New Zealander's death puts mental patients' restraint in Japan under spotlight

Martha Savage (L) and Patrick Savage, the mother and older brother of a New Zealander Kelly Savage (portrait) who died in Japanese psychiatric hospital in May, attend a news conference at Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, in Tokyo, Japan July 19, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese campaign group whose members include lawyers and academics called on Wednesday for a change in psychiatric hospitals' practice of putting patients under prolonged restraint after the death of a New Zealand man.

Kelly Savage, 27-year-old English teacher working in Japan, was sent to a psychiatric hospital near Tokyo on April 30 after showing signs of losing touch with reality such as screaming and running around, his older brother Pat Savage said.