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Japan Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Japan Times
Experts warn of 'June syndrome' among children in Japan
Experts are warning about what is known as "June syndrome," or mental and physical distress due to accumulated fatigue over the two months since the beginning of April, when many people in Japan start new jobs or schools. For children, the stress from environmental changes after entering new schools or moving up a grade may lead to their refusal to attend lessons. Experts are calling on people not to miss children's signs of trouble, especially as they get more prone to suffer autonomic imbalance during the rainy season that tends to begin in June. Much like the better-known May syndrome, or May blues, June syndrome is a general term for mental and physical disorders and is medically classified as adjustment disorder. Common symptoms include inability to get up in the morning, insomnia, headaches, abdominal pain, dizziness, nausea, malaise and loss of appetite. According to the education ministry, the number of students who refuse to attend elementary or junior high schools totaled a record 346,482 in the 2023 academic year through March 2024. Although there is no monthly data on the start of children's refusal to go to school, many say that June syndrome is behind the increase in truancy. Akira Saito, 55, head of a pediatric clinic in Yokohama and an expert in children's mental health, said that he has an impression that the number of children who refuse to go to school increases in June. Saito noted the importance of noticing changes in children before symptoms appear, saying, "I hope people take notice of slight changes, such as when children stop talking about school or when they look less energetic than usual." Regarding what to do when such changes are seen, he emphasized the importance of "waiting for children to start talking about their problems by themselves" while increasing conversation on topics such as hobbies, rather than asking them about their issues directly. If children continue to act in unusual ways, measures should be taken as soon as possible, including consulting with teachers and school counselors and visiting medical institutions, he said.
Japan Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
98% of new graduates in Japan are able to land jobs
The employment rate for March 2025 graduates of higher educational institutions stood at 98% as of April 1, the second highest on record, Japanese government data showed Friday. The rate, only 0.1 percentage point shy of the current all-time high, marked a year earlier, tied with those for 2018 and 2020 graduates, according to the data, compiled jointly by the education and labor ministries. "Now that damage from the COVID crisis is almost gone, companies are eager to hire (fresh graduates)," a labor ministry official said. Continued pay hikes on top of serious manpower shortages were also attributed to the high employment figure. The data showed more specifically that, of the recent graduates who landed jobs, men accounted for 97.6% and women 98.5% while earners of humanities degrees made up 98.2% and those of science degrees 97.3%. The two ministries jointly conducted the employment situation survey on 6,250 randomly picked job-seeking students who graduated in March from 112 national and private universities, colleges and other higher educational institutions. The survey also found that the job placement rate for university graduates in Kanto came highest by region at 98.7%.
