Behaviour Therapy in Japan: Beyond the Cultural Impediments

Abstract

The fourth World Congress of Behaviour Therapy held at the Gold Coast was a great success as the first worldwide congress on behaviour therapy in South East Asia and Oceania countries. The fact that an academic association can sponsor a world congress is a good index of the level of development of a host academic association as a leader in that field. We can say that the ABMA has come to play a leading and important role in behaviour therapy in the world.Lovibond's paper (Lovibond, 1993), based on his keynote address at the Fourth World Congress of Behaviour Therapy, is interesting for an understanding of not only the current status of behaviour therapy in Australia, but also for typical courses of the development of behaviour therapy in many countries where behaviour therapy has not been a major clinical approach, having been “imported” from countries where behaviour therapy has been highly developed from early times.The courses of the development of behaviour therapy in Australia and Japan are considerably similar, that is, clinical psychologists in both countries have tried to develop a scientific clinical psychology since the dawning of behaviour therapy, as Lovibond (1993) has pointed out. However, there are some differences between these countries on the current status of behaviour therapy. In order to compare the courses of the development and the current status of behaviour therapy in both countries, an introduction to a brief history of behaviour therapy in Japan might be helpful.