A new clinical project in Japan is exploring whether psychiatrists who adopt anime-style characters can better support young people struggling with depression.
The initiative is a collaboration between Yokohama City University (YCU) and Dai Nippon Printing Co. It builds on the idea of “anime therapy,” developed by Francesco Panto, an Italian psychiatrist practicing in Japan. Panto, who says anime helped him overcome personal difficulties, believes the medium portrays internal struggles with unusual emotional depth, making it a promising tool for mental-health care.
The study will involve about 20 participants aged 18 to 29. Before the clinical sessions begin, certified psychiatrists and clinical psychologists will undergo training and then assume one of six anime-inspired personas: an older sister, a younger sister, a mother, a prince, a younger brother, or a “handsome uncle.” Each character is designed with its own emotional background and personal challenges.
During the trial, counselors will wear costumes and use voice changers while conducting two 60-minute online sessions per week for four weeks. Participants will choose the character they want as their counselor and interact as themselves.
Researchers will evaluate the safety and feasibility of this character-based counseling. They will analyze changes in depression scores, satisfaction with the sessions, levels of trust between counselor and participant, and biometric indicators such as heart rate and sleep patterns.
The project team hopes the approach could eventually be used as a “social prescription” to improve quality of life for young people. Mental-health needs are growing among younger generations in Japan: one report estimates that roughly 75 percent of people under 25 experience some form of psychological difficulty. Suicide remains the leading cause of death among teenagers and people in their 20s, and Japan continues to have the highest suicide rate among G7 nations.
A Cabinet Office survey also found that 43 percent of Japanese people in their 20s feel isolated.
“Young people in their teens and 20s struggle with mental-health problems, but they have very few ways to access medically appropriate services,” said Mio Ishii, an assistant professor of psychiatry at YCU who leads the project. “We need to create services they can turn to when they first begin to feel distress.”
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