This paper examines various issues related to COVID-19 from the perspective of medical sociology, with a particular focus on surveillance. The social burden of disease is not only determined by biomedical factors, but is greatly influenced by cultural, social, and economic backgrounds and disparities. This “syndemic” perspective is also important in COVID-19, and biomedical strategies including vaccines and social distancing should be relativized. Here, we analyze the impact of social distancing in COVID-19 pandemic on society as two models of intervention: lockdown and monitoring surveillance. In particular, monitoring surveillance was analyzed from the perspectives of (1) surveillance of the digital data rather than the body (dataveillance), (2) substantial inclusion of society by digital surveillance (surveillance culture), and (3) active involvement of the target subjects in surveillance (self-tracking).

On February 3 of 2000, the author was requested by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to be involved in the initial response to COVID-19 countermeasures. The purpose of this paper is to describe and share my personal experiences of several governmental expert advisory bodies. There were serious challenges; the relationship between the experts and the government, the first operation of the Act on Special Measures against Novel Influenza etc., discrimination against infected people and health care workers, risk of privacy violation on the infected people by press releases of local governments and mass media reporting, and the difficulty in collecting and analyzing epidemiological data and clinical information. For the next countermeasure against emerging infectious diseases, I hope that a mechanism can be established to allow the humanities and social sciences communities to discuss pressing issues from the initial whirlwind stage of the crisis, and then suggest their recommendations immediately to policy makers.

This study aimed to clarify the structure of their nursing practice from the experience of nurses working in a psychiatric ward with long-term hospitalized patients. The results of this study show that the interaction between nurses and patients was described with the following themes: “standing by the patient,” “approving of the patient,” “becoming family members of the patient,” and “waiting for the patient at the ward.” Such nursing practice comprised nurses’ deep understanding of patients, a mutual understanding between other professionals, and response from patients. It was considered that nursing practice reflecting the above themes is important as it constitutes the foundation of nursing activities and helped patients recover from psychiatric illnesses.

It is known that patients whose symptoms are considered “mild” experience suffering in that they are seen as having an unclear role in their interactions with others, as they are not considered either a “sick/disabled person” or a “healthy person.” However, the factors that cause their suffering have not been adequately examined. The purpose of this paper is to explore how suffering arises in patients who are considered “mild” and examine some of the factors that cause it, considering the narrative of a patient with spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy. The results revealed that present suffering arose from the recall of the past self. It found that “the place” of remembering one’s past self causes suffering.

This article discusses how cancer patients currently participate in group activities in the aftermath of the implementation of the Cancer Control Act. Based on narratives of Mr. B, who leads a lung cancer patient group in Prefecture A, he is deemed as “a person who supports others” in group activities. Additionally, he invites cancer patients and their families to the activities and encourages them to disclose their cancer experiences to the society. His activities are also interpreted as the birth of a social movement with reference to the arguments made about “social movement over medicine.” Accordingly, this article highlights that cancer patients’ group activities may not “always appear visible” and should be the subject of future examination.

This paper focuses on the life practices of mothers who shape their lives with their differently abled children. The narratives of three mothers of children with Down syndrome were used to examine the mothers’ motivations for continuing to take charge of their care.

This is a social process in which mothers acquire the motivation to continue taking care of their children through similar life practices that combine the relationship with the child and the surrounding environment. Care for children in this social process is also one of the life practices to lead a sustainable life.

In Japanese food allergy treatment, complete removal of the causative food is no longer the standard approach to management and the so-called “eat and cure” treatment has been spreading. This paper, based on the narrative of three mothers whose children have food allergies, examines what kind of experience and practice of the mothers is made possible by the encounter with medical knowledge about “eat and cure” treatment. In dual moralities, i.e., the overlap between conventional demand to keep the children safe while awaiting the acquisition of tolerance and the demand for “feeding and curing” the children, the mothers experience not only remission of the children but also horror and vacillation that is not possible under the situation in which removal of the causative food is the standard approach.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the awareness of genetic testing and information in males (fathers) whose children have undergone newborn screening, a genetic test. Newborn screening in Japan began in 1977, which now has become a test that almost all newborns take. Since 2014, a new testing method called Tandem Mass Spectrometry was introduced, increasing the number of diseases that can be detected. Now, we interviewed and analyzed males who had children born in 2014 or later. As a result, the subjects thought finding out their own genetic information was not a problem. However, having more children including the second child was considered to be “women’s choices,” whose reason was “because women are the ones to give birth.” The answers argue that although the issue of genetic information is equivalent, “child delivery” is claimed as an act only females can complete, therefore males themselves avoid making their own decisions.

The nursing profession must fulfil its responsibilities to those in need of nursing care, namely patients and their families. However, it is unclear how nurses perceive their practice responsibilities and how they attempt to fulfil them. This qualitative inductive study used modified grounded theory approach with 15 nurses to clarify the process of how nurses attempt to fulfil their responsibility of practice. The results show that the process of nurses’ responsibility towards practice includes the characteristics of the nursing profession, their role in nursing practice, and the delivery of benefits or the avoidance of disadvantages to patients. It was suggested that the nurse collects the necessary information about the patient for practice, and exercises their authority as a ‘gateway function’ to ensure that the treatment did not interfere with the patient’s daily life. Finally, they seek to assume the obligations of that authority.

For clarifying the development of Japan’s mental health system, while the system functioned as poverty relief for psychiatric patients, the research has not been emphasized. This article focuses on welfare commissioners (hōmen-iin), the supporters of local residents in difficulties with life in 1930s Kyoto, and examines how those commissioners provided poor psychiatric patients with treatment under Poor Relief Act. The result was that after the commissioners found patients in the poor families, who were ‘not needed for confinement,’ the commissioners strived for institutionalization of the patients in order to save them from poverty by the Act. The commissioners’ claim influenced city’s social service policies and eventually helped to set up the institutes for poor psychiatric patients. In conclusion, they were the most contributors of the institutionalization.

A study was conducted to clarify the quality of life (QOL) characteristics of patients with Behçet’s disease participating in Behçet’s disease patient groups. The results revealed significantly higher subjective QOL scores for patients who actively participated in patient groups compared with passive patients. Furthermore, subjective QOL scores were significantly higher for patients satisfied with patient groups compared with those who were dissatisfied. SF-36 summary scores were significantly higher for active participants in patient groups than for passive participants. SF-36 summary scores were also significantly higher for patients satisfied with patient groups than for dissatisfied patients. The aforementioned findings revealed a high QOL for patients with Behçet’s disease who actively participate in and are satisfied with patient groups.