Japanese University Launches New “Anime Therapy” Counseling Service
While it’s sure to get some side-eyes, I think this is pretty neat: Yokohama City University is presently testing out an anime-style online therapy counseling service. Right now, it’s in its trial phase, with 20 people testing it out from October 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. If things go well, we could see an open rollout sometime thereafter.
“Anime therapy, which promotes psychological benefits and self-transformation through immersion and empathy in anime, was proposed by Italian psychiatrist Francesco Panto,” reads a machine-translated snippet from Japan’s ITMedia News. The venture is a collaboration between YCU and Dai Nippon Printing, a national company with central focuses on information communications, lifestyle and industrial supplies, and electronics.
Novel Health Ideas
Each of the service’s six unique characters come packed with their own backstories. Participants engage in a visual-novel-style format, which aids in immersion as the program covers a wide gamut of psychological elements ranging from — as Automaton puts it nicely — “physical, relational, and social suffering.”
Those who partake in the trial were tasked with the completion of substantial psychological surveys prior to October 1; a follow-up survey will gauge the service’s effectiveness following completion of the course.
Yokohama City University’s Minds1020Lab is spearheading the effort. It constitutes part of Japan’s COI-NEXT plan, which has some lofty aims: a healthier society; a healthier environment; and healthier individuals. “The OIST COI-NEXT Center aims to contribute to the realization of ‘One World, One Health’ on a global scale,” the website reads, “envisioning a future where the sustainable enhancement of mental, physical, and environmental health is achieved in harmony.”
Minds1020Lab is specifically designed to aid in the research into mental health among young people, and the anime therapy online counseling service has been constructed toward that end; young adults aged 18-29 are its target demographic. While anime certainly stretches its appeal across all age groups, it’s probably fair to presume that it’s especially popular among younger folks, and there’s something to be said for meeting people in meaningful ways by intersecting with their existing interests.
“Everyone gets hurt and depressed at times,” Minds1020Lab’s home page succinctly states. (This, like the ITMedia News article, is machine-translated.) “This is even more true for young people who are facing big changes, such as going on to higher education or finding a job. What can we do to prepare for when they stop? Minds1020Lab considers these social issues and puts them into practice.”
