Greetings

Yasuhiro Koga
President, Japan Psychoanalytic Society

Thank you for visiting the official website of the Japan Psychoanalytic Society, or JPS.

In June 2025, I was elected President of this Society, succeeding past president Dr. Naoki Fujiyama. I am honored to extend my greetings to you from this new post, in which I will be serving for the next three years.

Psychoanalysis, established by Sigmund Freud from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, is a method, a theory and a mode of treatment for understanding the mind. Since then, it has built up a long history and made dramatic strides in three major areas of the world: in Europe and in North and South America. In recent years, it has also been spreading rapidly in Asia: in 2024, the Asia-Pacific Psychoanalytic Confederation, or APPC, was established, with the goal of making Asia the fourth major region for psychoanalysis.

The Japan Psychoanalytic Society, comprising a group of psychoanalysts, is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association, or the IPA, an organization established in 1910 by Sigmund Freud. Since its founding in 1955 by psychiatrist Heisaku Kosawa, the JPS has played a key role in developing and spreading psychoanalysis in Japan.

Believing that our most important duty is to pass psychoanalysis on to subsequent generations, we engage, first and foremost, in educating and fostering psychoanalysts. As an organ for executing this mission, we run the Institute of Psychoanalysis where we offer training programs that comply with the international standards set forth by the IPA. The institute has two branches: one in Tokyo and the other in Fukuoka. To respond to diverse clinical fields, moreover, in 2019, the JPS established the JPS Allied Centre for Psychotherapists, dedicated to fostering candidates who become certified under this original qualification.

We also carry out academic activities both inside and outside Japan. Domestically, in 2024, we expanded the scale of our scientific meeting, which had hitherto been closed to JPS members only, and made it an open event, inviting participation from clinicians in general. Internationally, besides making presentations at IPA-sponsored congresses and contributing papers and articles to the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, we cooperate with the IPA and various organizations in the Asia-Pacific region including China, South Korea, Taiwan, India and Australia to continuously hold academic meetings. As part of these efforts, we co-hosted, alongside the IPA, the IPA Asia-Pacific Psychoanalytic Conference 2018 Tokyo. Based on these scientific activities and striving to disseminate our country’s psychoanalysis to the rest of the world, we publish each year an online edition of the Journal of the Japan Psychoanalytic Society, an English-language academic journal.

We also engage in various activities, aimed to make psychoanalysis take hold and expand further in Japan. One such effort is the maintenance and promotion of cooperative relationships with various groups and organizations related to psychoanalysis, such as the Japan Psychoanalytical Association and the Kodera Memorial Foundation of Psychoanalytic Study. We also hold public lectures, among other programs, and promote the publication of books by JPS-member clinicians that are designed to enlighten and raise public awareness.

The current global situation shows increased destabilization of the international order; widening of economic disparities; tightening of the supply and demand of natural resources, energy and food; acceleration of global warming; increased natural disasters; and loss of biodiversity. These challenges intertwine in a complex fashion, creating an increasingly uncertain and anxious daily life. It is precisely under these circumstances that we are poised to serve you as a group of specialists who have undergone rigorous training. We will continue to keep our hopes high and do our best to support and promote your mental well-being. Thank you for your continued support.