2025 Study Confirms Forest Bathing Lowers Cortisol: Nine Destinations Built for Shinrin-Yoku

Key facts

• A 2025 systematic review in Frontiers in Public Health confirmed forest bathing reduces cortisol, increases immune cell activity, lowers blood pressure, and reduces depressive and anxiety symptoms.
• Shinrin-yoku was formally introduced in the 1980s by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to counter rising stress from urbanization.
• Yakushima, a UNESCO World Heritage island off Kyushu, contains ancient yakusugi cedars over 1,000 years old, including Jōmon Sugi, estimated at 2,170 to 7,200 years old.
• Akasawa in Nagano Prefecture is identified by current 2026 travel guides as the birthplace of shinrin-yoku, where the government's original research was conducted.
• Kirishima City is Kagoshima's first certified forest therapy base, offering four therapy roads and pairing forest bathing with Kirishima Hot Spring Village, about 40 minutes from Kagoshima Airport.
• Iiyama, roughly two hours from Tokyo via the Hokuriku Shinkansen, was recognized in 2005 for healing properties; its Mori-no-Ie base in Nabekura Highlands sits at roughly 500 meters above sea level.
• Finland's everyman's right grants free public access to nearly all forests; Professor Kalevi Korpela's power trails are self-guided, and some employers reimburse forest bathing as stress management therapy.
• Germany's Black Forest has kneipp therapy and forest air cure traditions predating shinrin-yoku by roughly a century, while California's redwoods host guided forest therapy through the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy.