Message from the Chair

At the General Assembly held in June 2026, I was appointed President of the Japan Academy of Family Nursing. I would like to begin by expressing my deep respect for all those who have powerfully guided and supported the Academy up to this point.

In 2024, our Academy celebrated its 30th anniversary, and the “Grand Design and Priority Issues” presented at that time serve as an important compass for envisioning the future of family nursing. I see it as my mission to carry forward this direction as a solid foundation and to further develop it.

Family nursing regards the care of families as inseparable from the protection of the dignity of each individual living within those families. As long as people live, they face worries, challenges, and moments of stumbling. To remain nursing professionals who can stand alongside families living with such concerns, we must continue to explore the nature of family nursing from multifaceted perspectives.

Furthermore, I believe that clearly establishing places within support systems where families can seek help as families, and developing mechanisms that allow them to actually access such support, will be an important challenge going forward. Creating environments where families can safely and confidently receive assistance will be a significant step toward expanding the value of family nursing throughout society.

Ultimately, our goal is to realize a society where family nursing is the norm—where it is natural for not only patients but also their families to receive nursing care and support as rightful recipients. Together with all our members, we will continue moving toward this next stage.

I sincerely ask for your continued support and cooperation in this term as well.

July 2026
Mari Ikeda

The Japanese Association for Research in Family Nursing (JARFN) was founded in October 1994 when its first academic meeting was held at the University of Tokyo. Since this first meeting, academic meetings have been actively held under unique topics on an annual basis. JARFN started at a time when the area of family nursing was not fully acknowledged within nursing science, and has been making efforts to disseminate the basic concept of reconsidering "family" as the client of nursing care and its practice. At the same time, we are facing a major challenge of positioning the academic area of "family nursing" within nursing science, and systematizing it. Over the course of this attempt, in order to promote the academic activities of members, we began publishing the journal "Japanese Journal of Research in Family Nursing" from 1995. In addition, various committees were established within JARFN to broadly educate members and international activities are taking place through these committees. In 1999, JARFN was registered as an academic society of the Science Council of Japan, and continues to actively participate as a member of the Japan Society of Nursing Science. There are over 1400 members already, and these members are in various areas of existing nursing science. Hence, the expectations on JARFN as well as the challenges we must face are enormous. As can be seen, the mission of JARFN has progressed to the point of being firmly established in theoretical and practical academic areas. We will continue to capture what is currently desired in family nursing in this era, actively practice our academic activities, and make social contributions as a nursing academic society.

The role of family nursing and the mission of JARFN

The functions and structure of families today are changing, and families are confronted with many issues. Nursing is no longer about caring for the ill and their families that are distressed thereby; it is now also required to work on preventive care and health promotion. Family nursing is for fostering the care function embraced by families, performing the role of enhancing family health, and it can be said to be a comprehensive approach that involves different areas of nursing science. Moreover, various actions and measures are considered for families that face diverse problems and issues, and it is JARFN that will be playing a part in fostering this movement. Further, our mission also includes the creation of wisdom and skill development for family health and improvement of health care, and contributing to society by incorporating these assets.

The organization of the Japanese Association for Research in Family Nursing (JARFN)

The organization is composed of an administrative director, deputy administrative director, administrative officer, councilor, auditor, secretary and various committee members. We perform activities such as editing, research and education, public relations, international exchange, and academic and policy activities. The term for board members is 3 years.

Activities performed by the Japanese Association for Research in Family Nursing (JARFN)

Activities performed by JARFN are as follows.

• Holding academic meetings: The JARFN academic meeting is held once a year under a unique main topic, and lectures on family nursing, symposiums, presentations and discussions on research and advanced practice take place. We believe this contributes to the development of family nursing and improvement in practice.
• Publishing journals: "Japanese Journal of Research in Family Nursing" is published periodically, articles on family nursing (reviews, original articles, research reports, materials, etc.), as well as articles regarding JARFN are published, and it is distributed to members and related institutions.
• Holding lectures and training sessions: Lectures, training sessions and seminars are held periodically to improve research, practice, and education on family nursing and to promote family nursing.
• Coordination with other societies and related institutions: Through coordination with domestic and foreign societies and other related institutions, information exchange on family nursing is fostered along with the development of family nursing and social contributions. In recent years, many of our members from Japan have participated in and made presentations at the International Family Nursing Conference, and have been promoting international exchange in the area of family nursing.