[Yamatogawa scandal denounces psychiatric treatment system of Japan].

OSAKA Center for Mental Health and Human Rights, established in 1985, has been taking action on the Yamatogawa Hospital Affair. This hospital had developed many scandals for a long time. For example, the inpatients were murdered through the violence by the hospital staffs in 1969, 1979 and 1993. Despite the repeated accusations, this hospital had been allowed to operate until Oct. 1997, when Osaka Prefecture Governor ordered the hospital to stop its operation. Throughout the entire course of this Affair, the Psychiatric Review Board of Osaka Prefecture (regulated and expected to protect the patient's rights by the Mental Health Law and its amendment, the Mental Health and Welfare Law) did not function. The prohibition articles of the Law about restriction on actions, such as correspondence and interview, were not effective and had been neglected. The responsible department of the Prefecture Government had not started the valid investigation into the hospital. We demand the valid measures to protect the human rights of psychiatric patients. The author proposed the independence of the Psychiatric Review Board from the Prefecture Government, the start of the ombudsman system and so on. "Principles" by the UN (1991) should be cleared.