A modern-day salvation book from a neuroscientist currently garnering attention on NHK Special and other programs! “The Future of Emotional Labor: Why Does the Brain Infer the ‘Invisible Minds’ of Others?” (by Ayako Onzo) is finally available!
Kawade Shobo Shinsha Press release: October 20, 2025 To Members of the Press A modern-day book of salvation from a neuroscientist currently garnering attention on “NHK Special” and other programs! “The Future of Emotional Labor: Why Does the Brain Infer the “Invisible Minds” of Others?” (by Ayako Onzo) is finally on sale! For those struggling to read the emotions of others at work, school, or on social media — a neuroscientist specializing in “self-awareness and emotions” delves into modern-day “emotional labor”! A must-read for the AI era, where new possibilities for humanity are revealed.
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Kawade Shobo Shinsha Co., Ltd. (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo / Representative Director: Onodera Masaru) published neuroscientist Onzo Ayako’s latest book, “The Future of Emotional Labor: Why Does the Brain Infer the ‘Invisible Minds’ of Others?” (List price: 2,090 yen including tax) on October 17, 2025. It’s been seven years since his debut work, “My Neuroscientist Mother Develops Dementia: Does Memory Loss Mean You’re No Longer “Themselves?”,” which approached Alzheimer’s disease from a neuroscience perspective and became a hot topic for “completely changing the way we view dementia.” Neuroscientist Ayako Onzo’s long-awaited second book is a thrilling read that completely redefines how we view emotional labor. Emotional labor refers to jobs that require workers to control their emotions and interact with customers, such as medical and nursing care positions, service jobs, and sales positions. Faking their emotions, putting on a smile, and holding back what they want to say can be problematic, as workers are exposed to daily stress. In 1983, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild first sounded the alarm about this problem in his book “The Managed Mind: When Emotions Became Commodities.” He distinguished between “emotional labor” in the workplace and “emotional work” in private situations, such as at home or with friends, when people suppress their emotions to conform to others or rules. The author, a neuroscientist, argues that from the perspective of brain function, the two are the same brain activity, and does not distinguish between emotional labor and emotional work, instead looking at “emotional labor” from a broader perspective. Social media, which has been the subject of much discussion in recent years for its impact on young people’s brains, is an addictive medium that stimulates the dopamine circuitry that makes people want more and more. For example, if people begin to seek only the number of “likes,” they become desperate to conform to others, eventually losing track of their own emotions and increasing their risk of depression. The author believes that the world of social media is at the forefront of emotional labor, highlighting various modern-day issues from the perspective of “emotional labor.” Here’s the problem— When the following three teams compete against each other on various tasks, which team will perform best? (1) There is one individual on the team with a very high IQ (2) The average IQ is high (3) There are people on the team who are socially sensitive and sensitive to other people’s feelings. The answer is (3). Social sensitivity is the ability to gauge another person’s feelings, for example, by looking at a photo of their eyes alone. The author cites various research examples to demonstrate that emotional labor is essentially a form of intelligence separate from IQ, a highly advanced ability, and one that must now be properly evaluated. In the future, emotional labor may be transformed from suppressing one’s own emotions and “adjusting to others” to bringing out each other’s abilities through “understanding others.” Furthermore, the author traces the evolutionary process of the human brain and compares the AI and human brains, “Can large-scale language models like ChatGPT predict the human mind?” “Can we infer what others think through language and consciousness alone?” We will also explore new questions, such as: This book, which reveals new human possibilities through emotions, is a must-read in the age of AI. Please pick up the latest book by neuroscientist Ayako Onzo, who has recently appeared on NHK Special and other programs, “The Future of Emotional Labor: Why Does the Brain Infer the ‘Invisible Minds’ of Others?” ●About the Author: Onzo Ayako Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1979. Neuroscientist. Specializes in self-consciousness and emotions. Graduated from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Sophia University in 2002. Completed his doctoral program in Intelligent Systems Science at the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2007 (Doctor of Philosophy). Currently, he is a project researcher at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo. He is also a part-time lecturer at Kinjo Gakuin University, Waseda University, and Japan Women’s University. Her books include “My Mother, a Neuroscientist, Develops Dementia,” co-authored “Why People with Dementia Want to Go Home” and “The Reality of Dementia Care,” and translated Anna Lembke’s “Dopamine Addiction.” The NHK special “My Mother with Dementia and Me, a Neuroscientist,” aired in 2023 and garnered a great deal of attention. X
https://x.com/ayakoonzo ●New publication information
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/12754/1071/12754-1071-44c3fe02f198a0019534cb18f4ead38e-1710×2500.jpg Book title: The Future of Emotional Labor: Why does the brain infer the “invisible minds” of others? Author: Ayako Onzo Specifications: 46 variant size/Normal size/244 pages Release date: October 17, 2025 Price: ¥2,090 (¥1,900 excluding tax) ISBN: 978-4-309-25495-1 Book design: nimayuma Inc. URL:
https://www.kawade.co.jp/np/isbn/9784309254951/ *The e-book will also be released on the same day. Please check with your local e-book store for details. ●Popularly published
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/12754/1071/12754-1071-1c1459b65cf5d5929a1e073ca17a37c9-500×711.jpg Book title: My Mother, a Neuroscientist, Develops Dementia (Kawade Bunko) Author: Ayako Onzo Specifications: Paperback version/240 pages Release date: December 7, 2021 Regular price: 814 yen (740 yen) ISBN: 978-4-309-41858-2 URL:
https://www.kawade.co.jp/np/isbn/9784309418582/ *The e-book is also available. Please check with your local e-book store for details. Copyright ©
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