Creative Health in the UK and Japan
In September, coinciding with Japan Week 2025, we had the opportunity to hear an international perspective on creative health as we welcomed colleagues from the from Japan from the Art & Wellbeing aa-TOMO programme.
Creative health, or how we recognise the power of creativity, culture and heritage to improve health and wellbeing, is a movement that is gaining momentum, particularly across Greater Manchester where there is an ambition to become the world鈥檚 first Creative Health City Region.
In September, coinciding with Japan Week 2025, we had the opportunity to hear an international perspective on creative health as we welcomed colleagues from the from the Art & Wellbeing aa-TOMO programme - an innovative and ambitious 10-year creative health and cultural prescribing research programme led by the National Centre for Art Research in Japan and the Tokyo University of the Arts. Aa-TOMO is currently rolling out cultural prescribing programmes across local government areas in Japan, in partnership with a range of organisations including museums, universities, healthcare providers and private industry.
This visit builds on previous exchange of ideas between Greater Manchester and aa-TOMO, exploring the innovative ways in which museums and galleries are using their collections and expertise to support health and wellbeing and how this can be supported by research and in policy 鈥� including the translation of the Greater Manchester Creative Health Strategy into Japanese.
UK and Japan in conversation
Cultural prescribing is about bringing culture and creativity back into the heart of everyday living. As more people embrace this approach, we move towards a society that鈥檚 truly inclusive 鈥� where everyone has a space to belong, a role to fulfil, and the chance to lead a full, healthy, and meaningful life on their own terms
Manchester Museum hosted a public panel discussion where we were able to hear more about the creative health work taking place in Japan. Sawako Inaniwa, Senior Curator of Learning, National Centre for Art Research, introduced Creative Ageing ZUTTOBI 鈥� a pioneering collaborative project led by Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Tokyo University of the Arts supporting people of all ages to stay connected to art and museums, in response to the challenges of an ageing society.
ZUTTOBI brings health and welfare professionals into museums to codesign participatory opportunities for older adults and people living with dementia. The programmes provide participants with enjoyment and a sense of purpose, a chance to share feelings and memories inspired by the artwork, and the opportunity to connect and interact with others, helping to prevent isolation and cognitive decline.
The concept of cultural prescribing was introduced to a wider audience through the 鈥淗ello Future! 100-Year Museum鈥�, exhibition at EXPO 2025 in Osaka. Takashi Kiriyama, Dean of the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, described how the exhibition not only provided an opportunity for the public to engage with the concept of cultural prescribing, and to explore their own use of arts and culture to support wellbeing, it also demonstrated the innovative use of technology in creative health. The exhibition employed NFC tagging to allow visitors to instantly upload pictures from their smartphones to the exhibition, also providing the research team with metadata to support subsequent analysis.
From Greater Manchester, Julie McCarthy, Strategic Lead for Creative Health at Greater Manchester Integrated Care (NHS GM) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) introduced the GM Creative Health Place Partnership, a 3-year programme that will deliver the aims of the GM Creative Health Strategy through a series of test-and learn programmes and a focus on embedding creative health within the health and social care system. Charlotte Leonhardsen, Programme Manager for Social Prescribing within the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, described the social prescribing infrastructure across GM鈥檚 ten boroughs and the potential for creative and cultural prescriptions to support people with complex or long-term health conditions, or at risk of social isolation.
As a panel we discussed with the audience the benefits to individuals and communities when we can provide opportunities for people to engage with creativity and culture across their life-course. We also recognised common challenges such as measuring and demonstrating impact of the work, developing a shared understanding across health and cultural sectors and ensuring that creative health addresses rather than reinforces health inequalities.
International knowledge exchange opportunities
It was clear from our conversations throughout the visit that although the national contexts may be different, our approaches to creative health research have much in common. Creative health brings together interdisciplinary research fields and cross sectoral partners and can be a catalyst for developing new approaches to collaborative research with strategic partners and alongside cultural institutions and community-based organisations.
In Japan, Tokyo University of the Arts co-ordinates over 40 partners as part of the Arts-based Communication Platform for Co-Creation to Build a Convivial Society, which aims to foster a society where everyone can express themselves through art communication that integrates welfare, healthcare, and technology. The National Art Research Centre is working with museums and cultural institutions, as well as health and welfare groups and local governments to explore how cultural resources can become spaces that support wellbeing and social change.
Similarly, in Greater Manchester a wide range of stakeholders are involved in creative health research, policy and practice. A key function of the new Research Associate in Knowledge Mobilisation post, based at the University of Manchester, is to map interdisciplinary research feeds into creative health and facilitate new opportunities for further collaboration across Greater Manchester鈥檚 universities and with policymakers and communities. We are working closely GMCA to evaluate the GM Creative Health Place Partnership and to identify the conditions necessary to sustainably embed creativity and culture into the health and social care system.
We will continue our relationship with our colleagues from Tokyo University of the Arts, pushing forward creative health research through international collaboration. Specifically, we discussed working together to explore opportunities for createch in creative health, drawing on Greater Manchester鈥檚 expertise in social prescribing to inform the cultural prescribing model, and sharing experiences around knowledge mobilisation across research, policy and practice.
We hope to arrange a reciprocal visit to see creative health in action in Japan next year. Watch this space for further updates!