Perspectives on Salutogenesis of Scholars Writing in Japanese

Research on salutogenesis and sense of coherence in Japan started between 1998 and 2001 with translations of Antonovsky’s work and the creation of a Japanese language version of the 29-item seven-point scale and a 13-item short version. These were later developed into a 13-item, five-point scale, the original three-item scale, and a scale for children. Since 2003, as Yamazaki and his colleagues have continued to promote sense of coherence research in Japan, original papers that included sense of coherence and the related terms as keywords have dramatically increased. Approximately 300 papers have been published in the last 11 years. Sixty percent of these studies used sense of coherence as an independent variable, and 20 % as a dependent variable. Seventy-five percent were cross-sectional studies, 10 % follow-up studies, and 8 % qualitative studies. As many as 103 studies were awarded the Japanese government Grant-in-Aid. Fifteen doctoral dissertations in Japan also had these keywords. The research participants were drawn from wide ranging population categories such as the general population, patients, workers, students, the elderly, children, and families. The research themes can be divided into “factors related to the formation and improvement of sense of coherence,” “associations between sense of coherence and health and health behavior,” “stress coping function of sense of coherence,” and “support and improvement strategies for sense of coherence.” For the future, we hope to see research topics such as “investigation of sense of coherence factors and support and improvement strategies,” “investigation of sense of coherence functions, effects, and mechanisms,” “deepening the theoretical foundation of sense of coherence and the salutogenic model,” and “applications of salutogenesis and sense of coherence to new areas.”