan 10) , and their readmission rate is still high 11) .…”