Introduction

From the perspective of medical anthropology, I am researching the "culture of illness." I am interested in how the expansion of the medical domain in modern society brings about changes in social relationships and people's subjectivity. Focusing on fieldwork in psychiatric medicine in Japan and North America, I anthropologically examine issues surrounding the medicalization of life cycles, such as depression and dementia, and preventive medicine.

■Medical Anthropology and Health
・Research Objective: To investigate the impact on people's subjectivities when their minds and bodies become repositories of valuable secrets in the context of workplace depression and emerging forms of self-care in Japan.
- Title: The Rebirth of Secrets and the New Care of the Self in Depressed Japan, Kitanaka Junko （Current Anthropology） 56 （ S12 ） S251-S262 Dec. 2015
Research Objective: To explore the historical development and the evolving concept of 'health' in community-building efforts across Japanese municipalities from a medical anthropological perspective.
・Research Objective: To investigate the rise of depression as a workplace psychopathology and emerging forms of 'care of the self' in Japan, and to explore what happens to people's subjectivities when their minds and bodies become a repository of valuable secrets.
- Title: The Rebirth of Secrets and the New Care of the Self in Depressed Japan, Kitanaka Junko （Current Anthropology） 56 （ S12 ） S251-S262 Dec. 2015
■History and Transformation of Medical Practices
・Research Objective: To examine Japanese debates about the nature of workers' psychopathology, their vulnerabilities, and their recovery in the context of a new therapeutic ethos.
- Title: Depression as a Problem of Labor: Japanese Debates About Work, Stress, and a New Therapeutic Ethos, Kitanaka Junko （History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences） 55-67
■Patient Autonomy and Ethics in Aging Societies
・Research Objective: To investigate how different forms of understanding and empathy have emerged through the work of people living with dementia in Japan and to explore the rise of the dementia tojisha movement and its implications on the limits of empathy and societal norms.
- Title: In the Mind of Dementia: Neurobiological Empathy, Incommensurability, and the Dementia Tojisha Movement in Japan, Kitanaka Junko （Medical Anthropology Quarterly） 34 （ 1 ） 119-135 Mar. 2020
・Research Objective: To investigate how the dementia tojisha movement in Japan can diminish fear and enhance understanding and empathy through neurobiological empathy.
- Title: In the Mind of Dementia: Neurobiological Empathy, Incommensurability, and the Dementia Tojisha Movement in Japan, Kitanaka Junko （Medical Anthropology Quarterly） 34 （ 1 ） 119-135 Mar. 2020
■Film and Social Commentary
・Research Objective: To analyze the social commentary and visual articulation of Japan's aging society crisis as depicted in the film Plan 75 by Hayakawa Chie.
- Title: Plan 75: Hayakawa Chie's Dark Visual Articulation Of The Crisis Of Japan's Aging Society, Borovoy Amy, Davis Elizabeth, Kitanaka Junko, Raymo James （Asia-Pacific Journal） 22 （ 10 ） Jun. 2024

Areas of Research

・Medical Anthropology of Depression, Suicide, Dementia, and Coproduction in Psychiatry

Social Contributions

・Empowering individuals with mental illnesses such as dementia and depression through self-participatory healthcare models can promote autonomy and reduce stigma in an aging society.
・Incorporating the perspectives of individuals with dementia in clinical practices can improve understanding and empathy in community psychiatry, enhancing mental health support.