Japan created forest bathing as a public health idea in 1982, but 40 years of research have found a more complicated picture of how forests affect stress

• Forest bathing sounds like an ancient tradition, but it is actually younger than the personal computer.
• The practice known as shinrin-yoku was coined in Japan in 1982, not passed down through centuries.
• It began as a public health idea rather than a spiritual one, aimed at a country that was mostly forest but rapidly urbanising, with a workforce under visible strain.