PERSPECTIVES FOR THE EDUCATIONAL COUNSELING AND THE SOLUTION-FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPY IN JAPAN

There are increasing social needs of the educational counseling in Japan, concerning the futures of the school-aged students. A government document by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in 2007 clearly conveys that the problems that students are facing are (including mental health ones) becoming more complex these days. Given the grave situation in schools, Japan is now taking a two-way approach to have school teachers and school counselors work together. Despite that, the strategical approaches in the educational counseling lack in Japan. In this article, the introduction of the evidence-based “solution-focused brief therapy” (SFBT) in the educational counseling is discussed, which would be helpful in treating the students' diverse problems effectually. Although the SFBT has been introduced into Japan since the 1980s, the SFBT-related perspectives in the educational counseling still remain small in the literature. The design of the educational counseling training programs for the school teachers with the SFBT techniques will be of interest in the future.