Over the past three decades, Japan has undergone significant socioeconomic transformations that have reshaped work culture and employee priorities. The conventional model of lifelong employment has evolved substantially, shifting the focus from long-term job security to factors such as job content, workplace flexibility, and opportunities for career advancement. Consequently, existing research on psychosocial stress in the workplace must be updated to reflect these changes.

 The demand-control-support and effort-reward imbalance models offer insights into how workplace stressors influence mental and physical health. These models emphasize the serious consequences of work-related psychosocial stressors, including issues such as smoking, insomnia, and low back pain. In addition, studies have examined positive interventions, such as laughter therapy, which was found to reduce cortisol secretion.

 Advancements in wearable technology and artificial intelligence are driving the development of precision medicine approaches, enabling personalized stress management strategies. In light of the changing landscape of work and society, future studies should integrate technological innovations with behavioral insights to develop adaptive solutions that promote healthier work environments.

 At a time when so many workers experience stress, countermeasures to address occupational stress have become an urgent issue.

 To conduct occupational health activities, it is necessary for a multidisciplinary team to work together. Occupational health nurses are considered "the professionals closest to working people," and they use their nursing expertise to provide detailed interpersonal support, organizational diagnosis of groups and organizations, as well as coordination skills to carry out a wide range of activities.

 When the Industrial Safety and Health Act was first enacted, there still was insufficient recognition in the public regarding the expertise of ‘nursing' as there exists now. However, over the past 50 years, nursing education has changed in many ways and expertise has been established. By contrast, the teaching of "occupational health and occupational health nursing" in basic nursing education is still insufficient. In practice, occupational health nurses play a major role in areas such as the alleviation of occupational stress, and their contribution to occupational health activities is indispensable.

 The following will discuss the future of basic nursing education, what is required in practical activities, and the application of occupational health nursing expertise through occupational health nursing research.

 How can good practices be leveraged to tackle challenges and issues in the workplace? Moreover, what is necessary to take the first step toward a solution and turn it into a good practice? In this session, we held the first-ever roundtable discussion at this conference, focusing on "participatory workplace improvement" and "positive deviance" as approaches to using good practices to create a better work environment.

 By asking and exchanging questions and deepening the dialogue, we explored how to take the initial step, the involvement and roles of experts, and the philosophy of practice. As a result, we identified several commonalities among good practices, including starting with small, feasible actions, adopting a participatory approach, and having professionals take on a facilitative, supportive rather than a directive role.

 Furthermore, we shared insights into each approach's unique strategies, such as building an improved environment through accumulating cases and carefully observing behaviors to detect minor deviations that can lead to positive change.

In modern society, occupational mental health has become a critical public health issue. The rise in stress-related disorders, exacerbated by structural changes in employment and the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, and a greater need for mental health interventions. Simultaneously, digitalization has transformed the workplace, introducing both efficiency and new stressors, such as communication gaps and information overload. The spread of health misinformation via SNS (social networking service) and AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) -generated content emphasizes the importance of health information literacy and awareness of cognitive biases in decision-making. Tools like AI and health apps can support informed behavior, but require careful implementation and evaluation. Empirical findings suggest that digital tools, when combined with interactive support, can enhance stress management outcomes. Furthermore, effective health communication should prioritize clarity, empathy, and timing, addressing both the perceived potential and severity of health risks. To advance occupational health, future strategies must integrate digital inclusion, proactive education ( e.g., prebunking), and hybrid human-technology approaches to ensure equitable, trustworthy, and engaging information delivery.

Japan faces a growing gap between average life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, with musculoskeletal disorders playing a critical role in this disparity. Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS), a common degenerative lumbar spinal condition in older adults, significantly impairs mobility and daily functioning. This review highlights our recent findings on the interplay between LSS, locomotive syndrome (locomo ), frailty, and polypharmacy. Locomo, a concept proposed by the Japanese Orthopaedic Association, reflects mobility limitations due to musculoskeletal dysfunction, while frailty encompasses broader physiological and psychosocial vulnerabilities. Our studies revealed that LSS patients commonly present with advanced locomo and frailty, and that preoperative frailty significantly hinders postoperative improvement in mobility. Furthermore, polypharmacy-commonly defined as the use of five or more medications-was prevalent among LSS patients due to comorbidities and chronic pain. However, lumbar spinal surgery for LSS led to a significant reduction in polypharmacy, especially in the use of analgesics. Psychological well-being was also linked to better postoperative medication reduction. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive preoperative assessment and postoperative care in managing older adults with LSS. Surgical intervention for LSS may contribute not only to improved physical outcomes but also to reduced medication burden, thus supporting longer healthy life expectancy in aging populations.

 This paper focuses on diverse risks present in schools and proposes strategies for addressing them. While such risks are theoretically infinite, the resources to mitigate them are always limited, requiring schools to identify priorities. When visualizing risks, people typically adopt what can be called an "enchantment model," which emphasizes the positive aspects of the activity in question. However, this approach does not lead to actual risk reduction. As an alternative, this paper proposes a "sustainability model" that directly addresses risks and implements systematic measures for reducing them, thus aiming to create an environment where everyone can enjoy safety and security.

 In Japan, prolonged working hours among teachers became institutionalized through the 1971 Special Law on Salaries of Education Personnel, which severed the link between working hours and wages and consequently weakened time management. Furthermore, extracurricular club activities, which are typically developed without sufficient institutional planning, increase the burden on teachers while exposing students to risks such as heatstroke. These factors have contributed to the transformation of the Japanese society into a school-dependent one, reliant on invisible labor within schools. Recognizing and rectifying this structure is essential for building sustainable and safe schools.

The mental and physical consequences of poor sleep have been intensively investigated in recent years, and many studies have shown its risks for conditions such as hypertension, metabolic disturbance, and psychiatric problems such as depression. Insomnia has traditionally been regarded as a symptom, but in recent years, it has become internationally recognized as an independent "insomnia disorder" with a bidirectional relationship with mental and physical conditions. As for its management, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia has gained support from rapidly accumulating evidence and is on the way to widespread use as a first-line treatment, while pharmacotherapy is shifting from benzodiazepine receptor agonists to new class hypnotics such as orexin receptor antagonists. Restless legs syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders have been elucidated to have a close relationship with psychiatric disorders such as depression. In occupational health, it is important to provide appropriate sleep assessment, treatment, and instructions for workers in relation to daytime sleepiness, poor performance, occupational accidents, difficulty in waking up in the morning, and absence from/return to work due to psychiatric disorders. It is also essential to have a circadian perspective when dealing with sleep problems, and understanding a person's chronotype (i.e., morningness or eveningness), the so-called "social jet lag", and the harmful effects of media use before bedtime would make it easier to provide health instructions, especially for young workers. Developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder have received more attention in recent years in terms of adaptation in the workplace, and they also have a strong association with sleep problems. Restoring the regularity of sleep-wake rhythm is particularly important in the recovery of mood disorders, and sleep assessment and coping described so far should be integrated with rehabilitation.

In clinical practice, clinicians are expected to adhere to the principles of evidence-based medicine. In psychiatry, evidence-based mental health has received growing attention. Physicians are expected to engage in shared decision-making with patients, formulating treatment plans that consider each patient's symptoms, comorbidities, values, and social circumstances. This article reviews recent developments in the treatment of schizophrenia, with a focus on pharmacological and neuromodulation therapies.

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) is a positive psychological change that results from the psychological struggle that occurs in response to a traumatic experience. PTG is achieved after positive reappraisal of traumatic experiences with ongoing negative aftereffects. This study aimed to examine the PTG model and the moderating effect of occupational commitment on ruminations. The study participants were 329 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) personnel from multiple garrisons who had faced traumatic experiences either on or off duty. Specifically, we used structural equation modeling to examine the JGSDF PTG cognitive process and hierarchical multiple regression analyses to examine the effects of intrusive rumination on deliberate rumination, with occupational commitment as a moderating factor. The results showed that core belief disruption, mediated by intrusive and deliberate ruminations and positive reappraisal, causes PTG with QOL. Furthermore, affective occupational commitment enhanced deliberate rumination in the case of traumatic experiences on duty, suggesting that affective ties with JGSDF may strengthen coping skills that help deal with on-duty traumatic experiences. In case of off-duty traumatic experiences, the moderating effect of normative occupational commitment was observed — intrusive rumination facilitated deliberate rumination when normative occupational commitment was higher. This may indicate the subject's strong sense of responsibility to stay "healthy" so as not to bother and inconvenience their peers with their personal problems.