Photo/Illutration While manga artist Koji Aihara was eventually admitted to a psychiatric ward, regular clinics exist that provide daily treatment for mental illness. Doctors may ask patients to explore lifestyle changes or consider talk therapy, along with possibly prescribing medication. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

There are days when I feel emotionally drained. Sitting at my desk from morning, I get nowhere, unable to think of anything to write about.

Is this something similar to what Koji Aihara, 61, went through?

No, the anguish experienced by this extraordinary gag manga artist, best known for "Kojien," must have been of a different level from mine.

"I have depression. I have become unable to draw cartoons," Aihara recently opened up about his condition in a just-published manga.

The trigger was the COVID-19 crisis. He became completely incapable of coming up with any ideas, he said. When his conviction grew that his inability to create manga left him utterly worthless, he attempted suicide.

After two months of hospitalization in a locked psychiatric ward, Aihara started to recover gradually, a process that he described in an episode in his manga.

But readers were stunned by how that episode ended.

Aihara announced that three years after his discharge from hospital, he had a relapse this year and became unable again to work.

The final scene comes abruptly. It shows his back as he sits at his desk, with no pen in his hand.

I interviewed him at a Tokyo coffee shop.

What were his thoughts when he drew that scene?

He replied, "I wanted to hint at a vague sense of hope, but I just didn't have that in me anymore. But some readers have said they appreciated the realism, which makes me happy."

And Aihara went on to point out that since that episode may be too unsettling for anyone who is currently emotionally fragile, they should not feel obligated to read it.

But, Aihara joked, they are still welcome to buy the book and hold onto it to read later.

He said he still has his ups and downs, and is going to the hospital once a month for treatment.

One of the painful realities of depression is that the waves come and go, even after the patient feels that they have been cured.

But I want to believe there is hope. The tide comes in without our knowledge. Slowly, slowly.

—The Asahi Shimbun, July 17

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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