While Japan leads the world in terms of physical health outcomes, its mental health systems are often seen as ‘behind the curve’ compared to other economically-developed countries. This is especially true for mental health and wellbeing of children and young people where, despite positive progress among older ages, suicide sadly remains the leading cause of death for under-30s.

In this event, we welcome a panel of speakers with extensive experience working in mental health policy and practice in Japan to present on contemporary issues and intervention strategies relating to young people’s mental health. Prof. Atsushi Nishida will present on his ongoing work collaborating with Tokyo Metropolitan Government in developing evidence-based policy and programmes to promote adolescent mental health in schools and society at large. Dr. Gemma Knowles will present a cross-cultural programme of research investigating gender differences in mental health in Tokyo and London, incorporating both advanced statistical methods and voices of young people across the two cities. Dan Stanyon (2019 Daiwa Scholar) will present his recent research into mental health of young carers in Tokyo.

All speakers are especially interested in learning from the insights and expertise from an audience at the Daiwa Foundation to incorporate into their work in future.

Please note: this talk will contain some discussion of self-harm and suicide.

About the contributors

Prof. Atsushi Nishida

Atsushi Nishida is the Director for the Center of Social Science and Medicine at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science and Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. He is an expert in population health across the life course and in mental health policy change, having worked with local and national government on several projects addressing perinatal psychological needs, adolescent mental health and care for people with dementia. Among his many projects, he is the principal investigator leading the Tokyo Teen Cohort, a large population-based adolescent cohort study that has been collecting data from young people in Tokyo since 2012.

Dr. Gemma Knowles

Gemma Knowles is Lecturer in Epidemiology and Youth Mental Health at the Centre for Society & Mental Health at King’s College London. Gemma co-leads the REACH study (Resilience, Ethnicity and AdolesCent mental Health), a large longitudinal cohort study of over 4000 youth from diverse backgrounds in South London. Her research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of social inequalities in youth mental health. She is also a strong advocate of coproduction methodologies to ensure young people are meaningfully involved in the design and delivery of social research.

Dan Stanyon (moderator)

Dan Stanyon is a PhD student at the Department of Health Services & Population Research at King’s College London and a previous Daiwa Scholar. He lived in Japan for four years between 2019-2023 and worked at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, conducting research into adolescent mental health and co-leading coproduction activities with young people in his role as a junior researcher on the Tokyo Teen Cohort study.