The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Contemporary issues concerning informed consent in Japan based on a review of court decisions and characteristics of Japanese culture
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Since Japan adopted the concept of informed consent from the West, its inappropriate acquisition from patients in the Japanese clinical setting has continued, due in part to cultural aspects. Here, we discuss the current status of and contemporary issues surrounding informed consent in Japan, and how these are influenced by Japanese culture. DISCUSSION: Current legal norms towards informed consent and information disclosure are obscure in Japan. For instance, physicians in Japan do not have a legal duty to inform patients of a cancer diagnosis. To gain a better understanding of these issues, we present five court decisions related to informed consent and information disclosure. We then discuss Japanese culture through reviews of published opinions and commentaries regarding how culture affects decision making and obtaining informed consent. We focus on two contemporary problems involving informed consent and relevant issues in clinical settings: the misuse of informed consent and persistence in obtaining consent. For the former issue, the phrase "informed consent" is often used to express an opportunity to disclose medical conditions and recommended treatment choices. The casual use of the expression "informed consent" likely reflects deep-rooted cultural influences. For the latter issue, physicians may try to obtain a signature by doing whatever it takes, lacking a deep understanding of important ethical principles, such as protecting human dignity, serving the patient's best interest, and doing no harm in decision-making for patients.There is clearly a misunderstanding of the concept of informed consent and a lack of complete understanding of ethical principles among Japanese healthcare professionals. Although similar in some respects to informed consent as it originated in the United States, our review makes it clear that informed consent in Japan has clear distinguishing features. SUMMARY: Japanese healthcare professionals should aim to understand the basic nature of informed consent, irrespective of their attitudes about individualism, liberalism, and patient self-determination. If they believe that the concept of informed consent is important and essential in Japanese clinical settings, efforts should be made to obtain informed consent in an appropriate manner.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Specifically, Japanese medical students often feel a strong inclination to meet others’ expectations when explaining the research, leading them to provide consent [30].”
From Enhancing Medical Interview Skills Through AI-Simulated Patient Interactions: Nonrandomized Controlled Trial (2024) · cites this paper as [30]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Principles of Biomedical Ethics
(2012) · Thieves of Virtue · doi:10.7551/mitpress/9079.003.0009 · Cited by 13,453
土居, 健., & Bester, J. (1971) · Cited by 818
Good death in cancer care: a nationwide quantitative study
Miyashita, M., Sanjo, M., Morita, T., Hirai, K., & Uchitomi, Y. (2007) · Annals of Oncology · doi:10.1093/annonc/mdm068 · Cited by 331
Informed Consent Revisited: Japan and the U.S.
Akabayashi, A., & Slingsby, B. T. (2006) · The American Journal of Bioethics · doi:10.1080/15265160500394549 · Cited by 67
‘BIOETHICS’IS SUBORDINATE TO MORALITY IN JAPAN
Tanida, N. (1996) · Bioethics · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.1996.tb00119.x · Cited by 21
The Family-Facilitated Approach Could Be Dangerous If There Is Pressure by Family Dynamics
Tamura, C. (2006) · The American Journal of Bioethics · doi:10.1080/15265160500394606 · Cited by 18
Hamilton, M. (1983) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.143.4.416 · Cited by 17
Enhancing Cross-Cultural Understandings of Ethical Issues in Medical Education
Fuscaldo, G., Russell, S., & Delany, C. M. (2010) · AJOB Primary Research · doi:10.1080/21507716.2010.482873 · Cited by 6
More Information, Broader Dissent on Informed Consent
LaFleur, W. R. (2006) · The American Journal of Bioethics · doi:10.1080/15265160500394564 · Cited by 5
Encyclopedia of Bioethics Volume 4
Reich, W. T. (1978) · Cited by 5
Research works printed but not linked: 23
- Beauchamp TL, Childress JF: Rinciples of biomedical ethics. 2009, New York: Oxford Press, 6
- Akabayashi A, Slingsby BT: Informed consent revised. Japan U.S.A JOB. 2006, 6: 9-14.
- Guidance of informed consent. Sharing the knowledge about informed consent(Pamphlet); 2008-2011. Edited by: Bito S. 2011, Tokyo: Tokyo Iryo Center
- UNESCO: Casebook on human dignity and human rights, bioethics core curriculum casebook series, no.1. 2011, Paris: UNESCO
- UNESCO: Casebook on human dignity and human rights, bioethics core curriculum casebook series, no.2. 2011, Paris: UNESCO
- Inaba N: We want to know about medical lawsuit. 2010, Tokyo: Nikkei BP Press
- Kuwahara H: Kono 10 nen-no Iryou Sosyou no trend (The trend of a medical lawsuit in the past 10 years) (in Japanese). 2010, Tokyo: Nikkei BP Press
- Asai A, Aizawa K, Kadooka Y, Tanida N: Death with dignity is impossible in contemporary Japan. Eubios J Asian Int Bioethics. 2012, 22: 49-53.
- Asai A: Curious about "sufficient explanation and consent", Kumamoto Nichinichi newspaper. 2013, Kumamoto: Kumamoto Nichinichi Shinbun Company
- Izawa M: Gyaku-setsu no Nippon Rekisshikan (A paradoxical Japanese historical view)(in Japanese). 2005, Shyogakkann Bunko: Tokyo
- Matsuda I: Bioethical concern based on the Japanese consideration of culture and value⇀care of critically ill newborn. Jpn Perinat Period Newborn Infant Med Congress Mag. 2010, 46 (4): 924-932.
- Asai A, Aizawa K: Genba de Yakuni tatu Rinri Kiso-ron (Ethics basic theory which is helpful at workplace) (in Japanese). Palliat Med Study. 2009, 11 (1): 34-39.
- Asai A, Fukuyama M: Toward successful bioethics education, in Asia-pacific perspectives on bioethics education. 2008, Bangkok: UNESCO
- Asai A, Sakamoto S: Self-determination of death in Japan: a review and discussion. Eubios J Asian Int Bioethics. 2007, 17: 35-41.
- Sasaki Y, Yamaguchi Y: Kouresya no Jiko Kettei wo sasaeru Kanngoennjyo ni tuite (About the nursing assistance supporting elderly people's self-determination) (in Japanese). Hosp Home Care. 2010, 18: 2-8.
- Davis A, Gallager A, Midou T: Nursing ethics. 2007, Tokyo: Igaku Eizo Kyoiku Center
- Davis AJ, Tschudin V, Raeve L: Learning and educating nursing ethics. 2008, Tokyo: Japan Nursing Association Publication Meeting
- Nakamura S: Pocket guideline about breast cancer. 2010, Tokyo: Igaku Shyoin
- Tanida N: Informed consent. 2006, NPO Iyaku Bijiransu Center: Osaka
- Nippon Ronen Igakkai: Japanese old age medical society position manifestation. 2012, Tokyo: Nippon Ronen Igakkai
- Sato R: Problems of informed consent in solo dementia patients (in Japanese). Old-Age Psychiatry Mag. 2008, 19 (2): 179-179.
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: The guideline on the determination process in terminal care. 2007, Tokyo: Ministry of Health
- Asai A: Iryo-syoku no tameno Rinnsyou Rinri no kotoba 48 (48 words of clinical ethics for Healthcare workers) (in Japanese). 2011, Tokyo: Japan Nursing Association Publication
Cited by
Glaser, J., Nouri, S., Fernandez, A., Sudore, R. L., Schillinger, D., Klein-Fedyshin, M., & Schenker, Y. (2020) · Medical Decision Making · doi:10.1177/0272989x19896348 · Cited by 282
Fields, L. M., & Calvert, J. D. (2015) · Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences · doi:10.1111/pcn.12289 · Cited by 113
Yamamoto, A., Koda, M., Ogawa, H., Miyoshi, T., Maeda, Y., Otsuka, F., & Ino, H. (2024) · JMIR Medical Education · doi:10.2196/58753 · Cited by 92
“Specifically, Japanese medical students often feel a strong inclination to meet others’ expectations when explaining the research, leading them to provide consent [30].”
BackgroundLin, Y., Chen, C.-W., Lee, W., Cheng, Y.-C., Lin, T.-Y., Lin, C., Shi, L., Tien, Y., & Kuo, L. (2018) · BMC Medical Ethics · doi:10.1186/s12910-018-0264-7 · Cited by 69
Asai, A., Okita, T., & Bito, S. (2022) · Asian Bioethics Review · doi:10.1007/s41649-021-00201-2 · Cited by 51
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Masaki, S., Ishimoto, H., & Asai, A.
- Affiliations
- Kumamoto University (JP)
- Corresponding author
- Masaki, Sakiko
- Venue
- BMC Medical Ethics
- Published
- 2014-02-04
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 8-8
- ISSN
- 1472-6939 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3923408
- OpenAlex
- W1966411468
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 3.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 (tdm)
- Locations
- BMC Medical Ethics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Social Sciences › Law › Medical and Health Sciences Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
- Keywords
- informed consent, Japanese culture, judicial decisions, information disclosure, physician duty to inform, cancer diagnosis disclosure, medical ethics, patient autonomy, best interests, human dignity, individualism, liberalism, Japan
- MeSH terms
- Cultural Characteristics, Decision Making, Ethics, Medical, Female, Humans, Informed Consent, Japan, Jurisprudence, Legislation, Medical, Male, Patient Advocacy, Physician-Patient Relations, Physicians, Truth Disclosure, Risk Assessment, Patient Rights, Personhood, Disclosure, Patient Access to Records
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
