Junko Kitanaka, Professor, Faculty of Letters, Keio University

In Japan, where depression had long been considered rare, the condition rapidly developed into a national epidemic after 1998, when suicide rates exceeded 30,000 annually for 14 consecutive years and new-generation antidepressants were introduced.
"Medicalization" refers to the process whereby phenomena once understood as life’s natural distresses (such as childbirth, aging, illness, and death) or as moral challenges (such as rage, alcoholism, and sexual deviance) are redefined as medical issues and become the subjects of clinical intervention.
This presentation examines how depression became medicalized in Japan and analyzes its broader societal implications through the lens of medical anthropology.