Curtains against Screens: Preventing and Combating Digital Addiction among Japanese Adolescents through Drama-Based Education

This study examines the potential of drama-based education as an intervention to mitigate digital addiction among high school students in Japan. A one-day drama workshop was conducted with 21 participants, followed by post-workshop surveys completed by 12students. Additional qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with a drama therapist, a digital addiction expert, an applied theater expert, and an educator with a drama education background. Survey findings suggest that the workshop enhanced students’ social and emotional skills, strengthened self-control, encouraged present-moment awareness, improved emotional regulation, and fostered interpersonal communication. Expert interviews further highlighted drama’s capacity to alleviate loneliness, cultivate social connectedness, promote emotional expression, support self-acceptance, and build authentic human relationships. Experts also emphasized drama’s role in developing non-cognitive skills such as empathy, metacognition, and self-regulation, functions linked to the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. Collectively, these findings suggest that drama provides a physical and embodied mode of communication that enables young people to adopt others’ perspectives and deepen social-emotional capacities in a playful environment. This paper argues that drama-based education may represent a promising school-based strategy for preventing and combating digital addiction among Japanese youth.