From next spring, Japan will revive mental health education in high schools, axed four decades ago, following a record number of youth suicides and concerns over the stressful effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the government's new curriculum guidelines for senior high schools, health and physical education textbooks for use in spring 2022 will feature descriptions of prevention and coping methods to help mentally distressed students deal with problems.
Emiko Michigami, a 60-year-old school nurse at Saitama Prefectural Soka Higashi High School, is one faculty member already on the front line searching for ways to best handle the mental health education of her students.