2026 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 6-14
Background: Since its founding in 2016, the Japan Nutritional Psychiatry Research Group has upheld the principle that mental health begins with diet. In 2025 it marked its tenth anniversary and formally became a society at the commemorative meeting on October 12, 2025, launching Eiyo Seishin Igaku (Journal of th e Japanese Society of Nutritional Psychiatry; JJNP); subsequent developments remain inadequately docum ented.
Objective: This article documents the one-year course from the society’s transition through incorporation, certification, education, and international exchange, as a historical record for Japan.
Main Text: On April 1, 2026, two corporations were established: the Japanese Society of Nutritional Psyc hiatry (JSNP) for academic activities and certification, and the Japanese Association of Nutritional Psychia try (JANP) for education and training. Certification comprises specialist qualifications for physicians, denti sts, and licensed healthcare and nutrition professionals; public qualifications; and accredited medical and c ounseling facilities. Qualified holders other than supporters are designated Food & Mind Specialists, renew ed every three years. As of June 2026, there were over 1,000 members, 83accredited facilities (44 medical, 39 counseling), and 281 certified individuals excluding supporters (405 certifications). Since 2025 the aut hor has served as an editorial board member and reviewer for ISNPR’s journal Nutritional Psychiatry, and the society plans a symposium at MBI 2026 in Taiwan, November 2026.
Conclusions: Incorporation and certification underpin the credibility, continuity, and social accountability of nutritional psychiatry. However, scale does not ensure clinical quality, and the system remains develop mental, not established. Priorities include positioning nutrition as complementary, quality assurance, and in ternational dissemination of Japanese evidence.
