Mental Patients' Custody Act
Japan's first law on people with mental illness, passed in 1900. It placed the duty of looking after patients on their families and allowed them to confine patients with official permission.
The act named guardians, spouses, relatives and heads of household as the people responsible, and allowed them to confine a patient with permission from the authorities. The patient or the supporting family paid, and a confinement room at home could not be used without official permission. The approved rooms were inspected by police officers, not doctors[1].
In his 1918 report Shuzo Kure accepted the act as a step forward, since it gave patients legal protection for the first time, but criticised it for aiming narrowly at preventing unlawful confinement and leaving out treatment[1]. It was repealed by the Mental Hygiene Act of 1950[2].
Related terms
- Home confinementUnder Japan's Mental Patients' Custody Act of 1900, the system by which families could, with official permission, lock a person with mental illness in a room at home. It was prohibited by the Mental Hygiene Act of 1950.
- Mental Hygiene ActA Japanese law of 1950 that prohibited home confinement and required patients to be cared for in hospitals and other designated facilities. Revised in 1987, it became the Mental Health Act.
Sources
- S. Kure, G. Kashida, “精神病者私宅監置ノ実況及ビ其統計的観察 (The actual state of home confinement of the mentally ill, and its statistical observation),” Tokyo: Home Ministry Sanitary Bureau; first published in Tōkyō Igakkai Zasshi 32 (1918).
- Japan, “精神衛生法 (Mental Hygiene Act), Act No. 123 of 1 May 1950, text as enacted,” House of Representatives of Japan (1950).