Roughly 50% of all lifetime mental disorders initially arise in adolescence. Furthermore, approximately 20% of children and adolescents are affected by mental health problems worldwide. Nevertheless, most of those experiencing mental health problems do not seek help or receive mental healthcare when needed. Studies of mental health literacy show that stigma and discrimination toward mental illness and a concerted lack of mental health literacy among adolescents, parents and school teachers are the main barriers to students' help-seeking behaviour. Moreover, it is known that stigma attitudes begin to form during childhood and adolescence and that mental health literacy education is effective in terms of decreasing existing stigma among students. Under these circumstances, the importance of mental health literacy education has been widely recognised worldwide. School mental health programmes as proposed by the World Health Organization emphasise that a whole-school framework should be developed which is inclusive of all members of a given school community to improve both students' mental health and general wellbeing. Consequently, it is commonly advocated mental health literacy education and anti-stigma interventions should be targeted at the whole school community, including students, teachers and parents. In Western countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia, school-based mental health literacy education is widely implemented on a nation-wide level to promote mental health literacy among students and teachers while aiming to reduce mental health-related stigma which can lead to a delay in help-seeking behaviour by students who have mental health problems. In these countries, mental health education for primary school students focuses on help-seeking skills, strategies for managing stress and negative emotions and how to deal with negative relationships including bullying. In secondary education, students have opportunities to gain knowledge about mental health-related stigma and specific mental disorders such as depression, eating disorders, psychotic disorders and substance use disorders. Along with placing mental health education in the school curriculum, nation-wide anti-stigma campaigns have been extensively implemented in Western countries, targeted at the general public, students, teachers and healthcare workers, using contact or education-based approaches shown to be effective in reducing mental health-related stigma. The implementation of mental health literacy education and anti-stigma interventions focused on the whole school community including teachers, parents as well as students may be recommended in Japan to promote students' better mental health and wellbeing.
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