Tag - mental-health

 
 

MENTAL HEALTH

About 41% of LGBTQ+ teens could not find people or places they could consult with about their struggles with gender identity or sexual orientation.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2025
Over half of LGBTQ+ teens in Japan have considered suicide, survey finds
Of the 90% of junior high and high school students who said they had experienced harassment at school, 64% said such harassment came from teachers.
Science suggests that three days of “shinrin-yoku” (forest bathing) is enough to boost immunity for an entire month.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 21, 2025
The science of shinrin-yoku: Why forest bathing feels good
Science suggests that three days of “shinrin-yoku” forest bathing is enough to boost immunity for an entire month.
Japan faces a growing crisis of social isolation, with over 1.4 million people — many middle-aged — living reclusive lifestyles, and experts say only long-term, trust-based community support can reverse the trend.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 16, 2025
Japan needs to rethink how it helps hikikomori
While hikikomori, the Japanese term for acute social withdrawal, often brings to mind young recluses in dark bedrooms, the reality is broader.
The primary causes for long-term sick leave among women in their 20s included mental illness, such as depression and anxiety disorders, a survey has found.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2025
Women in their 20s have higher rate of long-term sick leave, survey finds
The primary causes included mental illness, such as depression and anxiety disorders, as well as pregnancy-related problems.
A screen shows the Muchu College metaverse school, with avatars and the face of Hiroaki Tsujita, CEO of operator Wowfull.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jun 16, 2025
Metaverse and local subsidies help children in alternative learning
Municipalities are subsidizing the use of alternative educational institutions to help families with children who are not attending regular schools.
A man holding a baby wades through a flooded road following heavy rainfall in Zhengzhou, China, in July 2021.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 13, 2025
Natural disasters may be shaping babies’ brains
The findings signal how new generations of children may be marked by climate crises that occur before they were born.
Research showed that amounts of tau protein accumulation, a factor leading to dementia, were larger among people diagnosed at age 40 or more with mood disorders compared with healthy individuals of the same age group.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 13, 2025
Middle- to old-age depression may be tied to dementia
A study has found that abnormal tau protein causing dementia accumulates in the brains of middle- to old-age patients with mood disorders, such as depression, at a higher rate.
Brian Wilson is seen at home in Beverly Hills in 2004. Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence, was also the embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 12, 2025
Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson dies at age 82
The band defined California beach culture for a generation, with Wilson achieving what many musicians saw as perfection in "Pet Sounds."
Novak Djokovic plays a forehand return to Italy's Jannik Sinner during their men's singles semifinal match on day 13 of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland-Garros Complex in Paris on June 6, 2025.
TENNIS
Jun 11, 2025
No rest, no gain: Novak Djokovic’s go-to tools for a mind and body reset
Japan residents with deep pockets now have a chance to replicate Djokovic’s wellness and longevity routines at Aman Tokyo.
Experts are calling on people not to miss children's signs of trouble, particularly in June after fatigue can accumulate over the two months since the beginning of the school year in April.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 9, 2025
Experts warn of 'June syndrome' among children in Japan
Much like the better-known May syndrome, or May blues, June syndrome is a general term for mental and physical disorders and is medically classified as adjustment disorder.
New data from the National Police Agency shows patterns in where dementia are found after going missing, and how best to locate them.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 8, 2025
491 dementia sufferers found dead in Japan in 2024
Many who were declared missing were later rescued thanks to GPS or other tracking devices attached to their clothing.
The LGBTQ  community in the U.S. has expressed shock and dismay regarding government plans to slash the Health and Human Services Department's budget, which includes the elimination of specialised mental health services for LGBTQ  youth.
WORLD / Society
Jun 3, 2025
LGBTQ+ suicide risk rises as Trump cuts mental health services
Since returning to office in January, Trump has signed executive orders to curb LGBTQ+ rights, many of which directly impact young people.
The entrance to a cave on Okinawa’s main island where a former Japanese soldier confessed to having killed a mother and child during World War II
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Jun 2, 2025
How the scars of war in Okinawa are being healed by a psychologist
A clinical psychologist has formed grief care groups for survivors of war across Okinawa to help try to heal their emotional scars.
Elon Musk boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in March. As Musk became one of Donald Trump's closest allies last year, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known, according to people familiar with his activities.
WORLD / Politics
May 31, 2025
On the Trump campaign trail, Elon Musk juggled drugs and family drama
Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use and also came as he dealt with personal drama related to his growing number of children.
Located in Nagano Prefecture, Samurai Gakuen tries to help young and old individuals who have withdrawn from society rediscover their places out in the world.
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 31, 2025
How ‘hikikomori’ shut-ins ‘start to have dreams for the future’
As many as 1.5 million “hikikomori” shut-ins withdraw from social life in Japan, but one school in Nagano is finding success is coaxing them back into the world.
A man talks of his experience of being hit by a spread of fake information about him online after appearing in a reality show.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
May 23, 2025
Online defamation still pesters reality show participants
Television broadcasters and online streaming services have taken steps to support and protect cast members, but defamation has not stopped.
Calling themselves "Cheer Re-Man's" — a mash-up of "cheerleading" and "salaryman" — the group is made up of alumni from the elite Waseda University's male cheerleading squad.
JAPAN
May 15, 2025
Japanese 'salarymen' inspire with cheerleading acrobatics
The young men are all about spreading cheer through their eye-popping acrobatic performances, volunteering their weekends to entertain crowds.
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.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building