Japanese doctoral students’ stress: Main findings from a national survey in 2017

Abstract

This study is mainly concerned with an analysis of what stress Japanese doctoral students face and how universities they belong to could provide better support for them, and help them to overcome their stress. The study employs the data from a national survey of doctoral students at Japanese research universities in 2017. In addition to a general description of their overall stress, four variables of gender, discipline, age and sector of universities are used to explore their perceptions of stress. The study argues that a vast majority of Japanese doctoral students suffered from stress in various aspects. Although some findings based on the case study of Japan are not consistent with previous research such as gender differences in stress, some match with existing research in terms of disciplinary differences and age differences in stress.