Report on the Trauma Reporting Study Group for 2025

Michiko Kawahara (Project Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)

・Meeting Dates: ㉗May 10, 2025; ㉘June 1, 2025; ㉙July 6, 2025; ㉚ November 1, 2025; ㉛ February 14, 2026
・Venues: ㉗–㉙ Zoom Meeting
㉚Room 92B, Engineering Building 2, The University of Tokyo (commonly known as the “Sky Presentation Room”)
㉛Fukutake Learning Theater, Fukutake Hall, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo
・Languages: Japanese & English
・Chair: Michiko Kawahara (Project Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)

The Trauma Reporting Study Group concluded its five years of activity in the 2025 academic year, during which it held regular study sessions as well as a symposium. In August 2025, thirteen members who volunteered to take part—including Kawahara—visited Australia as an extension of the study group’s work and participated in a four‑day intensive training program on Trauma‑Informed Journalism conducted by the Dart Centre Asia Pacific (DCAP), further strengthening their ties with the Centre.

Meetings 27 to 29 were held online. In Meetings 27 and 28, members presented on the Korean Journalist Trauma Guidebook and a survey of journalists, followed by discussion. Meeting 29 introduced the findings of the international study The Chilling: A Global Study of Online Violence Against Women Journalists (2022) and reviewed a Japanese translation of Five Tips Protecting Yourself Against TFTBV (2024), a resource created by DCAP to help journalists protect themselves from technology‑facilitated, gender‑based violence.

The Japanese translation of the “Five Tips” was completed in March 2026, following the DCAP training in August, and was shared with the Centre for Journalism and Trauma Asia Pacific (CJT), formerly the Dart Centre Asia Pacific (name changed in November 2025).

Meeting 30 was held in person. We invited Professor Yutaka Matsui, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tsukuba (social psychology), and held a study session on disaster reporting and journalists’ stress.

The concluding symposium, Toward Trauma‑Informed Journalism Practice, was held in a hybrid format, both in person and online. The symposium consisted of two parts, with Part I featuring a lecture by Amantha Perera, Director and Consultant at CJT, titled “Get me my Digital Flak Jacket!”

Part II consisted of reports. Associate Professor Lee Misook of Otsuma Women’s University presented “The impact on journalists covering trauma — Findings from a Japan–Korea survey.” This was followed by reports from the “Association of Journalists in Japan Learning about Trauma Reporting,” formed by members who participated in the training in Australia, titled “Report on the Australia Training” and “Our Declaration.”

Including those who viewed the recordings afterward, approximately 200 people registered for the event. Participants represented an even broader range of professions than before—not only journalists and researchers, but also lawyers, nurses, social workers, and others.

In addition, the Japanese translation of the first book the study group read, Trauma Reporting: A Journalist’s Guide to Covering Sensitive Stories (UK), titled トラウマを聴く前に　知っておきたい10のこと—当事者の声と取材者の実践, edited and translated by members of the study group with their contributions, is scheduled to be published by Iwanami Shoten at the end of March.