일본에서의 감정노동과 멘탈헬스대책에 관한 연구 - 일본에서의 돌봄노동의 사례를 중심으로 -

This paper aims to consider the relations between emotional labor and mental health in Japan. By focusing on the case of elder care work as emotional labor, this paper tries to understand how emotional labor is conducted and how workers who manage emotional labor come to face emotional difficulties. With the development of a service-based society, emotional labor has become an imperative duty in diverse service sectors that are based on interpersonal relationships. While managing their emotional labor, workers feel job-related emotional difficulties for various reasons, and this leads to an increase in the number of workers who have mental health difficulties. Although many Japanese workers have been experiencing mental health problems, it is not easy for them to get worker’s compensation to acknowledge their mental health problems and provide help. Nonetheless, compared to the past, the number of workers’ compensation claims is sharply increasing; thus, by improving relevant legislation and measures, the Japanese government’s policies are catching up to the actual situation that Japanese workers face and try to swim with the current of the stream. Therefore, this paper points out the importance of workers’ mental health issues due to emotional labor and suggests preventive and supportive measures for workers who are experiencing mental health difficulties. Through this research, I hope this paper can provide a rich and timely contribution to emotional labor research and help the public understand the importance of workers’ mental health problems.