In Japan, where mental illness is still widely seen as a taboo subject, Sony Group Corp.'s music unit has launched a pioneering project to provide its signed artists with mental and physical health care.

The company, which has stars such as LiSA and Akiko Yano on its books, has acted in response to the toll the coronavirus pandemic has been taking on the working lives of performers.

Because artists' work styles and contracts vary, caring for their health has mostly been up to the artists themselves or their talent managers, unlike company workers, whose employers provide them with regular health examinations.