Responsibility frame for depression in Japanese newspapers: a content analysis

Using quantitative content analysis, we explored how Japanese newspapers framed causal and solution responsibility for depression and whether they attributed more responsibility to individuals or society. The longitudinal changes in framing were also examined. Articles referring to depression were selected from the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun, and the Mainichi Shimbun, which are nationwide daily newspapers published in Japan between 1993 and 2022. A sample of 980 articles was included in the study. Causal and solution responsibilities were manually coded according to whether they were mentioned at the individual or societal levels. We found that articles attributing causal responsibility to society (62%) outnumbered those attributing it to individuals (24%), driven overwhelmingly by attributions to the workplace (43%). Conversely, solution responsibility remained largely individualized (63%), focusing on medicalized subcategory of personality and health condition changes (54%). In terms of longitudinal change, the proportion of articles attributing solution responsibility to society increased in the second decade of the study compared with the first decade, reflecting key societal and legislative milestones. Although previous studies on responsibility frames in the medical health field have often noted a tendency to attribute causal responsibility to individuals rather than to society, we found that Japan was characterized by a large proportion of articles attributing causal responsibility for depression to society.