Tag - mental-health

 
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July 04, 2025
 

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MENTAL HEALTH

Japan ranked 14th out of 36 developed countries in the latest child well-being survey, improving from 20th place in the previous survey released in 2020, a report by a UNICEF research institute showed Wednesday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 14, 2025
Japan ranks 14th in UNICEF child well-being survey
Top positions in the latest overall rankings were held by the Netherlands, Denmark and other European countries.
Yoshitaka Toda is escorted out of a police station in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward on Friday to be sent to prosecutors.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 9, 2025
Suspect in Tokyo Metro stabbing chose station to highlight ‘educational abuse’
Yoshitaka Toda, 43, said he struggled with mental health issues as a result of his parents’ expectations for him to excel academically.
Sapporo’s Susukino district. Hiroko Tamura, the mother of a 31-year-old woman suspected of killing and beheading a man in the district in 2023, was sentenced on Wednesday to one year and two months in prison, suspended for three years, for aiding in the mutilation and concealment of a corpse.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 7, 2025
Mother of suspect in Sapporo beheading case sentenced for role in cover-up
Hiroko Tamura was sentenced to one year and two months in prison, suspended for three years, for aiding in the mutilation and concealment of a corpse.
Working long hours is believed to be causing loneliness by worsening people's mental health and restricting their family life.
JAPAN / Society
May 1, 2025
New Japanese study shows 1 in 12 people feel lonely at work
Working long hours is believed to be causing loneliness by worsening people's mental health and restricting their family life.
Feelings of lethargy and anxiety can sometimes hit after the Golden Week holiday period has concluded. The Japanese call this the “May blues.”
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 1, 2025
Why the month of May feels tough and how language can help
The phenomenon known as the "May blues" can have serious ramifications if you don't deal with it.
A child welfare center in Naha in May 1966
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Apr 14, 2025
In Okinawa, war trauma carried by orphans still lingers
“War orphans were pushed to the margins of society after the war," says one academic.
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 13, 2025
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
The governments of the U.K. and Canada have warned their citizens traveling to Japan that they could experience inappropriate physical contact — or "chikan" — on crowded trains
A volunteer handles an incoming call at the Tokyo Befrienders call center, a suicide hotline center in Japan's capital.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 28, 2025
School-age suicides in Japan hit all-time high
The number of suicides among elementary, junior high and high school students exceeded 500 for a third consecutive year in 2024 despite a drop in the overall figure.
Students in South Korea sit the annual College Scholastic Ability Test. There is huge pressure on this exam, which determines young people's university choices and, in turn, their job and even marital prospects, leading to a heavy mental health burden.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2025
Entrance exam wars: A pressure cooker for South Korean youth
South Korea comes to a standstill on the day of the national university entrance exam. But so does students' possibility to determine their future paths beyond a mere test score.
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 22, 2025
OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness
Those who spent more time typing or speaking with ChatGPT each day tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on the chatbot.
Megan Garcia
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025
Teen’s suicide turns mother against Google and AI chatbot startup
Megan Garcia says her son would still be alive today if it weren’t for a chatbot urging the 14-year-old to take his own life.
Tokyo will soon require all companies in the city to make efforts to stop harassment by customers, such as by creating a manual on how to handle suspected cases.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 17, 2025
Tokyo gears up for April launch of law against harassment by customers
All companies in Tokyo must make an effort to eliminate such harassment, such as by creating a manual on how to handle suspected cases.
People in Japan appeared to have the smallest difference between the amount of sleep they get on weekdays and weekends, suggesting the lowest incidence of social jet lag.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 14, 2025
People in Japan get the least sleep, Pokemon study finds
Does that make Japan the land of the never-setting sun?
The Susukino district in Sapporo in 2020. The father of a woman suspected of killing and beheading a man in the entertainment district in 2023 was sentenced on Wednesday to one year and 4 months in prison, suspended for four years, for helping her move the body to their home.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 12, 2025
Father of woman accused of 2023 Sapporo murder given suspended sentence
The key issue of the trial was whether he was aware of his daughter's plan to murder the victim in advance.
Junko Yagi, a professor at Iwate Medical University, speaks during an interview on Jan. 10 in the town of Yahaba, Iwate Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Experts urge ongoing mental health care for families in 3/11 disaster areas
"Parents and children alike are carrying heavy emotional burdens," one expert said.
The Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia on July 1, 2016
WORLD
Feb 20, 2025
In Russia, dozens of dissenters are held as psychiatric patients
The practice carries echoes of a method of control used widely in the Soviet Union and known as "punitive psychiatry."
Social loneliness contributes to the development of mental illness, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, a study finds.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 9, 2025
Social loneliness found to worsen arteriosclerosis in mice
A team from Keio University and others said that loneliness without social connections contributes to the development of mental illness, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
A volunteer responds an incoming call at a suicide hotline center in Tokyo. While the number of people who killed themselves in Japan marked the second-lowest level since 2019, such deaths among elementary, junior high and high school students were at their highest level since records began in 1980.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 29, 2025
Suicides among school children in Japan at highest level since 1980
The total number of people who killed themselves in the country fell for the second straight year to the second-lowest level since 2019, the health ministry said.
Strong waves from the Pasig River pummel the shoreline in Manila on Nov. 17 as Super Typhoon Man-yi hits the Philippines.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 24, 2025
Disaster fatigue: When storms drown out compassion
Natural disasters in the Philippines are taking a toll not only on the most vulnerable but also on those whose very job it is to help to them.
In the survey, 36.7% of respondents said that they have not taken measures to prevent customer harassment.
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2025
Customer harassment pushes part-timers to quit
The proportion of companies whose part-time workers faced customer harassment, such as yelling, within the past year was 45.7%.
Magnitude 5.5 earthquake jars Tokara Islands amid flurry of seismic activity
A strong quake struck off the Tokara Islands on Thursday afternoon, with the island chain having recorded around 1,000 earthquakes since a burst of seismic activity first began on June 21.
Onosato's yokozuna promotion causes rare quirk in new sumo rankings
Newly promoted yokozuna Onosato holds a copy of the latest banzuke ranking in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture, on Monday.
A prophesied disaster (likely) won’t strike Japan this weekend
A viral manga prediction of a July 5 disaster has gripped Japan with anxiety and triggered an economic impact, but experts warn that while such dates are unreliable, the threat of a massive earthquake remains real. 
Over 900 earthquakes strike Tokara islands in space of two weeks
A screenshot shows many quakes occurring in the Tokara islands over the past 30 days, in this image taken from the U.S. Geological Survey website.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead
Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
From Hokusai’s Great Wave, shinkansen to One Piece: a cultural treasure box for Lego Japan
Michael Ebbesen, general manager of Lego Japan, says Lego bricks based on Japanese culture have a rich global appeal and are sellable around the world.
With farmed fish, RelationFish swims against the tide in fine dining
Chef Hideaki Matsuo (middle) and the staff of Oseto Suisan Fisheries prepare to check on their sustainably farmed fish.
As Southeast Asia heats up, a Japanese cooling giant sees a major opportunity
An employee of Daikin Cambodia explains the use of different tools during an air conditioner installation training session in Phnom Penh. Daikin is one of Japan’s oldest air conditioning companies, but as Japan’s population falls, the firm is keying in on overseas growth.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
By Alex K.T. Martin

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