I Have Become a Director and a Council Member (JES Newsletter [vol.201] 2025.10.14. From Mr. Enomoto's Random Diary)

This time, we are reprinting a column that our company president, Masami Enomoto, writes for the JES Newsletter every six months.

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Mr. Enomoto's Random Diary ── I Have Become a Director and a Council Member
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Hello everyone. This is Enomoto from JES.
I write this random column in April and October.

Before I knew it, there were less than three months left in 2025. I hope you have all been doing well. This year's intense heat was severe, and there were days when I felt dizzy just from going out for a little while, but I managed to get through it safely by making use of shaved ice and cold baths at home (just leftover bathwater).

Now, as for recent events, the establishment of the "Mental Health Investment Promotion Consortium" (General Incorporated Association) can be mentioned. Professor Norito Kawakami, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, serves as the Representative Director, and since I participated in the study groups before its establishment, I continue to be involved in the capacity of a founder and director. The symposium planned by the Mental Health Investment Consortiumwas held on Friday, October 10, which is World Mental Health Day.

There were multiple talks about the initiatives of various companies, and each one was very interesting and educational. Professor Kawakami's comment in response to them was, "The matching of management issues and measures is excellent. They are concentrating management resources on the issues." You may already be doing this, but I felt once again that this very process of examining the extraction of issues and the matching of measures is important for making mental health measures a "mental health investment."

When it comes to mental health measures, we must move away from the idea that they are things to do "when you get sick" or "to prevent you from getting sick," or initiatives where zero loss is the highest point of achievement, and show that they are things that create more pluses. We must link them to management issues and show why we are doing them (purpose/meaning) and what happened as a result of doing them (change/effect). While these things have been said for a long time, it can be said that they are becoming more required and that more companies are actually putting them into practice.

Honestly, I feel that what we EAP and mental health experts are required to do in our practical work, such as consultations and training, has not changed that much from before. However, even if what we are doing is the same, if the meaning and significance change, the way top management, managers, and employees receive them and their attitude toward them will change; that is motivation. This is also theoretically natural.

The other day, I participated in a safety and health meeting at a certain company, and at that meeting, the president said to the employees using psychological concepts, "As a public institution of society, as long as we are entrusted with human resources, not causing illness or injury is the minimum. Just as interest is added when you borrow money, if we are entrusted with human resources, we must make them grow and play an active role. Mental health measures should aim for that, and psychological safety is important for flow experiences and job satisfaction."

Such an attitude and remarks from the top become a message that "mental health is the foundation for playing an active role in your own way," and I think it encourages active participation in training and casual consultation with EAP. While my heart is filled with expectations that so-called primary prevention initiatives will progress at that company, I also realized the importance and power of top-down messages.

The term "psychological safety" is even quietly included in the entry examples of this year's Health & Productivity Management Survey, and I think there are more materials to convey the importance of primary prevention initiatives to top management. However, at the same time, I think that at the field level, thorough secondary prevention (early detection) and tertiary prevention (prevention of recurrence/adverse effects) are often the priority. I hope you will extract the future issues and current troubles of your companies, share these issues with top management, and promote various activities and the use of EAP as an investment for corporate growth.

What becomes important in that process is the confirmation of effects. The above-mentioned consortium places importance on demonstrating the effects of mental health services, and I think that service providers will be expected to not only present qualitative effects such as the voices of corporate representatives through interviews, but also to clarify effects from a more quantitative perspective in the future.

As the next event for the Mental Health Investment Promotion Consortium, there will be a study session on Tuesday, November 18. It will be held in person in Tokyo, so please consider it if you would like. I will also participate and learn.

Lastly, our company ran for a seat as a first-class council member of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and as a result of the great support from everyone, we were able to get elected. I would like to express my gratitude once again to all the companies that cooperated with us. Thank you very much.

If participating in the above-mentioned consortium is a participation in initiatives aimed at improving the quality of mental health services and public relations to society, I thought that council member activities at the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry would be an opportunity to deliver voices to top management of companies, the administration, and the government.

I feel like I am stepping into an area beyond my means, but I believe that the further development of workplace mental health measures will lead to the happiness of each and every working person, and I would like to do my best as a company and as an individual.

I would be happy if you would continue to make full use of (work us hard) JES for health management and mental health investment. Thank you for your continued support.