Family members of a New Zealand man who died last year after he was strapped down at a mental hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture submitted a petition to the health ministry Friday calling for Japan to take measures to restrict use of restraints at mental institutions.
In the petition, signed by 31 psychiatrists from the United States, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan, they urged the government to set up an international panel to improve the nation's restraint practices at mental institutions.
Kelly Savage, 27, died in May last year only days after being admitted to Yamato Hospital, a privately run psychiatric institution in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, after a manic episode linked to bipolar disorder.