Paging Dr. Szasz: Japan Succumbs to Infectious Wave of Mental Illness

And they've caught it from the capitalist West. The Japanese Mental Health Institute, a government agency, fingers merit pay and promotion, at odds with the traditional Japanese seniority system, for causing growing stress and mental illness and also leading to shrinking population growth. The individualization caused by adopting more American and British style work environments is also blamed by the Mental Health Institute for causing "mental turmoil"–"When people worked in teams they were happier."