Shinrin-yoku: forest bathing, the Japanese way of being in the woods

What does shinrin-yoku mean?

Shinrin-yoku is written 森林浴: 森林 (shinrin) means "forest" and 浴 (yoku) means "bath" or "bathing". The word works the same way as Japanese terms for sea-bathing or sun-bathing: you are not swimming in the forest, you are immersing yourself in its atmosphere. In English it is usually translated as "forest bathing".

The term is younger than many people assume. It was proposed in 1982 by Japan's Forestry Agency, then headed by director-general Tomohide Akiyama, as a way to invite people into the country's forests. Japan is one of the most forested developed countries, yet most of its population lives in dense cities, so the idea of going to the forest simply to be there struck a chord.

What makes shinrin-yoku distinct is its attitude. The aim is not to get anywhere, to burn calories or to identify every plant. The aim is to slow down and notice: the smell of the trees, the sound of leaves, light on the ground, the feel of bark and air. In that sense it sits close to other Japanese ideas about attention to the present moment, such as ichigo ichie, the sense that each moment happens only once.

What is forest bathing, and what it is not

Forest bathing is unhurried, sensory time in a forest. A typical session lasts from about an hour to half a day, covers a short distance and includes long pauses: standing still, sitting, listening, touching, breathing slowly. The pace is closer to a stroll than a walk.

It is easy to confuse it with things that look similar. A hike is about distance, terrain and reaching a point; forest bathing has no goal beyond being there. A run in the woods is exercise; forest bathing deliberately avoids effort. Botany or birdwatching focus on naming and counting; forest bathing focuses on experiencing, without needing to know names. Meditation in a quiet room trains attention inward; forest bathing turns attention outward, to the living environment.

None of these is better than another, and many people combine them. The point is that if you treat a forest walk as a workout or a to-do item, you are doing something else. The table below sums up the differences.

Forest bathing benefits: what has research actually found?

Shinrin-yoku is unusual among wellbeing practices because it has been studied systematically for decades, much of it in Japan. The findings are real but more modest and specific than headlines suggest, so here they are with their exact numbers and limits.

Blood pressure: a 2017 meta-analysis (Ideno and colleagues, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine) pooled 20 trials from 15 studies with 732 participants, 17 of them carried out in Japan. Systolic blood pressure was on average 3.15 mmHg lower in forest than in non-forest environments, and diastolic pressure 1.75 mmHg lower. In people whose systolic pressure was 130 mmHg or higher, the difference was larger, 6.33 mmHg. Most trials were short and many were crossover designs.

Stress hormones: a 2019 review (Antonelli and colleagues, International Journal of Biometeorology) included 22 studies, 8 of them in a meta-analysis, and found lower salivary cortisol in forest groups than in urban groups. The authors note the effect was short-term and that anticipation of a pleasant trip may play a role.

Mood: a 2026 meta-analysis (Qin and colleagues, BMC Public Health) of 25 studies with 1,876 participants found reductions in stress, depressive and anxiety symptom scores. Studies differed a lot from one another, and the authors rated the certainty of evidence as moderate for stress and low for depression and anxiety.

Phytoncides and NK cells: the Li Qing studies

The best-known forest bathing research comes from Li Qing of Nippon Medical School in Tokyo. In studies published from 2008 onward, groups of healthy adults spent three days and two nights on forest trips. Afterwards, measures of natural killer (NK) cell activity and the number of NK cells were higher, and urinary adrenaline was lower; the increase lasted more than seven days. A comparable trip to a city did not produce the change.

A day-trip study with 12 healthy men aged 35 to 53 found raised NK activity for seven days and lower blood cortisol. In another study, 12 men aged 37 to 60 slept for three nights in a hotel room where hinoki (Japanese cypress) oil was vaporised, and their NK activity also rose. This is why the word phytoncides, aromatic compounds released by trees, often appears in articles about forest bathing.

These studies are interesting but small, and most participants were men. They measured markers in the blood, not illnesses, so they do not show that forest bathing prevents disease. They are best read as early laboratory evidence that time among trees changes measurable things in the body, worth further research.

How to forest bathe: a step-by-step walk

You do not need a guide or special equipment. What matters is time, slowness and switching off the usual hurry. A simple session of about one to two hours can look like this.

• Choose the place and time: a forest or large green area where you can walk slowly without traffic noise. Leave at least an hour with nothing scheduled after it.
• Put your phone away: switch it to airplane mode or leave it in your bag. If you want photos, take one at the end.
• Arrive and pause: before walking, stand still for a few minutes and take several slow breaths, longer on the out-breath.
• Walk at half your usual pace: stop whenever something catches your attention. Covering one or two kilometres in an hour is plenty.
• Go through the senses one by one: what you hear near and far, what you smell, the light and colours, the texture of bark, moss or a leaf, the temperature of the air on your skin.
• Find a sitting spot: sit for 10 to 20 minutes, on a log, a stone or a mat, and simply watch what moves around you.
• Close the session: before leaving, notice how your body and mood feel compared with when you arrived, and if you like, write down one thing you noticed.

Going once is pleasant; going regularly is what turns it into a practice. Many people settle on one longer forest session a month and short visits to nearby green spaces in between.

Can you do shinrin-yoku in a city park?

Yes, with some adjustments. Most of the research was done in real forests, so a small park is not the same thing, but the attitude of forest bathing can be practised wherever there are trees. Look for the quietest, greenest part of the park, away from roads and playgrounds, and visit when it is least crowded, often early in the morning.

In a park, attention matters even more, because there are more distractions. Pick one large tree and spend ten minutes with it: its bark, its shape, the sounds in its crown. Notice which birds come and go. Walk slowly along the edge of a pond or a lawn and follow the same sequence of senses as in a forest.

Short, frequent visits fit city life well. Even fifteen minutes in a green space during a lunch break, done without a phone, keeps the habit alive between longer trips to the forest.

Forest bathing through the seasons

Shinrin-yoku is not only a summer practice. Each season changes what you notice, which keeps the practice fresh.

In spring, attention goes to new growth: buds, the first green of birch and beech, birdsong at dawn. In summer the forest is shaded and dense, good for sitting longer and listening to insects and wind. Autumn brings smells of earth and fallen leaves and the most colour, and is the season many Japanese associate with walking in the mountains. Winter is quiet and open: bare branches, tracks in the snow, the clean smell of cold air.

Dress for sitting, not for walking: when you move slowly and stop often, you feel colder than on a brisk walk. In wet weather a waterproof mat makes sitting possible. Ticks are common in many forests in the warmer months, so long trousers and a check afterwards are sensible.

Why forests matter in Japanese culture

The idea of bathing in a forest fits a long Japanese tradition of attention to nature and the seasons. Shinto shrines are often surrounded by sacred groves, and particular trees are honoured with a rope marking them as special. Seasonal changes are celebrated in everyday life, from cherry-blossom viewing in spring to admiring autumn leaves.

This background helps explain why a government agency could propose a word like shinrin-yoku and why it caught on. It gave a modern name to something many people already felt: that time among trees is worth having for its own sake.

The same appreciation of the ordinary and the impermanent runs through ideas such as wabi-sabi, the beauty of imperfect and changing things, and ichigo ichie, the uniqueness of each moment. Forest bathing is one of the most practical ways to experience them.

Shinrin-yoku and ikigai

Ikigai is the Japanese sense that life is worth living. In Japanese usage it is often found in small, everyday things rather than in one big mission, and time in nature is one of them.

A 2026 survey of 3,472 Japanese adults (Morita and colleagues, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health) found that people who walk in forests at least once a month were more likely than those who rarely do to report having ikigai, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.65. They were also more likely to report often feeling happy and enjoying daily life. Because the study looked at one point in time, it shows an association, not that forest walks cause ikigai.

For someone looking for their ikigai, a regular forest walk is a good small anchor: it is free, it brings a moment of joy into the week, and the slow, quiet time often makes room for thinking about what matters.