In 1998 the birth rate in Japan fell to an unprecedented 1.39. Among the possible causative factors are a growing preference among women to remain unmarried, an increase in the mean age at marriage, and a rise in the number of women who continue working after marriage. In contrast to the decreasing number of children in Japan - or perhaps as a result- there has been an increase of such dysfunctional phenomena as violence at home and in schools, bullying, truancy, and eating disorders among adolescents. These and other issues are among the topics considered by the contributors to Recent Progress in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Vol. 2, edited under the auspices of the Japanese Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The volume presents a broad-ranging view of recent progress in the rapidly developing field of child and adolescent psychiatry, providing a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers and students of psychiatry and clinical psychology.