The principles of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) are considered to be cross-culturally applicable because the assessment and intervention programs are interrelated and, by definition, contextually designed and empirically evaluated. In the prevailing age of the evidence-based practice of psychotherapy, this special section aims to specify cultural adaptation elements of CBT in an Asian socio-cultural context. Progress made in the practice of CBT in Asia through the establishment of the Asian CBT Association (ACBTA) is reviewed, and various functional roles of culture in the application of CBT in Asia are considered. The 3 invited articles and a commentary are by Drs. Akihito Masuda, Young Hee Choi, Tori Andrews and Tian Po Oei, and Gordon C. Nagayama Hall; their papers were originally presented at the 4^<th> Asian Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) Conference 2013 Tokyo, and were subsequently updated for the present Special Section of the Japanese Journal of Behavior Therapy, the flagship journal of the Japanese Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

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The present article illustrates cultural and/or cross-cultural characteristics in applying cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to Korean clients under the following categories: (a) shamanistic healing, (b) dropping out in the initial stage of therapy, (c) being afraid of negative judgments from the therapist and therapeutic failure, (d) fear of being stigmatized by a medical term, (e) religious faith, (f) personal history about trauma or sexual issues, (g) when parents are the source of their children's problems, (h) hwa-byung as a psychosomatic problem, and (i) need for one shot therapy. The ideas presented in this article should be taken only as a framework for beginning to work with this client group. The tremendous varieties among Koreans require great care to avoid overgeneralization regarding clients and appropriate treatment methods. Nevertheless, with this caveat, the suggested solutions may be useful to cross-cultural therapists who work with Koreans.

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Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), a family of psychotherapies, is well recognized across the globe as an effective approach for promoting greater behavioral adaptation. Whereas the dissemination of CBT at a global level is encouraging, many experts raise concerns about the suitability of the application of CBT across a variety of sociocultural groups. The present article contends that the cultural competence of CBT is diminished when CBT is understood merely as techniques with a set topography. Using a contextual and functional framework, the article highlights the importance of principle-based practice to promote culturally competent and ideographically sensitive clinical work.

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Although cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been used in quite a few Asian countries for many decades, it has been suggested that a significant barrier for the advancement of research and training in CBT among CBT practitioners has been a lack of a regularized opportunity for networking. This paper presents a brief history of the development of an Asian CBT network. The development of the network started in 1990 (Oei, 1998). Since then, 5 Asian CBT Conferences have been completed successfully; the sixth Conference will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2018. In addition, the Asian Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association (ACBTA) supported by many Asian countries' CBT groups was also established to provide a firm and durable organization. Formal links with the well-established World Congress Committee (WCC) in Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies were made by requesting ACBTA membership in the WCC. Progress in CBT research, training, and practices has been made in the last few decades. Further progress can and will be made. Asian CBT has started out well in this long journey, and it will end up well.

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The present study aimed (a) to develop a sleep education program with self-help treatment using a checklist of sleep-promoting behaviors, and (b) to verify effects of the program on sleep-promoting behavior, sleep habits, and daytime sleepiness in adolescents. Seventh-grade students (N=229) from 2 junior high schools participated in the study. They were divided into 2 groups: the sleep education group (n=118; 4 classes) and the wait-list group (n=111). The sleep education group was provided with information about proper sleep hygiene and sleep-promoting behavior, and asked to practice 1 sleep-promoting behavior for 2 weeks. At the post-education periods, the sleep education group significantly improved in their knowledge about sleep hygiene and sleep-promoting behavior. Bedtime on both weekdays and weekends, sleep onset latency, total sleep time on weekdays, and daytime sleepiness also improved in the sleep education group. In contrast, no significant improvement in these variables was observed in the wait-list group. The present results suggest that this newly developed sleep education program is effective for improving adolescents' sleep-promoting behavior and sleep habits, and reducing daytime sleepiness.

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The aim of the present study was to investigate whether rules acquired through creative hopelessness serve as motivative augmentals for the reduction of experiential avoidance and for the activation of valued behaviors. Undergraduate students (N=48) with a high social-avoidance tendency were randomly assigned to an experimental group, a control group, or a placebo group. The experiment lasted for 2 days; between those 2 days, there was a 2-week home work period. On the first day, the experimental group and control group received psychological education on creative hopelessness. The placebo group received psychological education consisting of general clinical psychology information about social anxiety. Further, only the experimental group was asked to present the newly acquired rules during the home work period. Results showed that only the experimental group improved in terms of social avoidance tendency (Lebowitz Social Anxiety Scale [LSAS]-avoidance) (Cohen's d=0.97). Further, compared to the other groups, the experimental group displayed a greater number of and engaged more frequently in valued behaviors (M=2.06; M=10.00, respectively). These results might support the claim that rules newly acquired through creative hopelessness may serve as motivative augmentals.

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The present study aimed to examine effects of a cognitive behavioral program for school nurses that was comprised of assessment and treatment of children's problems. The participating school nurses were assigned to either a cognitive behavioral program group (n=19) or a control group (n=27). The intervention was one 2-hour workshop and one 90-minute follow-up session. The results suggested that the cognitive behavioral program enhanced the school nurses' self-efficacy for intervening in children's problems. However, helplessness and general self-efficacy significantly improved in both groups. No effects of the intervention were found for depression-anxiety and irritable-anger.

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This study investigated the validation of the Japanese version of the 13-item Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) whose content was revised and the 7-item CFQ. Results of a survey of university students showed that the revised CFQ-13 reflects a two-factor structure, whereas the CFQ-7 reflects a one-factor structure similar to the previous study. Results of item analysis showed that treating each factor independently is appropriate. It was previously assumed that the two structures corresponded to "cognitive fusion" (Factor I) and "cognitive defusion" getting out of cognitive fusion (Factor II), respectively. However, results showed that Factor II corresponds to "a component of the function of defusion." Therefore, Factor I or the CFQ-7 is equivalent to cognitive fusion, and Factor II is appropriate to measure a part of defusion that is "the discrimination of self and thought." Moreover, the CFQ-13 requires an additional and different validation strategy by investigating the relationship with overt behavioral measurements in future studies.

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The purposes of the present study were to investigate long-term effectiveness of social problem-solving training (SPST) and also effects of social problem-solving training on stress responses. Sixth-graders were assigned to either a training group (n=84) or a control group (n=91). The children in the training group received the 4-session (45 minutes per session) training implemented by their classroom teachers. The participants filled out the Children's Social Problem-Solving Scale and the Psychological Stress Response Scale for Children (short version) 4 times; before and immediately after the training, and 3 months and 11 months after the training. The results suggested that the Problem Orientation, Rational Problem-Solving style in cognitive approaches, and Solution Generation of the children in the training group improved significantly. The improvement in Solution Generation was maintained 11 months after the training. The results also indicated that, in the training group, the children's irritation-anger scores, one of the 4 subscales of stress responses, were significantly reduced after the training. In follow-up measurements conducted 11 months after the children had advanced to junior high school, no effects from the intervention other than on Solution Generation were found to have been maintained. This suggests the necessity of implementing a program that would maintain the effects after children are in junior high school.

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Background: Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a specific counseling approach developed from efficacy studies of behavior therapy for addictive disorders. Its potential for promoting behavioral change in various fields is empirically supported. The Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) code is a well-validated measure of practitioner's adherence to and competence in MI, and is often required in efficacy trials for MI. Aim: To specify items in MITI that need particular attention for training coders in a Japanese context. Design: Six independent raters evaluated ten simulated encounters representing typical counseling settings in Japan on the basis of MITI 3.0J after 1 hour of training. Reliability was measured by obtaining intra-class correlation coefficients for each item. Results: The average inter-rater reliability coefficient was 0.72 for global ratings and 0.59 for behavior counts. Discussion: Behavior counts (especially, MI Adherence and Closed Questions) were found to be more difficult to recognize than other measures. Conclusion: Those who completed basic training in MI achieved reliable evaluations in MITI global scores and some behavior count items. Intensive training of behavior counts is recommended.

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