Mental Health Support In Japan

Hi guys!

I thought I would make another post, this time talking lightly about the mental health services that are offered here in Japan. As before, the things written below would be purely on my own experience as a clinical psychologist.

**<Counselling Vs Medication>**

There are people who may be wondering if they should go for therapy sessions, or seek medical advice from a psychiatrist. In my opinion, you may want to opt for counselling or therapy sessions if you feel that you simply need something you can talk to, someone who would not judge you and would sort out and untangle your thoughts and emotions with you. While there is a lot more that goes on in counselling and therapy, I feel that this is not the place and so I would like to keep it simply at that. On the other hand, I would not recommend counselling and therapies for people who are not yet ready to verbalize their thoughts, confront their emotions, or simply find that no amount of talking works. Now, the demerit to counselling is that since it is not covered by the National Health Insurance, sessions are going to cost a lot of money and it is just not feasible to go long term. This is perhaps the reason why there are so few ‘true’ psychoanalyst left, with many choosing to deliver psychoanalysis-like therapy sessions.

That leaves us with going to a psychiatrist for help. The good thing about going to a psychiatrist would be, of course, for the medication. As many would know, medication brings about faster effect then therapy sessions. Furthermore, everything is covered by the National Health Insurance and the cost would be way lower then if one were to go for therapy sessions. However, the negative side would be that most psychiatrists in Japan do not engage much with their patients. The things they would talk about with clients would be centered on the client’s symptoms, and if medications are working. Sessions with a psychiatrist would normally not be longer then 30 minutes. In Japan’s current stage, it seems to me that more people are starting to open up to counselling. However, there are still more who are opting to visit a psychiatrist, instead of going to a clinical psychologist because they do not know if it is worth the money or not, and they would have to invest in quite a bit of money before they see any effect which is unclear too. But that is enough about the clinical psychologist versus psychiatrist situation in Japan.

The main reason I am writing this post is to provide some information on the places where you can find mental health support in Japan. I would try to avoid the big names like IMHPJ or even Meguro Counselling Center.

For those who are looking for psychiatric services, what I normally recommend would be going to the University Hospitals near you. The doctors there normally speak and write English since there are a lot of doctors who are doing researches and collaborating with non-Japanese to give speech or publish their researches overseas. I have also have more success referring clients there because University Hospitals tend not to reject patients since they are bound by duty to accept all patients (In reality, I do hear of hospitals rejecting patients however) . I would recommend downloading the mental health interview questions here to help you out ([https://www.jstp.net/Source/monshin/english1.html](https://www.jstp.net/Source/monshin/english1.html)). In the Kansai area, there would be the Kinki University Hospital, the Osaka University Hospital, Kyoto University Hospital. These are the major ’医学部付属病院・いがくぶふぞくびょういん’。

For those who are looking for Counselling Services, you may like to give the following places a try.

1 KIPP shinri office/Kipp psychology office・KIPP心理オフィス　[https://www.kipp-u.co.jp/counseling/](https://www.kipp-u.co.jp/counseling/)

While their webpage is in Japanese, there are clinical psychologists working in there who are fluent in English. To my knowledge, the psychologists there are more geared towards psychoanalysis based on objects relations. You can always ask for more information through their 問い合わせ button.

2 華心中国語心理相談室 [https://www.huaxincounseling-jp.com/](https://www.huaxincounseling-jp.com/%E7%9B%B8%E8%AB%87%E5%AE%A4%E6%A6%82%E8%A6%81/)

For those who are able to speak in Chinese, this is the place to go to. Most of the counsellors there are from outside Japan. All counsellors there have obtained both the Japanese clinical psychologist and the public psychologist license. There are also some counsellors who are able to speak English there.

3 If you are finding counselling to be a bit expensive, I would recommend this option. Going to a 心理相談室 or counselling room in a University. Many of the universities in Japan offering the clinical psychology course have a counselling office that can be used by the public. The purpose is to allow the students there to gain experience and costs are relatively low there, especially if you were to opt for having a student provide counselling. By the way, all students are needed to undergo supervision with their therapists. If the idea of getting counselling from a student is off putting, you can always opt for normal counselling with the professors teaching there (the cost would be higher by a bit). Several places (again, Kansai Region) that I would recommend would be

\*Ritsumeikan University in Ibaraki Osaka. There is a professor there who specializes in intercultural therapy.

\*Ryukoku University in Kyoto. This counselling center specializes in Systems Approach Therapy, with the counsellors there providing family counselling, employment issues, and also school-refusal.

\*Baika University in Osaka. The only counselling center to provide animal therapy.

\*Kyoto University. The University the legendary clinical psychologist, Kawai Hayao taught at. This center specializes in analytic psychology.

4 For those who are looking for assessments and psychological intervention for your child in Tokyo, there is the 1st-step kokoro-no-clinic　 [https://www.1st-step.org/](https://www.1st-step.org/)

They provide both psychiatric and counselling services in English and is one of the few places that provide assessments such as the WISC-V in English. This is especially useful since in my experience, I have heard from parents asking about where their child could take the WISC-V since some international schools in Japan need it as an admission prerequisite. There are many parents who just want to know the strengths and weaknesses of their child and if they are qualified for gifted programs, or are having a hard time at school.

5 For those who are looking for assessments and psychological intervention for your child in Kansai, there is the medical corporation Keishinkai Developmental support and after school services ‘KEYSTONE’. [http://houkagokeystone.jp/](http://houkagokeystone.jp/)

To my knowledge, KEYSTONE provides intervention programs for kids suffering from developmental disabilities and is the only place that is in liaison with a clinic. The doctors there have done their residency in America and this is also one of the few places to provide assessments such as the WISC-V in English. They do not have a online registration however and you would need to email them through toiawase@houkagokeystone.jp.

I hope this has been helpful to anyone. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to know more about other things regarding mental health in Japan. I will try to post on new topics people are interested in if I have the time.

Thank you so much for reading!