If you haven’t felt it yourself, evidence shows that the coronavirus pandemic is making the state of mental health around the world more treacherous than ever before. In Japan, suicides sharply rose in the second half of 2020. Nearly 10% of America’s youth have severe major depression. In the UK, nearly one in five working women suffer from mental health problems.
As a result, in the U.S. and UK, mental health help books like “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F ck” and “The Body Keeps the Score” have sold millions of copies in recent times.
Similar mental health self-help books are no less widespread in Japan. Artist and suicide hotline operator Kyohei Sakaguchi’s “Make Your Own Medicine” and recently-published “Depression University” have captivated Japanese audiences with a practical, lifestyle based approach to bettering one’s mental health. Japan’s roster of superb literary fiction also offers a fruitful and nuanced place to engage with complicated iss