The Comprehensive Violence Prevention and Protection Program (CVPPP) was developed following the implementation of the Medical Treatment and Supervision Act. It was incorporated into workers' training when the wards were opened in the early years of designated inpatient medical institutions. CVPPP was modelled after the control and restraint method adopted in security hospitals in the UK. From the outset, CVPPP included a security element even though it was described as a care technique.
 CVPPP has gradually been extended to general psychiatry. Today, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare's training project for ensuring psychiatric care systems has adopted the objective of disseminating CVPPP principles.
 In other countries, training programs for managing violence are collectively known as Aggression Management Training Programs (AMP). There are many different AMP models. AMPs in Europe and the US have been active since the 1980s, but much debate on the difficulties in presenting evidence, accidents caused by physical intervention, and negative psychological effects of forced intervention remain. Moreover, the need for such training continues to be recognized today; since its inception, the CVPPP has faced challenges similar to those encountered in Europe and USA. There is a dichotomous issue of whether to focus on safety management or a person-centered approach of coercive psychiatric care. Moreover, difficulty of judgement caused by the complexity of the definition of violence persists. Furthermore, from the staff's perspective, there psychological distress from exposure to violent behavior is possible, and so is of becoming a perpetrator of abuse. For the parties concerned, they can be both victims and perpetrators. In this respect, when judging violence, it is advisable to consider the question: "From whose point of view is it violence?"
 In this context, the CVPPP is moving towards a program with a recovery-oriented and person-centered philosophy. To manage violence, a problem that can easily lead to confrontational structures, both parties and medical staff should move forward with joint ownership. This article reviews the background to the development of this program, which is now widespread in general psychiatric care; outlines trends in Europe and the US; and discusses future prospects for violence management programs in psychiatry.
 Author's abstract