Discussion
In Japan, where depression was long considered rare, the illness seemed to become a national epidemic after 1998, when the suicide rate exceeded 30,000 for 14 consecutive years and a new generation of antidepressants was introduced. The number of workers taking sick leave due to depression increased, and workplaces began conducting annual stress checks as part of depression and suicide prevention efforts. As a result, awareness of mental health has reached unprecedented levels.
Moreover, people who were once described as simply "a little forgetful" are now being diagnosed with "dementia," and there is a rapidly growing number of elderly individuals engaging in "brain training" to prevent cognitive decline. Many middle-aged and older adults, after receiving MRI scans as part of workplace health exams and being told of brain "shrinkage," rush to memory clinics in a panic.
In Japan, there is an ongoing process of "medicalization" covering the latter half of life. "Medicalization" refers to the phenomenon where issues that were once considered part of life's suffering (birth, aging, illness, death) or moral challenges (madness, drinking, sexual deviance) are redefined as pathologies and become subjects for medical intervention.
This presentation will explore from a medical anthropological perspective how the medicalization of depression and aging has taken place in Japan, what kind of understanding it brings when life's experiences are reinterpreted through the lens of mental health care, and what forms of "empathy" this allows for.
