'Opening Doors' For Long-Term Institutionalised Patients With Schizophrenia In Japan

Whereas the term \u0027deinstitutionalisation\u0027 being obsolete in the West, the prolonged hospitalisation of patients with schizophrenia remains a major public health concern in Japan. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Japan had 2.61 psychiatric beds per 1,000 persons in 2018, which was much higher than in other OECD countries (mean: 0.61 psychiatric beds per 1,000 persons; range: 0.03-1.35).1 This figure is almost identical to the number of beds in Japan in 1998 (2.84 per 1,000 persons)1 and shows that there has been no active movement to reduce the number of psychiatric beds in the last two decades. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (JMHLW) indicated that there were 272,100 inpatients in psychiatric hospitals or units as of 30 June 2019; more than half of these patients had schizophrenia (n = 143,600). Furthermore, about 45% of inpatients with schizophrenia (n = 64,600) had been institutionalised for more than 5 years.