It seems in Japan they have some notions about hospitalization that are very different from ours.  http://www.economist.com/node/876845 and http://www.economist.com/node/876845.  I first learned of this several years ago when I was planning for travel outside the country.  I was researching and came across a checklist that took me to the US State Department website.  Chock full of information it is, of course, with the now common warnings you’d expect concerning war and terrorism in many countries, as well as health warnings.  Think Zika virus.  And just last year Ebola.

But it was their more mundane and ordinary cautions that caught my eye: what if you had a medical emergency in one of these countries?  What if you had a psychiatric emergency?  Here’s another angle on Japan. http://www.japanpsychiatrist.com/Abstracts/TravelMed.pdf

Something that caught my eye in this article was that a medical doctor could essentially declare themselves a psychiatrist after one year of training, not the four that is common in the USA.  And with seeming little oversight or clinical supervision or training.

I think I am warming up to our clinical training and licensing practices – in comparison.