ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we summarize the current health and health-care landscape in Japan, review the current state of the health humanities in Japan, and propose a vision and a pathway whereby the health humanities may contribute to further improvements in individual and public health and well-being. In education, we find fertile ground and potential for the medical and health humanities to contribute to patient-centered and people-centered care. In practice, there are programs implementing the expressive therapies in isolated locales, but evaluation of outcomes and national coordination, as well as specialization, are largely lacking and greatly needed. And in research, we offer examples of a relatively vibrant existing body of work examining health and health care from both within and outside Japan, and from the perspectives of various fields of inquiry. In light of the need to prevent long-term and frequent hospitalization and hospital visits in order to maintain a sustainable health-care system, along with the innovative “community-based integrated care system” that has recently been implemented, we propose establishing a unified and coordinated health humanities movement in Japan, consisting of university courses and departments, research, a national organization, and systematic evidence accumulation leading to adjustments in national health policy.
