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The Mizuho Gakuen psychiatric care home in Akamura, Fukuoka Prefecture. (Mainichi)

A Fukuoka Prefecture psychiatric care home has admitted to forcing 10 residents to sleep in a single room, well above the government limit of four.

Mizuho Gakuen, located in the village of Akamura, managed to conceal patients' living conditions by sticking their name tags on other doors, even fooling a prefectural investigation. The institution is now being investigated again, under the Independence Support Law for People with Disabilities.

The 10 or so patients, aged between 50 and 90, were forced to sleep in a "rehabilitation room." The room also contained three simple toilets, with no partitions for privacy. The patients were among the more severe cases at the home.

"The toilets were only put there at night," the home's director said. "If we put the more severe cases in separate rooms it became too difficult to look after them all. We don't have enough staff, and there was no other choice."

The Fukuoka Prefectural Government's Handicapped Welfare Division said: "For 10 people to sleep in the same room is unprecedented ... this could constitute mistreatment, and we wish to determine whether the home's approach was suitable."