OT Japan — Occupational Therapy in Japan
Last updated: 2026-08-10
Japan has 118,465 licensed occupational therapists as of March 31, 2025. Almost everything they study, publish, and practice, however, exists only in Japanese. OT Japan is an attempt to open a window on that world: an independent, English-language guide to sagyō ryōhō (作業療法, occupational therapy) as it is actually taught and practiced in Japan.
I’m Hiroemon, a licensed occupational therapist in Japan with more than 13 years of clinical experience across physical rehabilitation, geriatric and dementia care, and mental health. I also run 作業療法.net, a Japanese-language OT website with more than 250 published articles — this English section is written by the same person, from the same clinical vantage point. Hiroemon is a pen name, a common practice among Japanese healthcare professionals who write publicly.
This site is written for three groups of readers: occupational therapists and students curious about how the profession works in Japan, researchers looking for an entry point into Japanese OT scholarship, and internationally trained therapists weighing whether — and how — they might work here. If you belong to none of those groups but simply love the profession, you are welcome too.
Start Here
Every guide on this site is now published. If you are new here, these two pages explain what OT Japan is and who writes it; the six in-depth guides follow below.
About OT Japan & the Author
Who writes this site, why it exists, and how facts are checked before they are published.
What is 作業療法 (Sagyō Ryōhō)?
The Japanese word for occupational therapy — and which Japanese search terms unlock which content.
作業療法.net (Japanese)
The parent site: 250+ articles on Japanese OT practice, careers, and the national exam.
作業療法とは — What Is Occupational Therapy? (Japanese)
The parent site’s flagship explainer of occupational therapy, written for Japanese readers.
Occupational Therapy in Japan, Briefly
Start with the scale. Japan’s professional body, the Japanese Association of Occupational Therapists (JAOT; 日本作業療法士協会, Nihon Sagyō Ryōhō Shi Kyōkai), reports 63,352 members as of March 31, 2025 — just over half of all license holders — and has been a member of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists since 1972, with 134 WFOT-approved education programs listed for Japan.
A few Japanese contributions are already visible in English. The Kawa model, developed by Michael Iwama, gives the field a culturally grounded framework built on the metaphor of a river (kawa, 川). And JAOT publishes the Asian Journal of Occupational Therapy, a peer-reviewed, open-access English-language journal on the J-STAGE platform — free to read, and a good first stop for researchers.
Most of the field’s depth, though — its journals, textbooks, case discussions, and everyday clinical culture — never crosses the language barrier. JAOT maintains an English gateway and a Work in Japan page for internationally trained therapists, and both are worth reading. But independent English-language accounts from inside the profession are hard to find. That is the gap this site is built to fill.
The Six Guides
OT Japan was built pillar by pillar, slowly and from primary sources rather than padded out with guesses. All six guides are now live. Every one cites its sources and shows a visible last-updated date, and each is revised as the underlying statistics, fee schedules, and regulations are reissued. More focused articles will follow beneath these guides.
Working in Japan
A realistic guide for internationally trained OTs: how licensing works, what the eligibility process involves, and where the honest hurdles are. No sugar-coating.
Understanding the Kawa Model
Japan’s best-known contribution to OT theory, developed by Michael Iwama and Japanese clinicians — explained from inside Japanese practice, including the question other sources skip: how is it actually received in Japan?
Research
English-accessible journals, major conferences, and practical tips for finding Japanese OT research — plus how to approach collaboration with Japanese researchers.
Practice
What everyday OT looks like inside Japan’s health insurance system, across physical rehabilitation, mental health, pediatric, and geriatric settings.
Education
How Japanese OTs are trained: three-year and four-year courses, the nationally set curriculum, clinical fieldwork, and the national exam.
Statistics
Key numbers on the profession, drawn from primary sources with every figure cited — built to be quoted, and updated yearly.
Each guide will also appear in the RSS feed the day it publishes.
About This Site — and Its Japanese Parent
OT Japan is the English section of 作業療法.net, an independent Japanese OT website with more than 250 published articles and a new article released every morning. Every article there can be switched between two reading modes — one written for professionals, one for patients and families — and the site includes a practice bank of roughly 3,000 questions covering 15 years of Japan’s national OT examination.
This English section follows the same editorial rules: primary sources, visible update dates, and no claims I cannot verify. Where something is my professional opinion rather than an established fact, I will say so. Corrections are welcome — when I get something wrong, I will fix it and date the fix.
If you read Japanese — or simply want to see the parent site — start with the 作業療法.net homepage or its flagship explainer, 作業療法とは (What is occupational therapy?).