Mental health, psychologists and healing in Japan

7 comments

1. >Coming from a western country, people around me have reminded me that Japan is a less supportive place for people for mental health conditions compared to the West. I wonder if there is any truth to this as I actually felt people were more spiritual and peaceful when I lived in Japan on exchange before however it has now been years and the topic of mental health specifically didn’t come up while I was there.

   One thing to keep in mind is that you want to avoid internally stereotyping any group of people as a whole (even if you’ve lived here before). It keeps you from setting an expectation about a people and culture (and your personal experience can change drastically). Japanese people are humans, just like anyone else. Some are nice and peaceful, some enjoy conflict and chaos. They may be nice initially, but there’s also an aspect of being two-faced as well. Studying abroad and working abroad can yield vastly different experiences of living abroad.

   That said, one of the reasons expats can say that Japan is less supportive than the West, aside from less mental health support, largely is also because you’re moving to a different country basically starting your social circle to nearly zero. This includes people you may have leaned on to for support. While it’s true that your friends and family are only a phone call or SNS message away, between the time zone differences and everyone having to worry about their own lives, it can lead to a feeling of isolation and loneliness. What complicates this is the language and cultural barrier if you’re seeking help. It’s important to be able to identify that first.

   Talking about my mental health issues is harder to talk with my Japanese colleagues, though ymmv. I would suggest finding or establishing a network of foreigners with similar cultural values who you can lean on if you need to.

2. Having a serious discussion about your mental health with your potentially Japanese coworkers over here would definitely be taboo and viewed as strange, in most cases. As another comment stated, Japanese people are humans too and it varies but in my experience (and the experience of many others), it’s nowhere near as accepted of a topic as it is in the west.

3. Japan is absolutely horrible when it comes to mental health care. If your mental health condition is moderate to severe I would consider not coming. Stress can get heavy here for a variety of reasons and the mediocre treatment they have is usually expensive. Insurance doesn’t cover talk therapy so that will have to be paid for all by you. I’m not familiar with the various eastern forms of medicine you spoke of but if it’s anything like kampo(Chinese medicine) it’s bullshit.

4. 3. for me it’s the gym and taking cold showers (look up Wim Hof on yt or ig). I recommend getting a gym membership. it’s around $70 a month on average in Japan. The ROI it has for me is more than 100X

   As for medication, I think they can alleviate things by fiddling and messing with brain receptors etc.. but when it comes to a “cure” , mental health is more complex. Most “medication” won’t fix the root issue and it’s only short term with on top of that all kinds of side effects (hormonal imbalance and so on) that have the potential to change you as a person for the worst, mentally euthanized is one of them.

   Whatever you choose don’t expect to get a “magic pill” that will fix all your issues. Working on yourself, eg doing things that make you feel better (not on the short term tho), will do wonders. There is no quick fix that requires no effort

5. Yeah, it would be considered extremely inappropriate for you to talk to your coworkers about your mental health struggles. Most of them would likely feel incredibly uncomfortable, and would not know how to react to this information. I imagine most, if not all, of the people you talk to about this would probably end up actively avoiding you, in order to not be placed in that position again.

   The most important thing, though, has already been mentioned: therapy isn’t covered by the national health insurance. Unless you have significant funds on the side, it’s very likely to simply not be an option for you.

   As for other healing methods such as reiki, I feel the west tends to exaggerate how normal these things actually are in Asia. Maybe I’m not looking, but I don’t see really many alternative healthcare options. I do, however, see an massive amount of clinics and pharmacies.

   As for spirituality, I don’t really feel the same about Japanese people being “more” spiritual. Coming from America, I will say that America in particular is certainly more religious in an actively practicing sense. Sure, many Japanese people will go to the shrines and pray, but it seems mostly perfunctory. The few Japanese people I’ve actually talked to about spirituality all had a similar response of shrugging and saying, “Who knows?” I think by most standards of measurement, Japan would be considered extremely secular. The most spiritual or religious people I’ve met here are *always* foreigners.

   There was, in fact, a very interesting AMA thread a few weeks ago, posted by a former Mormon missionary who came to Japan on his mission. According to him, Japan was considered one of the absolute hardest places for missionaries to go, simply due to a complete lack on interest in religious or spiritual matters on the Japanese side of things.

6. As others have said, I would caution against sweeping stereotypes such as seeing Japanese people as “more spiritual and peaceful.” There are plenty of people dealing with mental health issues in Japan (many issues famously make the news, even abroad).

   In general, I feel like talking about “your mental health journey” is not really the norm here in Japan, especially in comparison to other countries. When I did grad school in the US it was very normal for my friends/colleagues/and even professors to sometimes casually mention that they were in therapy, etc (“My therapist says I need to work on X, hahah”). I have never heard such casual mentions of therapy here.

   In general, as someone who works at a university, I would treat mental health information as private medical information. If you need accommodations, etc, I would talk to your school’s disability services department and see about what assistance or accommodations that can help you with. I’ve never had students bring up mental health concerns, except when official accommodations, leave of absences, etc are needed.

   In terms of finding mental health services in Japan, you’ll have some difficulties due to the fact that therapy/counseling isn’t as popular and you have a language barrier. Back in the day when I was a grad student in Japan I used Tokyo English Lifeline to get connected to an English-speaking talk therapist. I think I paid out of pocket, but it was a sliding scale. These days I think some foreigners make use of online counseling, but I haven’t had to investigate those options.

   Best of luck— I recommend setting up a concrete plan ahead of time if you know mental health is a concern for you. Even those who have never experienced mental health issues before often have difficulties when moving abroad due to the isolation and stress— I was one of those people! I got through it, but I was surprised and therefore didn’t have a great plan in place.

7. PhD student here. I told my prof I had depression and he talked down to me. Tried to convince me I was “simply tired” in his own words. Then he compared me to other people with depression (by naming them, which is not what you are supposed to do as a professor) and told me “you are not like that. You arent depressed, youre just tired.”
   That night he emailed me. The title was “sorry for the comments” but in the body of the email he said it was a misunderstanding and blamed me for it.

   The assistant prof was supportive and I can talk to him about anything. Turns out his wife also has depression and sounds like it is worse than mine.

   Your responses will vary depending on who you tell.