Transforming to recovery-oriented care is an urgent issue in community psychiatric nursing in Japan. Because traditional psychiatry is still influential, nurses are required to possess cultural sensitivity to objectively view conflicts between values when providing recovery-oriented care. If recovery-oriented care based on cultural sensitivity is clarified, it would help nurses providing recovery-oriented care in non-recovery-oriented environments. Therefore, this study aimed to clarify recovery-oriented nursing care based on cultural sensitivity in community psychiatric nursing in Japan. A semi-structured interview with 21 community psychiatric nurses and participant observations for seven of them were performed. A qualitative description was undertaken to analyse the data. The relationships between categories were examined. The study conforms to the COREQ checklist. Through the analysis, six categories were revealed: 1. Continuously reflecting on one's own practice and the influence of the traditional mental health culture; 2. Constructing a partnership with clients to uphold their rights and responsibilities; 3. Having client-centred dialogue to help them enjoy life and grow; 4. Supporting clients' lives and strengthening their self-management; 5. Working as a team to achieve clients' wishes, which includes some risks, and 6. Maintaining a relationship between clients and the people who care for them. Category 1 was central and enclosed by categories 2, 3 and 4. Categories 5 and 6 were located outside of categories 1 to 4. The results showed cultural sensitivity enables recovery-oriented care even in non-recovery-oriented environments and include recognizing the traditional mental health culture, understanding clients' experiences and accepting other's values.