Medical Applications of Virtual Reality in Japan

Japan is famous as a major power of video games and as an electronically developed industrial country. However, the present Japanese situation of academic research on virtual reality (VR) is not well known because of the linguistic barrier. In this chapter, VR research in Japan and its medical applications is surveyed and the future view of Japanese activities in these fields is discussed. Trends in medical applications are discussed. Specific research such as in computer surgery, training, education, remote medicine, psychotherapy and rehabilitation are detailed.