The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology (JSPN) fellowship is a long-running programme to support early career psychiatrists from around the world to attend the society's annual conference in Japan.

To inform early career psychiatrists of the nature of the fellowship, disseminate learning from the experience and to encourage applications to the scheme.

Each member organisation of the World Psychiatric Association can nominate up to two early career psychiatrists for consideration by the fellowship committee. Applicants must submit an abstract in one of two themes, describing how services are designed in their country. Twelve early career psychiatrists are selected to participate in the programme each year.

In 2015, fellows were drawn from ten countries across three continents. The fellowship programme involved several components, including the opportunity to present the nature of psychiatric services in our home nations in dedicated seminars with other international fellows. This provided an excellent platform to compare and contrast different national approaches in key areas. Each seminar was co-chaired by an eminent psychiatrist and an early career psychiatrist from Japan, increasing the possibilities for professional exchange and mentoring.

The Japanese Young Psychiatrists’ Organisation arranged a number of activities for the fellows including a guided tour of a local psychiatric facility. This enabled fellows to gain a deeper understanding of psychiatric practice in Japan, through informal discussions and interaction with clinicians.

The JSPN fellowship is an effective mechanism for fostering improved relations and understanding between early career psychiatrists across the world.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.