Dealing with isolation and exclusion in Japan

[AsahinaKimi]

By DOUGLAS BERGER

Q: As mental health professionals dealing chiefly with native English-speakers in Tokyo, do you often have to deal with people who feel isolated and excluded in Japan, e.g. long-termers who have failed to "fit in" here, as in they lack Japanese friends, despite knowing the language, culture and so on?

A: Anyone who has been in Japan for a while has met other foreigners who have been in the country a long time. Some of these people do well socially and psychologically over the years and some do not. Some of these individuals may indeed come to our clinic, and while the people we see usually have either had a depression from before coming to Japan or experienced a worsening of their depression while here, there are certainly others who have a general social isolation but are not necessarily depressed. What might separate those who do well from those that do not?

First, we can look at psychiatric illnesses like anxiety or depression. Those with such conditions often have an inability to enjoy things, low energy and concentration, and their sleep and appetite may be disturbed. These problems often run in families. While social success may help mitigate them, they may still affect anyone regardless of their length of stay in Japan, number of friends, or other aspects of social success. People with these conditions require some kind of intensive psychiatric intervention.

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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120619ll.html#.T-dlbZHHk8k

[Wilms]

1. I wonder if the problem as outlined is universal.

My observations, for what they might be worth, are that stronger friendships tend to be ones that are cultivated earlier in life. And that moving to a new region, let alone a new country, often presents the same difficulties expressed in the article.

Add to that the pressures of "modern day life", and financial insecurity and it's enough to make an otherwise well-adjusted person wonder if there's something wrong with them. I don't believe there is necessarily. Nature is telling them something is wrong...it's our fragmented communities.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. One of the things that really bothers me about living in Japan

is that, at least here in the Kanto region, people seem to go out of their way to avoid looking at others (making eye contact) as they're passing each other on the sidewalk. In fact, it seems like some of them aren't even looking where they themselves are going because they are trying so hard not to make eye contact with others.