The transformation of medical communication was examined mainly in mental health field for past few decades. The four leading researches and practices; “the illness narrative,” “narrative approach,” “tojisha-kenkyu”(collaborative research by patients themselves), and “the open dialogue,” showed equalization and democratization of the profession–client relationships. They also showed the development of the unique design and mode of communication and suggested that ethicalizaion of the relationships was an important healing element in the recovery from chronic diseases.

Narrative information talked by patients with cancer is effective to encourage good health behavior. However, the detail of the information has not been explored. This study aimed to explore the detail of narrative information talked by patients with breast cancer using the framework of the health belief model (HBM). Interview data of 18 patients with breast cancer were provided by DIPEx-Japan. We conducted a content analysis using the framework of the HBM. Sixty percent of the participants talked about “perceived susceptibility in the specific population” and “perceived severity focusing on consequences of medical conditions,” and about half of the participants talked about “ignore of symptoms” for “perceived barriers.” Narrative information from patients with breast cancer included a lot of components of the HBM. The results suggest that narrative information may be effective for promoting cancer screening.

This article examines Tojisha-Kenkyu (which roughly means “self-help studies by people with disabilities”) as a socially organized phenomenon. For this purpose, the difficulties for those who have mental or developmental disabilities to examine the structures of their troubled experiences collaboratively are to be examined. Through this clarification, the significances of the methods some Tojisha-Kenkyu groups adopts to implement their sessions will be suggested.

Recently, multidisciplinary health professional education is needed to encourage the cooperation between healthcare professionals. Multidisciplinary health professional education has been introduced into many schools of health professions in Japan. I described how clinical teachers have learned through the process of making visual educational materials for students. They can also reflect on themselves and their own professions objectively. They can do a simulated experience of visiting home care through making visual educational materials. Multidisciplinary health professional education can be a good opportunity to understand other healthcare professionals. They notice different viewpoints of other healthcare professionals. In a sense, the process of making visual educational materials is a kind of a self-helping study for clinical teachers. Demonstrating a cooperation among clinical teachers through the multidisciplinary health professional education should be an excellent role model for students as future health professionals.

Recent health care circumstances in Japan necessitate that patients themselves as well as the general public seek health-related information and use it in circumstances, such as short hospital stays and long-term medical treatment in the community. It is important to manage the digital divide that exists and to achieve equity in health and health-related information in society. The study purpose was to describe people’s health information-seeking behavior, particularly their use of information carriers. We also examined other approaches to handle and overcome the digital divide among people who are not familiar with online information-seeking activities. Those who experienced cancer themselves or who had a relative, friend, or acquaintance who had experienced cancer comprised three-quarters of the respondents. The cancer experience and sociodemographic characteristics, such as sex, age, education, and occupational background, were important predictors of health information carrier use. Their use of information carriers seemed to be determined by their intent or expectation regarding the information types extracted by the information carriers. These characteristics also acted as a disadvantage when the health information environment was more dependent on online sources. Several approaches were described to improve health information-seeking behaviors in those with limited access to online information. Future studies and interventions are needed to reduce the disparity in people’s health information-seeking behaviors.

This paper aims to review how ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EMCA) can be applied in a wide variety of practices in health and medical clinics in terms of using recording devices and interventional contributions in clinical practices and also to show the significance of EMCA in these fields of studies. After lengthy consideration, the study first confirms the reflexivity between developing available and accessible recording machines and expanding the areas of investigation in health and medical clinics. The research then shows that ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the main purpose of which is to establish a clear order of practical activities with some observation, can also contribute to clinical practices through various methods of intervention. The study also confirms that such contributions have already been made on a relatively large scale.

This review paper examines ethical aspects of public health promotion policies from micro-local to macro-global contexts. The author has found the emergence of health communication vocabularies that have appeared in 1980s, the eras of world wide primary health care strategy (from 1978 of the Alma-Ata declaration) and health promotion of the Ottawa charter (1986). The growth and popularity of public health promotion can give rise apprehensions for ten normative ethical issues and five actors’ ethical concerns of any kind of health promotion activities, in the matrix form that the authors presented in this paper. The author examined the capability of value-laden approach of medical sociologists in practicing actual health promotion settings.

“Depression” in Japanese occupational health is a contested issue and open to various interpretations. The purpose of this study was to reveal logical structures of conflicting interpretative frameworks and their use by physicians. Interview data with occupational physicians and attending physicians were analyzed to investigate conflicting interpretations of “depression” in Japanese occupational health concerning the meaning imputation of the deviance (managerial or medical) and causal attribution (internal or external). The results demonstrate various interpretive conflicts, complementariness, and ambivalence that cannot be explained by the physicians’ (non-)affiliation to a company. This study shows the necessity for further research that bridges the gap between collective/institutional and individual/practice-level contestation surrounding an illness category.

This study shows the way to share experiences which Hansen’s disease sufferers have. Here, dark tourism as one of the activities for sharing Hansen’s disease sufferers’ experiences in Kalaupapa and National Sanatorium Oshimaseishoen, which are extremely isolated, was focused on. Dark tourism is presented around “death.” In addition, dark tourism can provide not only the places where we interact with Hansen’s disease sufferers but also new communications beyond the border of tourism. In conclusion, it is important to consider dark tourism from both “death” and “life” viewpoints, without any typification of people, that is, without any abstraction from the diversity of people’s existence.

This study aimed at identifying the experiences of nurses working in muscular dystrophy’s ward by examining nurses’ narratives. Data were collected using unstructured interviews and were analyzed using a descriptive phenomenological method. The following four themes emerged: “learning from the lived experiences of patients,” “creating habitual practices,” “being oriented toward discovering new possibilities for patients,” and “passive care and active care.” Nurses’ narratives suggested that MS ward patients’ lives, while eventually becoming lives confined to bed and dependent on assistance, were lives open and interested in new possibilities thanks to the care that arose from the various relationships with their nurses with whom they had developed their relationships of consideration.

This study elucidates the current situation and the challenges faced by DV victim support organizations. Moreover, it investigates the support situations provided by nurses that may be considered as desirable. Three focus group interviews were conducted with the supporters of the victims. The second interviews focusing on the DV victims’ narration revealed the following: 1) DV victimization from the experiences faced by the victim; 2) correspondence relation of the treatment provided by the hospital depending on the victim’s situation; 3) importance of providing support to isolated victims; 4) Change of the recognition for the DV and opinions in medical settings. Because DV victims are disconnected from social relationships, they become isolated. Therefore, sympathetic support to these victims becomes necessary. Nurses should bear in mind that DV victims have many unidentified problems (characterized as a symptom). Therefore, in nursing, getting involved in medical examinations and speaking with DV victims are important.