The Japan DMORT Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team was established in July 2017. It provides support to bereaved families from the early acute phase at mortuaries under police jurisdiction. In response to the "2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake" that occurred in Ishikawa Prefecture on January 1st of 2024, DMORT was able to begin operations on the fourth day after the disaster, with the approval of the Ishikawa Prefectural Police. DMORT dispatched members to two mortuaries within the affected region, with operations running from January 4th to 14th. Over the 11-day period, 12 members including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and others were involved, with a total of 56 shifts. Since all lifelines were cut off, the team had to operate in a self-sufficient manner. The two mortuaries handled a total of 126 cases, and each group provided support to bereaved families for three days. This decision to limit interactions to three days helped maintain the mental and physical well-being of the support team. Furthermore, good communication between team members was crucial to the operation. Daily defusing sessions were held among the team after each day's activities. Additionally, throughout the operation, online meetings between the two local sites and the backup support teams allowed for information sharing, which provided emotional support for the members.

The Noto Peninsula earthquake occurred on January 1, 2024, and the northern Noto region was severely damaged. Local medical institutions and long-term care facilities were severely degraded in terms of human and material resources. Infectious diseases spread in evacuation centers. In order to reduce the burden on hospitals and nursing care facilities and to prevent disaster-related deaths, inpatients and facility residents were evacuated to remote areas. People with disabilities and chronic illnesses were also encouraged to evacuate to remote areas, and up to 5,000 people were evacuated to remote areas. Ishikawa Prefectural Hospital of Mental Health is a disaster base psychiatric hospital and actively accepted inpatients during the acute period after the disaster. This presentation will describe the status of hospitalization at this hospital, problems that arose during the evacuation to remote areas, DPAT activities, and future prospects.

After the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) dispatched emergency school counselors (government-dispatched SCs) to provide support to elementary and junior high schools in three cities and towns in the severely damaged Okunoto region (Suzu-shi, Wajima-shi, and Noto-cho). Four organizations collaborated in this support activity: MEXT, the Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education,the Japan Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists-the Japan Association of Certified Psychologists Joint Disaster Support Commitee, and the Ishikawa Prefectural Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists. We introduced the background on the disaster to the dispatch of government-assigned SCs, psychological support according to the disaster phase, support systems, and psychological support activities in schools. Current issues and prospects are discussed from the perspectives of (1) a system for dispatching emergency SCs, (2) support coordination in school crisis situations, and (3) medium- to long-term support systems.

The Noto Peninsula Earthquake that struck on January 1st, 2024, had a strong impact on the whole of Japan. As it occurred on New Year's Day, it was difficult to respond immediately. Then, on September 21st, 2024, a linear precipitation zone occurred in the Okunoto region, and heavy rain once again hit Noto. Houses were flooded, and even the temporary housing was flooded. The damage was immense, continuing from the Noto earthquake to the Noto torrential rains. In the Noto earthquake, the Disaster Psychiatric Assistance Team（DPAT）was dispatched from the early, acute phase in January, and was involved in mental and psychological support. It is necessary to build a system to relieve the mental distress of disaster victims from the acute phase of the disaster to the medium- to long-term. In addition, the supporters who were helping the disaster victims were also strongly affected by traumatic stress, so there was a need for a system and operation to support the supporters. We thought that, in addition to general psychiatric clinical skills, psychiatrists involved in disaster response should also have prior learning in the following areas: outreach, inter-professional collaboration, team building, relaxation skills, infectious disease response, occupational mental health response skills, and an understanding of governmental systems.

This review provides a systematic overview of the meta-analytic evidence for digital interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was found that tele-psychotherapy using video calls or telephone is robustly non-inferior to face-to-face therapy in improving PTSD symptoms. Although the evidence for group therapy conducted remotely is less robust than that for individual formats, its effectiveness is not inferior to face-to-face psychotherapy. Digital mental health interventions delivered via web applications or mobile apps significantly improved PTSD symptoms compared to waiting-list or usual care groups, especially when the interventions were based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The combined use of face-to-face treatment and digital interventions did not yield conclusive results regarding their effectiveness for PTSD.

Thirteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the reconstruction of the affected areas, particularly in Fukushima Prefecture after the nuclear power plant accident, faces many challenges while it progresses. This article reviews the reconstruction process of the Fukushima disaster and discusses current issues, mainly focusing on the activities of the Fukushima Center for Disaster Mental Health (FCDMH), a large-scale support organization dealing with mental health issues. In the evacuation areas, while the return of evacuees has not progressed, the number of relocated residents not experiencing the disaster has increased rapidly, and there is an unexpected, solid movement to form new communities. As resources to provide mental health support, including psychiatric institutions, are still scarce, the role of the FCDMH will continue to be significant. As the issues of supporting evacuated people and revitalizing affected communities are now diverging, the question is how to provide flexible, sustainable support from a long-term perspective.

To examine stress prevention measures for Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) personnel, we reviewed the literature, mainly from Japan and the U.S., on stress and prevention measures experienced by soldiers and JSDF personnel in the U.S. and other armed forces. As a result, a vast amount of empirical research has been accumulated, especially for the U.S. military, and it was clarified that with regard to war-related PTSD, the cumulative effects of daily stress from deployment to post-discharge were more significant than those of high-intensity combat stress. On the other hand, countermeasures were implemented mainly with trauma-focused treatment that assumed high-intensity stress, but the results did not fall below the PTSD diagnostic criteria, indicating the need for combined use with trauma-defocused treatment and psychosocial approaches. In addition to preventive measures against “cumulative low-intensity stress,” the JSDF has recently emphasized the need to consider high-intensity stress. For this purpose, it was considered important to accumulate social capital inside and outside the organization on a daily basis, which at the same time could be a measure to reduce “barriers to care”.