Placement while having a medical condition?

4 comments

1. “I don’t trust rural places”

   You may have bigger issues than you imagined – first of all, if you mention your condition and say you want to be in a place where keeping treatments could be done, you should be fine.

   If you say “I don’t want to be anywhere rural” that might be your application going in the shredder. Add to that the definition of “rural” depends on where you are. There are many prefectural capitals that reek of being “rural.”

2. If its a medication you can get on repeat prescription and or bring with you, placement won’t matter you could be sent anywhere and have zero choice.

   If you need on-going medical attention then you will be placed in a city that can provide it.

   Not sure why you don’t trust rural places in Japan, they’re full of nature and old Japanese people, what’s not to trust?

3. Here’s how I understand it. If you have had your gender legally changed at home (so your passport reflects what you identify as) then you’ll be treated as that gender in any official and medical capacity here. That *should* extend to receiving medications essential to avoiding complications or maintaining your baseline.

   Your statement of physician will give your doctor space to clarify that you require ongoing treatment. If that treatment requires specialist care only available in certain locations and they like you as a candidate then they’ll try to place you where it’s available. If the medication isn’t available but isn’t strictly controlled here, they may let you import it.

   They won’t pay any heed to placement requests arising out of personal preference. Even if you have a legitimate concern, that’d open the way for applicants to lie their way into preferential treatment and generally be a pain in the rear to find assignments for.

   As for long term conditions, most of your coworkers will treat any time off like they do for any other reason—either indifference or as if you’d tied them to a chair and set fire to their dog. Taking time off for even essential reasons is looked down on by many who will decide to resent you forever, like a toddler who didn’t get McDonald’s. The rest won’t notice you were gone. None of them will care even a little bit about the state of your health. You won’t be judged on the condition you’re having treated, you’ll be judged on whether you take time off work.

   Regarding cost, Japan is heavily subsidised. You’ll pay 30% for essential treatments and less for injuries (you get a sort of insurance from JET to cover some of the remaining 30% in some circumstances). Anything cosmetic you’ll be paying full price for but far cheaper than the US because they don’t gouge as aggressively here.

4. I think they do try to accommodate medical conditions , especially if it is detailed in documents about required care on the health check documents you need to submit in order to come to Japan. I have a medical condition that is considered a disability here and requires me to go to the doctor every month to get my medication, but I live in Tokyo with great accessibility to places that cover my medical needs so I don’t feel like it counts lol. If you do any kind of therapy/counseling, it’s separate from psychiatry and I don’t think the insurance covers it, only seeing a psychiatrist for medication.

   That said, I would consider that the program may offer a rural-ish placement that *does* have a hospital nearby that can administer your medication if that’s the option between offering you a placement or rejecting you outright. The decision is obviously yours if you want accept that placement, but I also think Japan rural can be a LOT different than US rural (I’m Black and also LGBTQ+, and studied abroad in an area of Japan considered pretty small town/slightly rural especially compared to my hometown and my placement haha), at least in my experience.

   I know it’s really scary to give people the benefit of the doubt in rural areas because safety and comfort are very, very important – but it may be good to hope for a best case scenario, prepare for the worst case scenario, and cross the bridge of the latter if it comes to that at least here. Like the other commenter mentioned you’re sadly more likely to encounter problems with other JETs, and just remember you don’t have to hang with them if that happens. Its good to have your PA’s info on hand just in case. Also there is a fb group/discord, Stonewall Japan, where people sometimes share resources, answer questions, give advice, and bring up/create LGBTQ+ friendly events all over Japan among other things. I’m sure there are other groups too but that’s the one I am in.

   Without a placement it’s hard to say what you might be in for or what local resources you can utilize, but I hope it works out for the best.