The Development of the Person-Centered Approach in Japan / Die Entwicklung des Personzentrierten Ansatzes und seine Zukunft in Japan / El desarrollo del enfoque centrado en la persona y su futuro en Japón / Le développement de l'approche centrée sur la personne et son avenir au Japon / O desenvolvimento da abordagem centrada na pessoa e o seu futuro no Japão

Since Counseling and Psychotherapy (Rogers, 1942) was introduced in Japan in 1948, because of the specific atmosphere and nature of Japanese culture at the time, the approach was named and symbolized as nondirective counseling until the end of the 1970s. The term client-centered, with its real meaning, became more popular after the late 1980s because academic studies about client-centered theory had progressed. The idea of person-centered therapy was introduced in 1980 in Japan, but not much progress was recorded under that label until Dave Mearns' lecture tour in Japan in 2006. Since that time the idea of person-centered working has gradually spread in Japan but progress has been slow because of the old image of client-centered and the way that clinical psychology has moved in Japan.