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Gaming to Raise Awareness about Mental Health

How one retro gamer used his Twitch channel to support TELL “I love to sail… oh my god King Merman!” Sea monsters appear on the screen and are quickly defeated by Alex Fraioli on Dragon Quest III. Alex is streaming his video game adventure on Twitch, a live streaming platform where users can stream content […]

Suicide Prevention Month in Japan

March is Suicide Prevention Month in Japan. March is a time of great transition: the end of the school year, the time to interview for new jobs, and a time when reports are due, contracts signed, and taxes filed. It’s a stressful period for many and is typically the month in Japan with the highest […]

International Women’s Day 2023

The mental health impact of COVID-19 in Japan is not pretty. Especially for women in Japan, the statistics are sobering. In 2020, there was a surge in suicide by women in Japan. One of the reasons cited for this is the large number of non-regular (part-time) female workers, who were “forced into poverty due to being […]

Fifty Years With You

With the start of February, we are just eight weeks away from the start of our year long 50th anniversary celebration! As we enter our 50th year, we wish to pay tribute to so many of you – our superheroes – who have helped to make TELL the great organization that it is. We hope […]

Sexual Assault and Violence Awareness

February marks sexual assault and violence awareness month in a number of countries. With the recent death of Miki Kawado on Jan 16, stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend on her way home from work despite a restraining order, and the dismissal of five male Ground Self Defense Force members in December for sexual harassment […]

Celebrating 50 Years of Community Mental Health Support

Since 1973, every day without fail for 50 years, the TELL Lifeline has been here supporting individuals in need, providing connection and a caring voice, working to prevent suicide,  offering practical support, and linking people to services. As we step into 2023, we are excited to celebrate our 50th anniversary, which has only been possible […]

Blue Monday

On Monday, January 24, 2005, a press release was issued stating that a formula had been developed that could identify the most depressing day of the year. The formula takes into account a variety of factors including weather, financial debt, the time since Christmas, the time since New Year’s Resolutions were broken, and motivation. The […]

Welcome Royanne Doi to TELL

Tokyo English Lifeline (TELL) announced today the appointment of Royanne Doi as Executive Director, effective immediately. Having volunteered her time and expertise as a strategic advisor to the Board and Management team of TELL since August 2022, the Board approved Ms. Doi’s appointment to officially lead the organization to its next stage of development and […]

An Anchor For The Community: Our Lifeline Volunteers

To mark this year’s International Volunteer Day, we reached out to our lifeline support workers and asked them to share a little bit of their experience. The people we spoke to come from different countries, have different educational backgrounds and occupations and are at different stages in their lives, yet at times it felt like […]

Spring 2023 Lifeline Support Worker Training

The end of the year is approaching and you might be thinking about goals you want to set for 2023, skills you want to develop, or ways you can give back to the community. If so, the Spring Lifeline Support Worker Training might be a good fit for you! Do you want to work on your […]

November 19th is Child Abuse Prevention Day

The more awareness we have as a society and as individuals, the more we can each do to prevent ongoing and future child abuse.  There are different types of child abuse, some of which are listed below: Physical abuse – this includes intentionally physically harming a child or using excessive force when physically disciplining. (Though […]