The purpose of this study is to clarify the needs and the challenges of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for introduction into Japanese school education. First, the needs of the social developmental programs focused on emotions were examined through two points. One is the overview about the present conditions of children and the other is the consideration of issues concerning the common social developmental programs in Japan. Second, an outline of SEL was shown. SEL is collective term of the social developmental programs focused on emotions, and those programs are widely implemented in United States. In this study, the contents of the PATHS curriculum, one of the best programs in SEL, were described in detail. Finally, the challenges when the program is introduced into Japan were pointed out from program contents and implementations. Because the study about emotional education have begun to attract attention in Japanese educational world, the SEL studies will become more and more important in future.