First, at the time of entrance into Kyushu Sangyo University, we compared health awareness, lifestyles, and self-evaluation of the physical and mental health status in 5,154 students with and in 2,653 students without experience of Corona disaster. Second, we also compared lifestyles and self-evaluation of the health status in 4,013 students with and 4,187 students without experience of Corona disaster during the period of attendance at the university. Finally, to know the relating factors to the self-evaluation of mental health status or its changes from the entrance to the junior or senior year of the university, we performed logistic regression analysis. Results showed that the freshmen with experience of Corona disaster have higher health awareness and that less students were not involved in the physical exercise. The 3rd or 4th year students of the university who experienced Corona disaster after the entrance have more frequently habitual physical exercise in men and women, and in women, more frequently take breakfast. Logistic regression analysis shows that, in men and women, better self-evaluation of mental health status or its changes from the entrance to the junior or senior year of the university were related to the habitual taking of the breakfast, and the experience of Corona disaster related to worsened self-evaluation of mental health status. Therefore, habitual taking the breakfast is important.

Body mass index (BMI) of freshman students were analyzed at Kyushu Sangyo university (female 6,356, male 14,446) from 2016 to 2023. The BMI categories were as follows. Thin (underweight); BMI<18.5, Normal range; 18.5≤BMI<25.0, Obese; 25.0≤BMI, based on Japan Society for the Study of Obesity. Furthermore, we subdivided Normal range into two categories; Normal with 18.5≤BMI<22.0 and Normal with 22.0≤BMI<25.0. As a whole, both in female and male students, the lower the actual BMI the stronger desire to gain body weight, and on the contrary, the higher the actual BMI the stronger desire to lose body weight. In female students, 18.9% think that BMI<18.5 is suitable, while in male students, 4.1% think so. More than half of the students who think that BMI<18.5 is suitable have actual BMI of less than 18.5. Among those with actual BMI<18.5, 190 female and 83 male students answered that less value of suitable BMI than the actual value. We, however, could not make the characteristic of these students clear other than the low desired BMI. When we compared before and during COVID-19 pandemic, the actual BMI was distributed to lower categories, suggesting that the changes of lifestyle and health awareness were reflected on their BMI.

The purpose of this study was to generate hypotheses about the process by which skilled career counselors at public employment security offices provide support to job seekers who appear to be experiencing employment challenges. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight career counselors with good reputations and more than six years of experience at public employment security offices, and analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach (hereinafter referred to as M-GTA). As a result, 42 concepts and 9 categories were generated. Depending on the past work experiences of the job seekers, experienced career counselors in the public employment security offices seemed to provide job hunting support that “transforms the sense of obligation and fear into motivation”, or “gradually help them to face their honest feelings and to get inspired from them”. The experienced career counselors also seemed to approach for their clients to be independent working adults by offering hints to improve human relations and facilitating their growth based on their initiatives and conviction. These results suggested that the experienced career counselors are taking a “nurturing” approach to foster fundamental skills as working adults for their clients. The quality of the experienced career counselors was also characterized by thorough acceptance of the clients, emphasis on prospective learning, and implementation of concrete measures.

This study organizes 34 years of student counseling activities at the student counseling room of Kyushu Sangyo University and examines the process by which the student counseling function was established. This study aims to identify some of the factors that increase the effectiveness of the support provided by the student counseling room. The development of the student counseling room system is presented in three phases, considering the counselor’s personnel allocation and the transition of support systems. The first period was “the counseling system centered on the nursing room and part-time counselors”. The second period was “the assignment of full-time counselors and development of the student support system”. Finally, the third period was “the expansion of counseling activities at the Center for Fundamental Education and the development of support for students with disabilities”. Additionally, “student support for the COVID-19 pandemic” was also presented. The number of students using the student counseling room has further increased post-COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying support deficiencies through practice and gradually expanding and improving the system are indispensable factors necessary to promote the development of the support system. Furthermore, to maintain the effectiveness of support, appropriate staffing and cooperation between counselors and faculty members are essential.

Empathy, which Carl Rogers advocated early on and has been emphasized in Person-Centered Approach (PCA) ever since, has recently come to be discussed in a variety of fields. The present report involves a theoretical examination, empirical research, and clinical observations conducted by seven authors in response to the challenges associated with empathy practices, drawing upon the literature of Rogers. When we read Rogers’ theory of empathy, we find that he oscillates between two aspects of empathy (“state” and “process”). In recent years, evidence of the effectiveness of empathy with respect to the “state” aspect has been accumulating. While this is of great significance, what is even more important in clinical settings is the “process” aspect, or “experiencing empathy,” and sharing such experiences. In this paper, we will focus on the experience of “experiencing empathy” in four specific situations and describe them.