Department & Member
Message from the Director
The term "well-being" has become commonplace in recent years, yet its usage varies significantly across contexts, resulting in an ambiguous definition. The preamble of the World Health Organization (WHO) Constitution (1948) defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." Additionally, the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) emphasizes the importance of promoting well-being for all ages. Given its global significance, there is no doubt that well-being is a vital concept to pursue beyond national borders.
Although often linked with health, well-being is not solely defined by it. While health is undoubtedly important, the absence of disease does not necessarily equate to high levels of well-being. For instance, an individual who avoids leaving their house due to the fear of contracting infectious diseases may not fall ill, but may not necessarily have a high level of well-being.
In Japan, the term "well-being" is often translated as kōfuku (happiness); however, individual happiness-seeking may not result in a society with a high level of well-being. For example, some individuals still suffer from poverty and hunger, while others waste vast amounts of food. The WHO Housing and Health Guideline (2018) recommends heating the entire house, as temperature differences between rooms in winter are detrimental to health, but heating the entire house consumes energy, which, in turn, exacerbates global warming, which has caused extreme weather conditions. Therefore, pursuing individual happiness at the expense of others and the environment may ultimately lead to the deterioration of the natural environment.
The pursuit of individual well-being necessitates a balanced approach that considers the well-being of society and the environment in which humans reside. Today, in an era where no optimal solution for humanity and the environment is apparent, it is crucial to question and challenge the status quo to achieve a more sustainable and equitable future.
Center Director Keiko Katagiri
Department & Member
Health Research DivisionHealth Research Division
Health is a universal quest for humanity, and lies at the core of the achievement of well-being.This research area is led mainly by researchers specializing in health sciences, the academic discipline studying how to keep people in good health, who are engaged in accumulating knowledge and developing technologies that are foundational to health.
Our Members
Deputy Center Director and Head of the Health Research Division
Hideki Moriyama
Specialties: Health science, rehabilitation science, physiotherapy science
Research Topics: It is well known that exercise is good for health, and many people put this into practice. However, surprisingly little is known about why exercise is good for health, and whether it can prevent or improve disease irrespective of its type and location. I am engaged in research to elucidate these questions, ranging from basic to clinical research.
Atsue Ishii
Specialties: Nursing skills/nursing education
Research topics: Performing the right sort of nursing care to assure the well-being of patients receiving medical treatment and care is important. Many different types of nursing care are provided in real-world nursing settings, and these are performed in accordance with the patient’s condition. As well as the satisfaction of patients and their families, the quantitative evaluation of the care being implemented is important. My research focuses on what aspects of the condition of the patient receiving care should be measured, and how; how to measure nurses’ skills; and how best to utilize these.
Yuma Sonoda
Specialties: Neuropathology, rehabilitation science, occupational therapy educational practice
Research topics: Dementia, cerebral stroke, intractable neurological disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple system atrophy, and Parkinson disease), and chronic pain (shoulder stiffness, back pain, and headache) are most common in older people, and I am engaged in well-being research with the objective of developing rehabilitation techniques to prevent the deterioration of or improve the physical, mental, and financial health, quality of life, and labor productivity of such people with brain lesions and those who are at risk of them.
Development Research Division
The life expectancy of Japanese has increased by more than 30 years in the past 70 years, and Japan has become one of the countries with the longest life expectancy in the world. In the Development Research Division, we use various methods, including surveys, experiments, and longitudinal studies to investigate the characteristics of well-being and the factors that influence well-being at each stage of the lifespan. Our goal is to achieve well-being for each generation through social implementation of our research findings in collaboration with industry-academia- government-citizen collaboration.
Our Members
Center Director
Keiko Katagiri
Specialties: Social gerontology, social psychology
Research Topics: Recently, the idea of the 100-year lifespan is starting to become a reality. However, the rapid extension of longevity is leaving both society as a whole and individuals confused about how they should be living. The healthy “senior” years following retirement are known as the “third age,” and how to spend this period is key to a happy old age. I am engaged in research on work and social participation in this third age, the nature of social engagement with citizens’ participation, and recruitment and social systems to support such engagement.
Deputy Center Director and Head of the Development Research Division
Kouhei Masumoto
Specialties: Cognitive psychology, gerontology
Research Topics: What can we do to adapt to the weakening of cognitive function that comes with aging? What is important for staying happy until the end of life? I am conducting research with the goal of answering these questions, from both the cognitive perspective of memory, emotion, and decision-making and the social perspective of relationships with other people.
Kazuhiro Harada
Specialties: Health and sports theory, geriatric behavioral science
Research Topics: The importance of habitual exercise for becoming and staying healthy is already widely known. However, despite the saying that persistence pays off, exercise is one of those things that most people fail to stick with, like keeping a diary, studying English, or going to bed and getting up early. Why are so many people unable to make a habit of exercise? What do they need to do to be able to keep it going? I am engaged in research to answer these questions, mainly with respect to older people.
Environmental Research Division
A good environment is essential to human well-being, but “visualization”, i.e., appropriate quantification and economic valuation, is difficult and has yet to be achieved enough. This hinders the “mainstreaming”, i.e., policy and institution making, due to the difficulty of political consensus formation for environmental conservation. In the environmental research division, we carry out theoretical and experimental studies of the impact of the environment on human well- being. In addition, we identify the value and significance of its conservation, then try to implement them in society by reflecting the value of the environment in policies and institutions.
Our Members
Head of the Environmental Research Division
Masayuki Sato
Specialty: Environmental economics
Research Topics: Many environmental issues are caused by human economic activity. Analyzing the economic mechanisms whereby these environmental issues occur will be helpful for their resolution. However, research in the natural sciences is essential for the recognition and understanding of environmental issues, and research in the human sciences is indispensable for understanding the people who are engaged in economic activity. An interdisciplinary approach thus becomes essential. I am therefore actively engaged in joint research with researchers in other related fields.
Masanori Kameoka
Specialties: Virology, international health science
Research Topics: Even with today’s highly developed medical technology, infectious diseases are still one of the major causes of death worldwide. In tropical and subtropical developing countries, their impact is particularly severe. The COVID-19 pandemic of the past few years has demonstrated that the appearance of new infectious diseases has a major effect on human society. I am engaged in research on pathogenic viruses that cause infectious diseases, both basis research to analyze matters including their replication mechanisms and molecular epidemiological research to investigate the status of the appearance of drug-resistant viruses in endemic regions.
Atsuhiko Uchida
Specialty: Social psychology
Research topics: The foundations underlying our ability to lead happy everyday lives include many things that we take for granted, including public facilities and systems, private services, and the environment. Among these, Japan is one of the world’s weakest nations in terms of “social capital,” meaning the network of relationships of people who trust and help each other. I am engaged in multidisciplinary research on how we can build these invisible social foundations in the places where we live and work, and attempting to put this into practice in a cross-sectoral way.
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