In the United States, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death, while it was the sixth leading cause of death in Japan. While suicide is slowly being addressed in many Asian countries like Japan, the root cause in their high suicide rates lies in their societal ignorance of mental health and traditionalist culture; therefore, we must strongly advocate for change in creating more awareness by educating people of the need for mental health education in these countries. Firstly, in Japan, mental health is often stigmatized in Japanese society leading to many individuals from seeking help. In Japanese society, individuals who suffer from any sort of mental illness, with depression the most common are often shunned into feeling ashamed of themselves,
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Silence and conformity is heavily rooted in Japanese culture, even more so to many stigmatized that often lead hurts more than helps. In The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action by Audre Lorde, expresses the damaging effects on how silence creates a never ending loop of fear and pain. She writes, “ If I had maintained an oath of silence my whole life long for safety, I would still have suffered, and I would still die,” (Par 16). Her experience in being unable to voice her own problems because she thought it would help her had an inverse affect instead. Much like how many Japanese people find it logical to keep their voice and problems hidden due to their sense of responsibility or shame, it has lead them to commit suicide. Japanese society has a long standing history of conforming to what is seen as normal, and when mental health becomes the topic of debate, it is treated with disdain and silenced. There is a famous saying proverb that demonstrates silence is highly valued along with deconstructing individualistic ideas, ‘The nail that sticks down gets hammered down.’ This proverb relates to how Japanese society values silence and conformity and with mental illness seen as an anomaly in a tightly conformed society, it makes it very difficult to voice out and seek out help. Therefore, the language of silence contributes to …show more content…
In Japan, there are not many clinical psychologist or psychiatrists. In Why Does Japan have such high suicide rate? By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, explains how mental health support groups are not as well developed compared to the Western Hemisphere. He explains, “there is no government-mandated system of training and qualifying clinical psychologist, and there is an acute shortage of psychiatrists” (Par 26). This shows that the underdeveloped mental health programs and untrained mental health doctors leads to a stagnant case of more suicide victims to be treated. In order to ensure more citizens are aware that they suffer from mental illness instead of brushing it off, the government needs to invest more research, effort, and funding to train better psychologist and psychiatrists. The government also needs to take further steps by educating many young individuals, preferably children at an early age about mental illness and reshape society’s negative view on mental health. In Suicide Prevention Education in Japan by Kenji Kawano, summarizes the Japanese government is taking steps to prevent further increase in suicide rates by initiating a school wide suicide prevention program set on educating young kids about mental health. He writes, “This encourages the younger generation to be more open-minded on mental health in general and
Silence and conformity is heavily rooted in Japanese culture, even more so to many stigmatized that often lead hurts more than helps. In The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action by Audre Lorde, expresses the damaging effects on how silence creates a never ending loop of fear and pain. She writes, “ If I had maintained an oath of silence my whole life long for safety, I would still have suffered, and I would still die,” (Par 16). Her experience in being unable to voice her own problems because she thought it would help her had an inverse affect instead. Much like how many Japanese people find it logical to keep their voice and problems hidden due to their sense of responsibility or shame, it has lead them to commit suicide. Japanese society has a long standing history of conforming to what is seen as normal, and when mental health becomes the topic of debate, it is treated with disdain and silenced. There is a famous saying proverb that demonstrates silence is highly valued along with deconstructing individualistic ideas, ‘The nail that sticks down gets hammered down.’ This proverb relates to how Japanese society values silence and conformity and with mental illness seen as an anomaly in a tightly conformed society, it makes it very difficult to voice out and seek out help. Therefore, the language of silence contributes to …show more content…
In Japan, there are not many clinical psychologist or psychiatrists. In Why Does Japan have such high suicide rate? By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, explains how mental health support groups are not as well developed compared to the Western Hemisphere. He explains, “there is no government-mandated system of training and qualifying clinical psychologist, and there is an acute shortage of psychiatrists” (Par 26). This shows that the underdeveloped mental health programs and untrained mental health doctors leads to a stagnant case of more suicide victims to be treated. In order to ensure more citizens are aware that they suffer from mental illness instead of brushing it off, the government needs to invest more research, effort, and funding to train better psychologist and psychiatrists. The government also needs to take further steps by educating many young individuals, preferably children at an early age about mental illness and reshape society’s negative view on mental health. In Suicide Prevention Education in Japan by Kenji Kawano, summarizes the Japanese government is taking steps to prevent further increase in suicide rates by initiating a school wide suicide prevention program set on educating young kids about mental health. He writes, “This encourages the younger generation to be more open-minded on mental health in general and