Review of mental‐health‐related stigma in J apan
Open accessAbstract
The aim of this study is to understand the nature and characteristics of mental‐health‐related stigma among J apanese people. We searched relevant studies in E nglish or J apanese published since 2001 using MEDLINE and PsycINFO, and found 19 studies that examined mental‐health‐related stigma in J apan. Regarding knowledge about mental illness, reviewed studies showed that in the J apanese 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 J apan 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 J apan are stronger than in T aiwan or A ustralia, possibly due to institutionalism, lack of national campaigns to tackle stigma, and/or society's valuing of conformity in J apan. Although educational programs appear to be effective in reducing mental‐health‐related stigma, future programs in J apan need to address problems regarding institutionalism and offer direct social contact with people with mental illness.
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Prejudice against mental illness remains prevalent among Japanese adolescents, and it is still difficult to encourage help-seeking behavior.
“prejudice against mental illness remains prevalent among Japanese adolescents, and it is still difficult to encourage help-seeking behavior (Ando et al., 2013;Nakane & Mine, 2013;Ojio et al., 2021).”
From Can Adolescent Psychiatric Day Care Incorporating Japanese Youth Culture Attract Adolescent Patients in Japan? A Novel Approach to Creating a Culturally Acceptable Clinical Environment. (2025) · cites this paper as Ando et al., 2013
Section 2 (p. 477) reports negative attitudes and prejudice toward mental illness among the Japanese general public, but does not establish their prevalence among adolescents specifically. The same section says people tend to seek help from counselors or family and friends rather than psychiatrists; it does not say that encouraging help-seeking behavior among adolescents remains difficult. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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“These stigmatized individuals tend to form the belief that suicide could be the ultimate solution instead of seeking help [84,85].”
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“Belief that a weak personality, as opposed to biological factors, is the cause of depression is a major source of stigma towards depression in Japan [22, 24, 25].”
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“Mental health-related stigma has become a crucial issue for the public and for people with mental illness (Thornicroft, 2006; Corrigan & Shapiro, 2010; Jorm, 2012; Ando et al. 2013).”
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Kato, T. (2014) · Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · doi:10.1111/pcn.12247 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“Identification of the neurobiological basis of these disorders will also be helpful to eliminate the social stigma surrounding these disorders.(4) In the last decade, numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and de novo or inherited copy number variations (CNV) have been found to be *Correspondence: Tadafumi Kat…”
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“Stigma levels are moderate-high in countries located in Africa or Asia [18, 20], this is in line with the results of Table 4 Factors associated to attitudes and intended behavior using a multivariate regression model”
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“However, health education received in schools and the community was substantially different between parents and their children.(3,12) The quality and quantity of information about mental health available in the mass media, and the existence of the Internet have also created differences in mental-health-related stigma…”
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“Thus, social desirability bias in the responses is also very likely (Ando et al., 2013; Kopera et al., 2015).”
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“We also added sex and age as covariates to the models, because these variables have been regarded as potential confounders in previous stigma studies (Holzinger et al., 2012; Yamaguchi et al., 2013).”
MethodSelf-citationStigma associated with mental illness among Asian men in Vancouver, Canada
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“…Western concepts and ideas to examine stigma within Asian communities and societies (c.f. Yang et al., 2014) and has revealed variability in stigma among geographic regions and ethnic groups in Asia (Ando et al., 2013; Chong et al., 2007; Haraguchi, Maeda, Mei, & Uchimura, 2009; Young & Ng, 2016).”
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“The reasons for patient and family refusal were not studied, but one possible explanation is the stigma associated with mental health conditions and psychiatric treatment in Japan [43].”
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Nursing students' mental health literacy and resilience levels: A cross-sectional study.
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“According to the results of the Kasiani-Miranda questionnaire, people consider contracting COVID-19 shameful and a divine punishment [31].”
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“Study subjects were community residents, which allow a certain generalizability of the findings; however, they are limited to the population living in rural Japan, where crop production is the major economic activity and main source of income.”
BackgroundInfluentialNugent, C., Rosato, M., Hughes, L., & Leavey, G. (2020) · Psychiatric quarterly · doi:10.1007/s11126-020-09827-1 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Yoshimi, K., Inoue, F., Odai, T., 白土, な., Watanabe, Z., Otsubo, T., Terauchi, M., & Takeda, T. (2023) · Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research · doi:10.1111/jog.15618 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“In Japan, there is a strong negative image of mental illness, and it is assumed that due to this, there is also a strong negative image of SSRIs, antidepressants.(18,19) Moreover, it is difficult to administer SSRIs to minors as it increases the risk of suicide attempts in patients aged ≤24 years, according to its pac…”
BackgroundYokoyama, K., Morimoto, T., Ichihara-Takeda, S., Yoshino, J., Matsuyama, K., & Ikeda, N. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0223819 · Cited by 18
“Internationally, mental health stigma is a central issue for people with mental illness [3,11,12], and it is a likely influence on low subjective well-being and the avoidance of interpersonal relations.”
BackgroundFurukawa, E., Alsop, B., Shimabukuro, S., & Tripp, G. (2019) · ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders · doi:10.1007/s12402-019-00307-6 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Neuroethical Issues of the Brain/MINDS Project of Japan
Sadato, N., Morita, K., Kasai, K., Fukushi, T., Nakamura, K., Nakazawa, E., Okano, H., & Okabe, S. (2019) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2019.01.006 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Dewi, N. S., Komatsuzaki, M., Yamakawa, Y., Takahashi, H., Shibanuma, S., Yasue, T., Okayama, T., Toyoda, A., Shimonishi, H., & Sasaki, S.-I. (2017) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su9010063 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“Schizophrenia is more stigmatized than depression, and the severity of the illness increases the negative attitude towards it [25].”
BackgroundInfluentialChiba, R., Umeda, M., Goto, K., Miyamoto, Y., Yamaguchi, S., & Kawakami, N. (2016) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-016-0740-x · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“This difference may affect the results, since people with schizophrenia are more likely to be stigmatized compared to those with other mental illness [44].”
BackgroundSelf-citationFujisato, H., Kato, N., Namatame, H., Ito, M., Usami, M., Nomura, T., Ninomiya, S., & Horikoshi, M. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.731819 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Kojima, Y., Yamada, S., Kamijima, K., Kogushi, K., & Ikeda, S. (2024) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-024-06000-x · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“Furthermore, stigma against mental disorders, especially schizophrenia, is a major issue in Japan [67, 68], and stigma is associated with caregivers’ depression and quality of life [69].”
BackgroundLem, W. G., Kawata, K. H. D. S., & Oyama, H. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-55797-w · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Yoshioka, K., Reavley, N. J., Rossetto, A., & Nakane, Y. (2016) · International Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.1080/00207411.2016.1204810 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“Ando and colleagues [14] noted that psychosocial factors, particularly personality-based explanations such as weakness of character, were more often cited as likely causal explanations compared to biogenetic explanations in research using Japanese samples.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialAkechi, T., Mishiro, I., Fujimoto, S., & Murase, K. (2020) · Psycho-Oncology · doi:10.1002/pon.5509 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“There were 35 008 adult patients with newly diagnosed and confirmed cancer during the enrollment period and no recent history of MDD (Figure S1; Table 1), with a median (range) observable period of 32 (7-87) months.”
BackgroundAn Evaluation of Family-Based Treatment for OCD in Japan: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Kobayashi, Y., Kanie, A., Nakagawa, A., Takebayashi, Y., Shinmei, I., Nakayama, N., Yamaguchi, K., Nakayama, C., Hirabayashi, N., Mimura, M., et al. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00932 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“The stigma of mental illness in Japan may lead to such isolation outside the home (48).”
BackgroundSavitz, A. J., Xu, H., Gopal, S., Nuamah, I. F., Ravenstijn, P. G. M., Hough, D., Mathews, M., Feng, Y., Yu, L., Takahashi, M., et al. (2017) · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment · doi:10.2147/ndt.s134287 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“28,31 This may have allowed additional detection of mild relapses that may not have been necessarily captured in scheduled monthly visits as in other global studies.”
Momma, H., Niu, K., Kobayashi, Y., Huang, C., Otomo, A., Chujo, M., Tadaura, H., & Nagatomi, R. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096131 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
TSUKUDA, M., Kayano, T., & Ito, Y. (2022) · Journal of Nursing Research · doi:10.1097/jnr.0000000000000528 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Hayashi, T., Yamaguchi, S., & Sato, S. (2019) · Psychiatric rehabilitation journal · doi:10.1037/prj0000394 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationKoike, S., Yamaguchi, S., Ojio, Y., & Ando, S. (2018) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2017.12.081 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationAndrés-Rodríguez, L., Pérez-Aranda, A., Feliu-Soler, A., Rubio-Valera, M., Aznar-Lou, I., Serrano-Blanco, A., Juncosa, M., Tosas, A., Bernadàs, A., & Luciano, J. (2017) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01608 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“It is noteworthy, that people experiencing mental disorders frequently deal with stigma associated with their condition (Hugo et al., 2003; Ando et al., 2013; Loch et al., 2014).”
BackgroundOngoing mental health concerns in post-3/11 Japan.
Karz, A., Reichstein, J., Yanagisawa, R. T., & Katz, C. (2014) · Annals of Global Health · doi:10.1016/j.aogh.2014.04.005 · Cited by 14
“It has previously been suggested that this stigma may stem from the national value placed on conformity, a culture of institutionalism of mental illness and a lack of national education campaigns.(9) There exists a great deal of distrust and misunderstanding toward mental health care, likely preventing clinically dist…”
BackgroundDevelopment and Validation of the COVID-19-Related Stigma Scale for Healthcare Workers (CSS-HCWs)
Tsukuda, M., Ito, Y., Nojima, K., Kayano, T., & Honda, J. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19159641 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Particularly, in Japan, stigmatizing attitudes are stronger than in other countries due to institutionalism, a lack of a national movement to address stigma, and the value society places on conformity [12].”
BackgroundFujii, T., Hanya, M., Murotani, K., & Kamei, H. (2021) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03208-z · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“The stigma attached to mental disorders, specifically schizophrenia, is stronger in Japan than in other countries [7].”
BackgroundRayan, A., Mahroum, M. H., & Khasawneh, A. (2018) · Perspectives in psychiatric care · doi:10.1111/ppc.12222 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Catthoor, K., Schrijvers, D., Hutsebaut, J., Feenstra, D., & Sabbe, B. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00101 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Several other studies (17, 18) emphasize that the belief in a weak or nervous personality as the cause of mental disorders, is consistently associated with more stigma.”
BackgroundDepression-Linked Beliefs in Older Adults with Depression.
Tanaka, K. (2019) · Journal of Clinical Nursing · doi:10.1111/jocn.15081 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
The stigma of mental health problems: A cross-sectional study in a representative sample of Spain
González‐Sanguino, C., Santos‐Olmo, A. B., Zamorano, S., Sánchez‐Iglesias, I., & López, M. M. (2023) · International Journal of Social Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/00207640231180124 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“In Asia, the presence of common elements in several countries is pointed out, as well as the importance of stigma in the request for professional help (Kudva et al., 2020), the need to support families (Nine et al., 2021) and to develop anti-stigma campaigns (Ando et al., 2013; Gurung et al., 2022).”
BackgroundUchino, T., Okubo, R., Takubo, Y., Aoki, A., Wada, I., Hashimoto, N., Ikezawa, S., & Nemoto, T. (2022) · Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · doi:10.1111/pcn.13435 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Kotera, Y., Sheffield, D., Green, P., & Asano, K. (2021) · Shame 4.0 · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-59527-2_3 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Aljedaani, S. M. (2018) · Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association · doi:10.1177/1078390318792610 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“Most of the community members who participated in the study conducted by Ando et al. (2013) had little knowledge and negative attitudes and were not willing to interact with the patients; rather, the participants kept a distance between themselves and mentally ill patients, and as a consequence…”
BackgroundResultInfluentialKageyama, M., Yokoyama, K., Nakamura, Y., Kobayashi, S., & Fujii, C. (2018) · Archives of Psychiatric Nursing · doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2018.03.004 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
A Pilot Study of the Psychological Impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
Niitsu, K., Watanabe-Galloway, S., Sayles, H., Houfek, J., & Rice, M. (2014) · Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association · doi:10.1177/1078390314536615 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“as the cause of mental illness rather than biological factors (Ando et al., 2013).”
BackgroundNoguchi, T., Shang, E., & Hayashi, T. (2025) · International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry · doi:10.1002/gps.70141 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Tanemoto, Y., Yamada, U., Nakayama, M., Takeuchi, T., Tanemoto, F., Ito, Y., Kobayashi, D., Ohta, D., & Hashizume, M. (2023) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-023-43935-9 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Alenezi, A. F., Aljowder, A. A., Almarzooqi, M. J., Alsayed, M., Aldoseri, R., Alhaj, O. A., Souraya, S., Thornicroft, G., & Jahrami, H. (2021) · Mental Health and Social Inclusion · doi:10.1108/mhsi-05-2021-0022 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Self-citationLem, W. G., Kohyama‐Koganeya, A., Saito, T., & Ōyama, H. (2022) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/28072 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“Stigmatization by the public, reflected in attitudes such as “people complaining of depression are weak,” is known as public stigma [3], whereas internalizing such public stigma and viewing oneself as “weak” (self-devaluation) is known as self-stigma [4,5].”
BackgroundMediation of Self-Compassion on Pathways from Stress to Psychopathologies among Japanese Workers
Kotera, Y., Young, H., Maybury, S., & Aledeh, M. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph191912423 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“Research has shown that Japanese workers believe poor mental health to be the result of such factors as institutionalism and weak personality [15].”
BackgroundMiyamoto, S., Yamazaki, T., Shimizu, K., Matsubara, T., Kage, H., Watanabe, K., Kobo, H., Matsuyama, Y., Rodin, G., & Yoshiuchi, K. (2022) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056136 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Cho, Y., Mishiro, I., Akaki, T., Akimoto, T., & Fujikawa, K. (2022) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048233 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Fujii, D., Kaseda, E., Haneda, A., Kuroda, H., Machizawa, S., Okamura, Y., Ono, K. E., Yamada, T., & Thaler, N. S. (2023) · Clinical Neuropsychologist · doi:10.1080/13854046.2022.2156395 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“This medicalization of mental health symptoms is done to avoid stigma and family shame (Ando et al., 2013).”
BackgroundAbdul Hameed, P. V., & Kotian, S. (2022) · International Journal of Management Technology and Social Sciences · doi:10.47992/ijmts.2581.6012.0194 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Kageyama, M., Yokoyama, K., Nakamura, Y., & Kobayashi, S. (2017) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/famp.12194 · Cited by 8
Stigma against mental illness: Perspectives of mental health service users
Ottewell, N. (2016) · Mental Health & Prevention · doi:10.1016/j.mhp.2016.10.001 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Okumura, S., & Katsuki, F. (2024) · Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing · doi:10.1111/jpm.13078 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Mental health stigma: a conundrum for healthcare practitioners in conservative communities
Booth, W. A., Abuhmida, M., & Anyanwu, F. (2024) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1384521 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Similarly, it has become common place in the literature for authors to draw a link between level of education, mental health literacy and mental health stigma and shame (10, 12, 14).”
BackgroundPublic Stigma Related to People With Mental Health Conditions Among Japanese Company Employees
Lem, W. G., Kawata, K. H. D. S., Kobayashi, T., & Oyama, H. (2023) · Journal of Clinical Medicine Research · doi:10.14740/jocmr4868 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“This suggests that prior contact experience may decrease stigma [36], and the lack of contact opportunities may increase stigma, as reported elsewhere [5].”
BackgroundResultInfluentialAttitudes toward schizophrenia among Tunisian family medicine residents and non-medical students
Fekih‐Romdhane, F., Hamdi, F., Jahrami, H., & Cheour, M. (2022) · Psychosis · doi:10.1080/17522439.2022.2032291 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
“untreated patients, given that a high quality of contact was shown to be important in improving unfavorable attitudes toward people with mental illness (Ando et al., 2013).”
BackgroundOttewell, N. (2019) · Work · doi:10.3233/wor-193036 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Japanese health professionals’ knowledge of dementia and educational needs: A population study
Annear, M. J. (2018) · Australasian Journal on Ageing · doi:10.1111/ajag.12523 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Reported and intended behavior towards people with mental health problems in Argentina
Zalazar, V., Leiderman, E. A., Agrest, M., Nemirovsky, M., Lipovetzky, G., & Thornicroft, G. (2018) · International Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.1080/00207411.2018.1474075 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationSottie, C., Mfoafo-M'Carthy, M., & Moasun, F. (2018) · Social Work in Mental Health · doi:10.1080/15332985.2018.1448325 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Some commonly believed causes of mental illness outside of Western culture included “weakness of personality” (Ando et al., 2013, p. 471), insufficient faith (Ng, 1997), “evil spirits” (Gureje et al., 2005, p. 437; Ssebunnya, Kigozi, Lund, Kizza, & Okello, 2009), “divine punishment” (Gureje et al.,…”
Noguchi, M., Tachimori, H., Naganuma, Y., Zhao, X.-H., Kono, T., Horii, S., & Takeshima, T. (2016) · International Journal of Social Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/0020764015614595 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Chenhall, R., & Oka, T. (2016) · doi:10.1080/10371397.2016.1171117 · Cited by 7
- Authors
- Ando, S., Yamaguchi, S., Aoki, Y., & Thornicroft, G.
- Affiliations
- Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (JP)
- National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry (JP)
- Ebara Hospital (JP)
- King's College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Ando, Shuntaro
- Venue
- Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-09-30
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 471-482
- ISSN
- 1323-1316 (ISSN-L)
- 1440-1819
- OpenAlex
- W1816489694
- Cited by
- 225
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 6
- FWCI
- 1.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health and Care Research (RP-PG-0606-1053, NF-SI-0611-10053)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Roles and Identity Studies
- Keywords
- mental health stigma, Japan, public attitudes toward mental illness, schizophrenia stigma, depression stigma, social distance, institutionalism, conformity
- MeSH terms
- Attitude to Health, Mental Disorders, Humans, Japan, Mental Health, Psychological Distance, Stereotyping, Social Stigma
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