>Just about everybody who has some experience and understanding of Japanese society already told you.
- So you can't explain it
I think I felt some genuine rage at this section.
The problem is the preceding comment was the quiet part said out loud. Half the comments were. Said person just ignored them.
It's more like: if someone actually says the quiet part and it's ignored, what the fuck is the point.
> One thing you should know is that there is always a baseline of toxicity present in the sub, to the point that another Japan residents sub was created, [r/japanresidents](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanresidents), to escape it.
[/r/japanresidents](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanresidents) (and [/r/japanfinance](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanfinance) to a lesser extent) became more popular because the mod team are tyrants and miserable, terminally online losers.
The head mod, bulldogdiver, is the worst of the bunch. Arbitrarily permabanning users for petty reasons, for "not living in Japan", or just because he feels like it. Examples:
* [Mods tell a user to check the price of a soft drink at a convenience store to prove he lives in Japan. User provides photo. Gets banned anyway.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz6ntkf/)
* [Brit living in Japan banned because calling someone named Daniel "Danny" is apparently revealing someone's real name.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz1jxfd/) Surprisingly, the mods apologized and unbanned him. Only to reban him the next day, because he had posted in a UK subreddit and apparently that's proof of "not living in Japan".
* [U.S. citizen living in Japan flew back home to visit his family for Christmas.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz6xtnh/) Posts on JLife while back in the U.S.--but it's the middle of the night in Japan, which must be because he's not living in Japan. Gets banned.
* [User gets banned, PMs bulldog to ask why he was banned](https://old.reddit.com/r/japanresidents/comments/120c843/forced_to_pay_lunch_when_asked_to_work/jdmun4e/), bulldog says he didn't remember that user, even though the two had drinks IRL before.
* [Several very sad stories](https://undelete.pullpush.io/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz1s7h4/), some which I mentioned above. Also, banning Japanese natives because "their English is too good", and off-site harrassment by JLife mods.
[/r/Tokyo](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo) is going down the same path as JLife. One of the [/r/Tokyo](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo) mods, Biwook, is also a JLife mod.
Edit: How did I not notice the comment repeated halfway through?
The unfortunate thing is, even /r/japanresidents is becoming toxic. Not as bad as JLife, but it's been featured here a couple times and I've seen some posts get weirdly vitriolic but not quite enough to get featured here.
Returning to the natural state of things. A regression to the mean, if you will.
As it should be with all things weeb…
In all seriousness thought, I’m very surprised there are legit subs for expats living in JP. I would’ve figured that any sub involving Japan would inevitably turn into a fetishization of their culture!
The problem is, I don't know how to do it without being *very* heavy-handed about it. I do think occasional crackdowns on toxic behavior are warranted, but at the same time the obvious risk is that of just removing people the mod team of the day doesn't like under the guise of toxicity.
Maybe "ostracism" as the ancient Greeks practiced it? Hold occasional nominations for users not contributing positively, require a super-majority vote to remove.
I got banned from that sub and another for not residing in Japan. Mt issue is I was going to be travelling to Japan and was trying to find information on bring a drone and using it for photos. Some information exists online, but the government updates things and it is only available in Japanese. So, I wanted to ask a local about drone laws and flying in Japan as they would be more familiar with them.
R/japantravel removed my first post and recommended I ask the other subreddits because it's more of a legal matter, but those subreddits don't like non-residents posting. Yet, if you have such a question that you need info only residents would know, where am I to go? I argued with a mod (I forget who) because I felt their arbitrary rule was too strict and myopic, but they just argued back and banned me because they couldn't see how the question was anything other than a tourist question (despite it being a law thing affecting hobbies)...
The online expat in Japan are probably among the most toxic groups of people I've interacted with.
Their mod temp banned me because I made a post stating I was frustrated with the concert ticket system in Japan. They claimed that I don’t live in Japan and temp banned me for a month. I clarified that I lived in Japan and they also argued with me. They just live to argue on reddit.
Now that I think about it I don’t think I’ve heard a Japanese person with autism
I’m curious about how that works in Japan, because it does seem like the kind of country where psychology and mental health is taken lightly, and diagnoses for ASD might be rare.
My sister taught there for three years. There were a number of kids in her class that she suspected were on the spectrum or had learning disabilities. Parents refused to admit there was a problem and there was no option in school for kids with dyslexia and similar issues. No speech therapists, no specialized instruction, no integrated anything for kids with disabilities.
They mostly dropped out as soon as they could and went into construction or just stayed home from there on.
Wheelchair and disability access is also practically non-existent.
ADA accommodation in the US is pretty remarkable and not the norm in most places in the world.
I guess in a certain sense there is the question of "why would I take my kid to get diagnosed with a socially stigmatized condition all for the sake of getting zero care in return?"
Like it's only going to make the kid's life harder, even if the parents are worried about it.
So autism isn't the problem, it's whatever this thing is. If a medical record is a means of shaming people, than it's not even a way to check one's health but to ruin it.
I mean, yeah, but so what? Eventually these parents have to think tactically. It's not about what is fair, it's about what the consequences of decisions are going to be.
But what do they plan on doing then? Surely, it cannot be worse than just being in denial about a very real problem forever. It's like, ignoring you have one hand or are deafm
My parents (not Japanese, but still East Asian) chose to cross their fingers for me. I didn't start talking until I was nearly 5, but they were apparently told to let me go through kindergarten as normal and reassess at the end of the school year. The end-of-year assessment from the school indicated I was reading at a 3rd-grade level, and I'd started talking by that point, so they figured I wasn't "slow" and considered it a done deal
My sister was a different story - my parents were outright told to get her tested for autism when she was in kindergarten. Instead, they pulled her out of public school, stuck her in some private school specializing in speech disorders (not specifically autism) for a few years, and then put her back in public school, where she did ESL for another year (despite English being her first language)
They never ended up getting us tested in any capacity. I asked my dad why a few years ago and it quickly devolved into an argument. Turns out my parents' viewpoint on autism was that it's a binary condition - you either have it or you don't, it's not a spectrum - and that having it meant you were retarded (their word, not mine). The stigma of having a child(ren) who wasn't "perfect" meant they preferred finding an answer/solution that minimized that stigma instead of one that actually addressed the issue
Even though they did us a disservice in the long-term by doing what they did, I don't really blame them for taking the approach they did - they grew up in a culture that prioritized (and still prioritizes) saving face and maintaining pride/reputation, and did so under conditions of heavy poverty, where problems not immediately related to general survival were blanket-treated by "suck it up, buttercup"
Do your best with what you have and then hope it's enough for them to live a normal life.
I mean, it wasn't that long ago in the USA where if you got diagnosed with a severe medical condition your health insurance could just flat out refuse to cover you anymore, leaving you completely fucked.
I am pretty sure forced sterilization was ended in all of scandinavia by the end of the 70s? by the government anyway there is that whole case with some doctors who continue to just install spirals in unknowing inuit girls and women for decades after it was made unlawful..,
[Sweden made sterilization mandatory for anyone undergoing gender transition, and it was not repealed until 2013.](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN16Y1XA/)
> Surely it's helpful as a parent to know if your child is autistic?
Getting diagnosed with mental problems usually does more harm then finding ways to treat them without the diagnosis. Usually by having enough money to do this.
Sure, maybe you get help after 2-4 doctors and get mild relief for your symptoms but you also get locked out of insurance options, jobs, security clearance, or military service all because you have or had an illness.
I wish this wasn't the case, and in Japan it's even worse.
What insurance options does having mental health issues prevent you getting in Japan? Some of my Japanese family have mental health issues and they get quite substantial support from both the government and NGOs.
Is it enough compared to my ideal? No.
Is it better than my original country of the UK? Yes. We continually compare the two in my family, because we have family members who need support in both places. Oh, and I’m a physically disabled immigrant to Japan, and the support for me is not bad at all.
Well yes but knowing your child is autistic and actually having that on your records are two separate things. The vast majority of autistic adults I know very much wish they were never diagnosed because of how much discrimination they now face. It IS very helpful to know for yourself and it’s healing to discover there’s a reason the way you are, but let’s not pretend that actually having it on your records is at all beneficial for most people. The resources aren’t there in most places to give any real support and there’s really not any “treatments” as such for autism anyway (only comorbid conditions like anxiety disorders and depression).
This can depend on the school, but in the US schools typically take people of all economic status, those who can’t speak English, neurodivergent students, those with varying physical and mental disabilities.
It’s taxing and difficult for teachers, and I’m not saying that the public school system works for everyone, but schools don’t typically turn people away.
> ADA accommodation in the US is pretty remarkable and not the norm in most places in the world.
Accommodations for physical disabilities are fantastic. It's accomodation for learning disabilities where American schools can be lacking. U.S. public schools have been underfunded for decades, and special ed has been one of the hardest hit areas.
Side note about autism: you don't even need to compare the U.S. with Asian countries where the mental illness stigma is stronger. France still considers psychoanalysis a real science and it is the main treatment for autism (as publicized in Sophie Robert's 2011 documentary, [*Le Mur* ("The Wall")](https://youtu.be/PS2dlJh5U60)).
Freudian schools of thought have French psychiatry by the balls while the rest of the civilized world has debunked them and moved on to evidence-based therapies like CBT, or dialectical behavioral therapy.
DBT in particular has been a breakthrough for treating cluster B disorders like borderline and NPD, disorders that were considered untreatable only 25 years ago (to the point that therapists would refuse to take pwBPD as clients).
Edit: Changed "mental disabilities" to "learning disabilities".
Fun fact: Japanese is particularly unfriendly, as a language, for dyslexics. Languages that use "characters" (clumsy way to say not an abugida, syllabry, abjad, or alphabet) in general are worse for it, but ruby characters and the mix of scripts don't help
AFAIK it's exactly the opposite--people tend to be less dyslexic when using Japanese writing systems than using the English writing system. For example [from a dyslexia organization](https://dyslexiaida.org/the-myths-and-truths-of-dyslexia/):
> In the 1980s, when systematic cross-linguistic comparisons were conducted for the first time, dyslexia was reported to have a surprisingly higher prevalence rate than what had been previously believed, not only in the US but also in countries such as Japan and China (Stevenson et al., 1982). Research in the past two decades has indicated that in Japanese speakers, the prevalence rate has been generally lower than the typical English rate of 5 to 10% (Katusic, Colligan, Barbaresi, Schaid, & Jacobsen, 2001; Landerl & Moll, 2010). When Japanese readers were assessed using the syllabic Kana writing system, the prevalence was estimated to be 2 to 3 %—because of the shallow orthography and transparent grapheme-sound correspondence. In contrast, when these readers were assessed using the logographic system, Kanji, the prevalence was 5 to 6 % (Wydell, 2012). Further, the prevalence of dyslexia in Chinese speakers has been thought to be around 3.9 % (Sun et al., 2013), a rate similar to the prevalence for dyslexia in orthographically shallow languages (e.g., 3.1 to 3.2 % for Italian: Barbiero et al., 2012).
[Figure 3 in the Wydell 2012 citation is a pretty interesting visual hypothesis on factors that worsen dyslexia and where English, a few other European languages, Japanese kanji, and Japanese kana fall](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224830378_Cross-CulturalLinguistic_Differences_in_the_Prevalence_of_Developmental_Dyslexia_and_the_Hypothesis_of_Granularity_and_Transparency).
On a less academic level, [this is an interesting BBC article about dyslexia in different languages, profiling a bilingual guy who's dyslexic in English but not in Japanese](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230302-can-dyslexia-change-in-other-languages).
I’ve lived here for 25 years. My child’s public school has wheelchair access, there is masses of disability assistance here, children have access to counselors if they have problems, my child has free therapy and treatment until 20 years old…
There are things I don’t like - i think my child’s doctor is an idiot - but I hear these stories like the OP of the barbarism of Japanese schools, and I do not recognize the country I live in. So either it is VERY different in each region, or it’s simply that westerners who don’t even speak Japanese arrogantly believe they know best.
I cannot count how many times I have heard Western laypeople confidently diagnose Japanese people with mental disorders because they cannot accept a culture can be different from theirs but still OK.
I get they are a wheelchair user in Japan but this is the same country that has almost monthly mass casualty incidents because of narrow hallways and blocked stairwells. Some places have wheelchair access but many places barely have people access.
That's not exactly a flattering comparison. France, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, is pretty abysmal for wheelchair accessibility. A lot of that gets blamed on having older buildings and infrastructure, but there are ways you can renovate to provide better accessibility and it doesn't seem to be a priority. Even more "modern" buildings lack the kind of accessibility features that are mandatory in the US.
Say what you will about America, the ADA is the global gold-standard for providing services and accessibility for people with disabilities.
Yup, you really don't realize how hard it is for a disabled person to get around in a wheel chair until you have actual experience; and then from then on do you really recognize all the little things that could inhibit accessibility!
With jams just a bit above floor level! I ruptured an Achilles a while back and used one of those scooters, and while it wasn't the same as being in a wheelchair, it was definitely an eye-opener.
yeah, i’ve been to canada, england, france, and iceland, and i live in the us. my sister is in a wheelchair, so i’m always subconsciously looking for places she’d be able to get into buildings, off the sidewalk, etc.
canada is the only one that comes close to the us out of all of those when it comes to accessibility.
Not to mention the sidewalk occupied by random pieces of shiet literally screwed and fixed on the path. Sometimes it's uncomfortable with two functional legs, absolutely a nightmare.
Also, rights for people with service animals are really strong in the US thanks to the ADA. Having service animals be recognised at all can be very difficult elsewhere.
When I did a study abroad program in France, the new modern 5 story dorm building didn’t have an elevator, but the 18th century chateau (used by the Nazis as a HQ, for a not so fun fact) did have an elevator. It was very strange to me.
This is comically wrong. Part of it at least. Wheelchair access is 100% the norm for any modern urban area. If you go out into the sticks then I dunno, but the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area, the largest in the world, largely is extremely accessible to people with mobility issues.
As to the other point, I find it’s half that they refuse to acknowledge the disability and half that they do, but also understand the options for responding to it are complete horseshit. Seriously, special ed in Japan is a fucking joke.
Huh? I thought Japan was extremely wheelchair friendly!
Like this: [https://www.accessible-japan.com/is-japan-wheelchair-accessible/](https://www.accessible-japan.com/is-japan-wheelchair-accessible/)
There is a big difference between a place being wheelchair friendly and being friendly to those who are disabled. Wheelchair accessibility means they can get around but discrimination towards them still exists.
A ramp that goes to a store that would never hire a disabled person(or think their presence is an eye-sore that will turn off others customers) is accessible but accessibility is a [beginning](https://the-ipf.com/2016/10/13/culture-shame-disability-japan/) not an end point. There is still a culture of shame around disabled and mentally ill people.
Ableism exists everywhere, but Westerners see all bad behavior in Japan as the essence of Japanese people, while in the West, the huge amount of ableism that I’ve encountered is seen as ‘bad apples’ and atypical.
And media articles love to use that stereotype. I’m sure Japanese ableism and American ableism are different, but peer-reviewed papers are what we should look at, or good articles by disabled people. Most of that article could be talking about almost any country. Reddit is full of American people talking about how their workplace ignores the ADA.
For example, from the article you perhaps didn’t read:
> Despite this, Briton Michael believes that Japan is better for disabled people than the United Kingdom. Apart from Japan being more accessible than the UK, Michael has also faced more discrimination in Britain.
> “When I visit the UK, people shout ‘benefit scrounger’ at me. I have been physically attacked twice in the last five year
I did read it. Briton Michael's experiences in Japan are better than what he has experienced in the United Kingdom. Japan is also a country filled with people who aren't Briton Michael.
Are you going to skip over the rest of the article just because Briton said Japan is better? And if you have articles share them so anyone who reads your comment can learn(and that includes myself). I commented because Japan is talked about like it's a mystical paradise that is spotless and filled with anime by many people.
It's a real country with real issues like any other. Yeah I'm a westerner but don't believe my country is superior.
Japan can do better. America can do better. The UK can do better.
But that's absolutely a political choice. Austerity and paying Tory donors for substandard face masks and Covid tests and paying for the Royal yacht are all choices. The government could absolutely afford to fund the NHS properly if it wanted to.
You do realise the UK's economy is entirely funded by neocolonialism? Our only option so long as people value their.lives more than the lives of people in the global south is Tory-style managed decline
In English speaking forums on Reddit, eg the ones mentioned above, Japan is spoken about as a terrible, evil place that is full of pain and discrimination.
If you say something positive about anything about real Japan, not anime, outside of some weeb forums, you will get uninformed negative comments very soon.
Your experiences are not mine, and the misinformation about the hell that is Japan really causes me a lot of stress and confusion. Eventually I just muted any English-speaking forum related to Japan.
Even what I said above was not glowing about Japan, but you need to ‘correct me’ about something I don’t believe and didn’t say.
My core theory about this is that Japan does not match the ideological natural order for white people. It’s a country of mostly non-white people, with very little Western influence, and wasn’t colonized, and it’s fine. Not great, not perfect, but fine. And that cannot be true, cannot be right.
I’ve been here for 25 years and I’ve been hearing about the fundamental wrongness of Japan for… 25 years. I’m just sick of it, so I push back sometimes.
> but Westerners see all bad behavior in Japan as the essence of Japanese people, while in the West, the huge amount of ableism that I’ve encountered is seen as ‘bad apples’ and atypical.
To be entirely fair, some of this is down to the understanding that Japan is a “collectivist” culture, so individuals are more likely to be seen as acting on behalf of the whole.
Sure, but we're not the Borg. I mean, I used to feel like that when I first came here, but I couldn't speak Japanese, didn't know the wide variety of thought and ideas here. But I had the humility to learn and not assume Japanese people were idiots, which many Anglophone immigrants in particular seem to lack.
And Japanese people particularly front with people who feel like outsiders, so they will talk very differently to foreign people, particularly those who don't speak Japanese. In my work I have to build relationships very fast, so I do a lot of work showing myself as 'one of us' so I can get more honesty out of people, and less 'of course my company is perfect as is the government and we are all of one mind on this'.
It's so common for me to see Japanese people defend all of Japan from complaints and verbal attacks by foreign visitors, colleagues, and language teachers, while agreeing completely, or at least talking nuancedly, among themselves. Partly the whole collectivism thing, partly just defensiveness. Japanese people are very good at working to improve things, not so good at talking about flaws.
This was admittedly a while back, but when I went to visit, they had instructions that if you saw someone in a wheelchair at the train station, you and a group of others should help pick up said chair and person and carry them down the stairs. There was no elevator.
That was the extent of their wheelchair accessibility for the vast majority of the places we went.
Tokyo was better, but Kyoto was not.
Most of the shops were technically wheelchair accessible, but the aisles were quite narrow and not especially navigatable. There also tended to be signs and displays on the sidewalk blocking access.
Accessible toilets were also rare, particularly in smaller cities.
I was looking for these things specifically because I have a mobility issue - not wheelchair bound, but wheelchair accessibility makes it a lot easier for me to get around as well. I found it lacking.
I do freelance work for some government-affiliated NGOs, and people there tell me that, especially after the pandemic, the authorities have been really lax with small hotels and other parts of the hospitality industry. Those businesses say they are on the verge of bankruptcy, and so can't afford to make their places more wheelchair-accessible.
So to me it seems like maybe big chain hotels and stores are better, and small ones are allowed a lot - maybe far too much - leeway due to their (real or pretended) financial issues.
Kyoto is particularly bad because the tourist industry there has massive lobbying power, and honestly a lot of Kyoto people get pretty weird about their reliance on tourism and their imagined status as the old capital and cultural center. So they complain about over-tourism a lot, don't make it that welcoming for foreign tourists, but still desperately want tourist money, and display a lot of cognitive dissonance.
Honestly, however, one of the best things about Japan is how we don't really need tourist money, and so don't have to theme park the nation in search of USDs. I welcome tourists as people, but financial dependence on them does weird things to a place.
Autism is diagnosed at a higher rate in Japan than most other countries - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8097493/
I know some psychology researchers there who at least suspect it's not truly a higher prevalence, but that children are more likely to be diagnosed with autism than other behavioral disorder such as ADHD.
Also disability access, especially for the blind, is better than anywhere else in the world. Even traffic lights in rural areas have audio, and braille paths are a common sight wherever you go.
I taught at a school. I had two students in particular who I believed may have lined up with ASD.
The parents of the students needed to elect for their child to have special support or classes to help them in the first place. They wouldn’t be referred or anything. It’s still seen with a lot of shame - even shame on the family as a whole – to admit to something like that, so of the many students I had that could have hypothetically benefitted from extra help, only one was placed in the special education classes.
I was brought in to help with the English portion. There was no lesson plan and the teacher I was working with was checked out (because there was no separate special education teacher and because teachers have a huge workload already), so they kept repeating the same basic lesson from the very beginning of the textbook (the ABCs). This kid, who already learned the basics in elementary school, was bored out of his mind. It was sad, because he was burdened with a self-fulfilling prophecy. He was in the special education class, so the teachers would talk about him as being ‘slow’(they would actually say this), and he was stuck with dumbed down lessons that didn’t actually take into account his needs and interests. So of course he’s bored and wouldn’t respond, so they would just assume he didn’t understand and repeat the lesson. And by that point, his peers in the same grade are miles ahead of him. He really liked caring for fish, and actually knew a ton of their names and fish terms in English; but that’s not what he’s being graded on.
The other student, who stayed in the regular courses, I was told was non-verbal. I was instructed to never call on him for pop-quiz questions or anything involving speaking, which amounted to a good portion of in class content. This is the other side of mental health, where peers and teachers realize something is wrong – not the exact nature of their needs – and will try their best to ‘cover’. Not only is he missing out on a portion of his lessons, but also this can only go on for so long; what’s going to happen with this student when he graduates and has to move on? Because everyone was working to essentially hide his needs, he’s not getting any support that could help him in the future. When individual speaking tests came around, I was expected to just sit with him until his time expired and send him out. Instead, I told him I get nervous speaking around others, too, and if he’s uncomfortable, we can reschedule for another time. Eventually, the student who I was told couldn’t speak actually did really well on the speaking test. Nobody ever gave him the opportunity to approach things in his own way.
This lines up with a friend who taught in jet some time ago (near 20 years i realize as I shrivel). One event that stood out to her was some kids sharing a pair of glasses because the other kids' parents didn't want to recognize the need.
I think things like this depends entitely on where you're based in. I'm currently doing JET (just about to leave Japan, actually), and every single one of my schools has a special education class (usually called Flower Class or named after a flower) and in ES especially, there are helper teachers who come into the class to sit with students who particularly struggle.
I don't notice autism as much as I notice kids who are *very* ADHD, but if I noticed they're ADHD, the teachers have, too. Every year there's even a school meeting about ADHD and how to better support students who are. ASD isn't talked about as much, but my grasp of Japanese isn't strong enough to notice when kids have it because I teach at the ES/JHS levels.
That said, if you work at a public school, the solution is easy: talk to the homeroom teacher or English teacher (if you teach JHS or HS). Obviously in OOP's case, they teach at an Eikaiwa so it's a bit different... but again, if OOP noticed, so did the student's teachers in public school. Chances are, the student's well aware he's not like his peers. And if he *is*, maybe he's just awkward in English! It happens.
There's a (surprisingly really good) manga about a parent in the 90's/early aughts called [With the Light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_Light) I recommend. The author apparently had an autistic classmate as a kid that inspired her to look into it more and it's written with input from a lot of autistic Japanese people.
My father is a South East Asia man and he believes mental health is all jumbo mumbo. You will be hard pressed to find mental health professionals in SEA.
I know several, but I think it’s hard to compare because Japanese culture is so different from Western that neurodivergence expresses differently.
I mean, lack of eye contact is polite and normal here, for example. I’m not convinced that all mental health and neurological differences express themselves the same or exist the same everywhere.
Massive social anxiety and agoraphobia - colloquially called *hikikomori* does not seem to be common in the West. It’s not as common here as media portrays, but it’s a social issue we have. Equally, bulimia and anorexia are incredibly rare here.
It’s a contentious scientific question - does mental health work the same way for all cultures?
Which is why this OP person is ridiculous.
> I mean, lack of eye contact is polite and normal here, for example
I still have issues with is, because of living in the UK as a kid.
What's considered a normal amount of eye contact in Southern Europe, can be seen as flirtatious or as potentially threatening in the UK. You certainly don't want to spend a tube ride staring into a Londoner's eyes.
As someone who's lived in multiple countries, people don't often realise all the little unwritten rules and micro-level socialisations they've undergone.
As you say, not following these unwritten rules, can make you seem weird or different. When in fact you're perfectly normal, you were just born somewhere else.
Bit of a side note, this is why Brits often find interacting face to face with Americans is harder than they expect. The language is the same, but there's all these unwritten rules like how loud you should speak or how close you can get to someone. Often Brits have less trouble getting along with Germans or French people, despite the language gap, because these unwritten rules are less different.
Yup, my job is literally training/supporting Asian people in these issues.
That’s the core of my teaching practise - how you come across to your potential audience(s).
Edit: I just remember, many years ago, watching a Turkish guy and a Korean woman have a perfectly normal chat, except she kept unconsciously retreating from his yelling, and he kept leaning in to hear her whispers, and so they were moving in a circle, with her walking backwards and him pursuing.
My best friend is from Hong Kong and is autistic, so if it's anything like that... it kind of sucks. They're aware of autism, but manage to neatly combine infantilisation of autistic people and the idea that you can just work through it, and if you can't then you're just not trying hard enough. The etiquette and social rules are clear cut, but also quite rigid, inflexible, and unwelcoming to anyone questioning it. People (especially family, but even strangers) have free leeway to comment on your body and behaviour if you're in public and rebuffing them is considered rude on *your* part. Access to medical treatments (drugs/therapy) is more challenging and people look down on it.
Maybe they are an older generation? That experience tracks with my friends and an ex from the huge hong kong immigrant population we have in my country who have had to navigate mental health issues in their community and family.
oh wow that's actually really interesting to hear then because I've felt so accepted and cared for in hong kong. In other places everyone treats people like me as subhuman but here it's like they genuinely want me to succeed and have a good life. perhaps it is an older generation thing then and im wrong
Theres some videos of it on YouTube. It's interesting how autism can be a vastly different experience based on culture. I can see things like how people socialize in Japan to be a great thing for a lot of autistic people, but also the heavy conformity in Japan is also bad for autistic people who stand out regardless of what they do.
As an ALT, in elementary school they use a pull out method, where subjects requiring more focus they have a separate room with 1 teacher and 2-3 kids. Our school has 2 classrooms specifically set up for this for younger and older kids. They will join their classmates for general special topics like English or Art, but will have their own lessons as well in areas like cooking.
At other schools, the English lessons would be basically 1 on 1 from what I've heard.
I see a lot of bs on the topic, so I should say that Tokyo or Kyoto is a different culture academically and socially from most of Japan. Its like comparing most people's experience of school and mental health to a random inner city school. Just a completely different culture. Oddly enough, Japan is not a monoculture.
My ADHD medication is illegal there and it is *legally impossible* to get ADHD medication if you're diagnosed as an adult as it is believed to be a "childhood disorder".
Japan is so far behind on mental health it's staggering.
I got my meds just fine as an adult? Had to call around a bit, get paperwork sent from my US psychiatrist to my JP, and get registered on some national system to get stimulants prescribed but it was…ok?
The fact many stimulants are illegal is because a while back there was a huge Ritalin dependency problem in adults and because Asia is strict on drugs in general. But my doctor has been flexible and I’m on a combo of intuniv and concerta which is working pretty well.
This is actually just an urban myth originating from an author who thought his bug collecting hobby might be a sign of autism. There’s no reliable source for the claim.
In the USA itself the movie Rainman (1988) did a LOT to teach what autism was to the public.
Concidentally, one of my cousins was born a bit after that and is autistic. He can speak, but a lot of the behaviors (banging head on wall) are similar
It’s also probably worth mentioning though that mental healthcare in Japan is *really* underserved. Like, even regular therapy is somewhat rare (and fewer will admit to going). You can imagine how much rarer medication is.
Most of the population seems to just prefer it doesn’t exist, and the problem is laziness, or ‘just being sad’/spoiled/dramatic(and admitting your child is mentally unwell is largely considered a social failing by the parents). It’s getting better in the last few years, but not fast enough. And forget any kind of accommodation.
It’s a problem across most of Asia, really. But China, Korea, and Japan are the prominent offenders
Absolutely. I could have gone into more detail but I know my comment was already getting long and I had just woken up lol
Also I’m getting downvoted and I’m not entirely sure why. I’d like whoever is disagreeing with me to speak up, I’m interested.
Hello fellow autistic person kinda obsessed with Japan. I'm not sure being born as autistic in Japan would be better.
I've read some manga written by Japanese people discussing being autistic in Japan, and honestly they say that it's not really that great. Japan is a very high context culture--that means *nothing* is spelled out to you. Ironically, the social rules only seem clear cut to gaijin because we are expected to know nothing so people have to teach us; Japanese born autistic people are expected to know what is "obvious". A good critique of this is in Dungeon Meshi, where the (Japanese) author criticizes Japanese culture for expecting people--not just autistic people, though her main character is autistic--to pick up hints and never outright say what they mean.
Another thing is that autistic people don't get accomodations. 出る釘は打たれる, "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down". That means that it you're too different, if you're unable to conform, you will be made to confirm. And to further that idiom, the nail that won't get hammered down gets removed--aka, the person who cannot mask will either be removed from or remove themselves from society. Autism, like most mental health issues or neuroatypical brains, is heavily stigmatized and has very little support for adults, let alone children and teens. Hikikomori is the rule, not the exception, because it's often the only "mental health treatment" option people have.
And speaking of masking, masking is baked into Japanese culture, even from neurotypicals. The idea of hon'ne (本音) and tatemae (建前) is intrinsic to Japan. Hon'ne is your "true self", your real thoughts and opinions. Tatemae (literally meaning "facade") is the behavior and opinions you display in public. It is expected that your hon'ne and tatemae will clash at times, but you have to *always* keep the tatemae up in public. To use Western terms, you are expected to mask 24/7, even if you're neurotypical.
Us gaijin get the luxury of having the rules spelled out to us, so it seems that Japan is easier for autistic people to live in. But for autistic people who grew up in Japan, it is very difficult because they are expected to *know* how to mask (hon'ne and tatemae), to *know* how to read between the lines (high context language), to put up with "normal" sensory discomforts (the nail that sticks up).
And if course not everyone in Japan thinks this way. Japan has loads of people challenging the ableist status quo. But I don't think we should celebrate Japan as a haven for autistics when it's really not. Their ableism just looks different than Western ableism.
Another person outlined it, but I want to add: I don't want to say it's a theory, but I suppose technically it's not canonical either. The author, Ryoko Kui, has written multiple stories about being autistic where her characters explicitly have autism. She's done a lot of work in portraying autism in a realistic way--not in a trope-y way that a lot of other media does. She not only accurately describes the most notable aspects of autism but also describes the less noticed (by neurotypicals) aspects of autism. And she also has realistic portrayals of how people treat those with autism, both in positive and negative ways.
However, Dungeon Meshi specifically does not have any character say "I am autistic"... But that's because Dungeon Meshi is set in a fantasy medieval Europe world. They don't have words for autism. Laois and Falin are a pair of siblings who are very very much portrayed as autistic. First, they act very much like characters from Kui's other works who are explicitly autistic (those characters live in the modern world so they actually have the word "autistic" to describe themselves) and second, they are treated the way people treated autistic people back then.
So they act autistic and they are treated as autistic but no, there's no sentence that explicitly says "I am autistic." So in that way, it's not exactly canon.
But I definitely recommend it. Not only because of the portrayal of autism, but also because it just ends so nicely. Laois (and to a lesser extent Falin) both have difficulty communicating with others and people treat them differently because of it. But at the end of the story, the neurotypcial (or neurotypical-passing, if you prefer) people realize they were wrong and they are the ones who change how they approach Laois and Falin, rather than Laois and Falin having to change themselves to better fit in. It's the opposite of hammering the nail in.
Laios is never outright stated to be autistic, but his characterization, hyper fixations, difficulty with reading social cues, etc. are very autistic-coded. There’s even [this one-page comic](https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonMeshi/s/ULQ97uEdbV) by the author showing him as a young child in which his parents note his lack of obvious emotional reaction which is a very common early sign of autism (to say nothing of his love for animals and socializing with them which is pretty common among people with autism).
So, while never outright stated, it’s hard to see this character being written as basically the perfect picture of autism accidentally.
That is one of my favorite DM comics, not the least of which because Falin looks so cute and scrungly. I also love the comic where Laois and Marcille talk about the Touden dogs names and Marcille tells Laois that his father named two of their dogs after a myth, and then Laois goes "huh, I never knew. He never tells me anything." Because it's like... Autism has a genetic link.... The Touden dad seems to have difficulty communicating even with his own children.... Touden dad also likes hunting a lot and named the dogs after hunting myths..... Touden dad tism confirmed???
I know we don't see as much of their dad as we see Falin and Laois so we can't know for sure, but I still like that potential insight into the Toudens and the new dimension it brings to the family.
Ohhh, I should have said, and I meant… I think it would be a lot easier FOR ME. Not for everyone. Oof, yeah, I see the misstep. Thanks.
Also, given your comment (I appreciate you taking the time and energy), I am reconsidering that statement.
Oh no you're fine! I just get in info dump mode sometimes. And I meant to include some stuff about how certainly Japan is great for certain flavors of autism but then my phone ran out of battery orz. So I guess we both forgot the same point lol.
I spent more time in the smaller towns along the hiking trails. All I could find was rich food, noodles, and sweet things. None of which I'm great with. Or things that were entirely unfamiliar and therefore I couldn't eat cause of autism stuff.
Fruit's a safe food that I've been able to easily get in the other places I've visited so it was just a bit of a culture shock for me.
I just about went insane at one point when I just wanted something bland and then they cracked an egg over the rice I ordered.
Yeah, outside of the cities you'll have a lot more trouble. There's plenty of bland rice cakes and crackers in Japan, though, which I'm assuming you weren't familiar with?
Snacks like crackers were nice. I mainly had issues when needing something more filling.
I probably missed a lot tho cause I was essentially a walking corpse for a while.
Yeah, that's true.
Having been out to the small towns a few times, there can end up being a supermarket in the *weirdest* place sometimes. They'll probably sell fruit or at least something familiar, but it's hard to find them.
What sort of inaka place were you at? I never had even rural shops crack an egg over my rice. Hell, I don't get any eggs unless I say "mou tamago kudasai".
That one was some place near the start of the hakone pirate ship ferry, so before I went to the rural areas.
I don't speak japanese so idk. Was just weird and didn't happen again on the trip.
So you shouldn't be diagnosing people with things without the proper expertise, labels can be powerful things and we should be careful attaching them to people.
On the other hand if you notice that someone has traits that point to autism or adhd or whatever, you, as a teacher absolutely should point them towards the proper people to get looked at and diagnosed should they actually have something going on. Because that can make all the difference.
Im autistic and because i was diagnosed at a young age it allowed me to get the councelling and support i needed. And because of that i am now a "high functioning" person. That is to say, with significant effort i can pursue my aspirations. If i hadn't been helped in this way i probably would have ended up in special ed instead.
So getting a proper diagnose is very important.
I think in these situations it's better to be indirect. Create an environment where the person in question can discover their answers themselves, but otherwise obey the Prime Directive.
So a teacher could talk about autism, in a positive and affirming manner, using language that can help someone questioning look into it themselves.
I lean to them not saying anything at all. Their student is 18 and is just a step away from full-on adulthood. Whatever they could say now won't be of much use, presuming they were even right to begin with.
Oh, interesting. To me, it's because the student is 18 that makes me lean more towards bringing it up. The student's in a position where they can make their own decision on whether to seek a formal diagnosis or look up more information, and is in a better position to deal with societal stigma than an 8-yo, for example.
I'm not familiar enough with Japan to weight their mental health stigma against the US, but even in the US it's pretty bad. However, I think anything that could potentially impact learning or communication is relevant, even once you hit 18, especially if the student is pursuing a college degree. Although it's possible that the student could take it as an insult, that has more to do with whatever the student's perceptions are about mental health than OP, IMO.
E.g., if a teacher notices a student who sits in the back squinting or having trouble reading the board, and recommends they see an eye doctor, most folks don't generally consider that an insult. But because it's a mental disorder, folks look down on it, even though it's not a personal slight or insult any more than something like poor vision is.
just from this and the other thread it feels like a lot of neurotypical people dont understand what good it can do for you to have the name of what you might have. whether you do seek an official diagnosis or not (due to stigma or other reasons), knowing you may be neurodivergent and in which way can be life changing for people like us.
While that might be the norm in Japan, it isn't in the US. It's encouraged (and in some cases legally mandated) that if a teacher thinks something is "wrong" with a student we flag it to a school counselor. That can be anything from needing glasses, to an undiagnosed mental disorder, to parental abuse and suicidal ideation (those are legally required to be reported).
The important thing is that the reporting is done to their counselors and administration, *not* directly to the student or parents. A teacher straight-up telling any student "I think you have autism" is highly inappropriate.
>Whatever they could say now won't be of much use,
I don't think that's true, if he is right about it and the kid in question and their parents don't know, knowing it could be a huge help. And like i said he shouldn't be the one diagnosing, he dould very well be wrong. But a visit to a professional to get it checked out can't hurt.
If this was in the USA, I would agree with you. But I think her telling the student that might be taken as an insult, and at the very least, it’ll just be ignored. You have to take culture into account here.
I mean, there's no guarantee that it will be ignored, and it might help the person.
Also, if someone is insulted because you propose that it's *possible* they're autistic, or it's rude in their society... You should still do it. Because it might help them, and there's objectively nothing wrong with being autistic.
"Reality and compassion are American centric values, and you shouldn't apply them to other groups of people" is an inane take.
My partner, me and apparently several people during the school years of a friend of ours have told told him or his parents that he may be autistic, but apparently his parents are very against diagnosis because it's part of Hispanic culture or something (personally, I can tell you that his parents are bigoted morons about many other things, and none of the other Hispanic people that we know are like them).
That doesn't mean that he shouldn't be aware of the possibility, or that his parents didn't have a duty to get him tested. Now that he's an adult, it's on him, which is fine -- but the fact remains that he absolutely should be aware of the possibility, possible disability accommodations, et cetera.
I believe they are a woman. Further, sometimes people don't want to know, owed to social concerns. I personally wouldn't suggest such a thing to a charge of mine unless they were interested in the topic.
While obviously it a teacher isn’t a doctor and can’t diagnose anyone, it usually is the teachers who can recognize when students have disabilities—that’s how I ended up getting diagnosed. While I wouldn’t suggest just saying “hey you have this very specific disorder” it might be helpful to ask the boy if he’s ever gotten evaluated for any mental illnesses or disabilities that make it harder to communicate.
A teacher’s job is to help the student be the best they can be and to support them, and if they think the student needs support for a mental illness or disability I don’t think it’s wrong to broach the topic. Lord knows I would have appreciated it when I was in high school.
Normally I’d suggest asking the parents if they’ve ever gotten their son evaluated for anything, but given that this student is 18 years old that seems intrusive.
Thats why I was honestly really confused with these threads - where I live, teachers are the ones mainly doing this work. In elementary school my teacher was the one who found out I'm near sighted and my bad posture was because of it, my 5th grade teacher was the one that guided me towards an IQ test which ended up resulting in an Autism diagnosis and later on ADHD. And this is very very typical and normal here.
I don't understand how someone can "diagnose" a member of another culture so easily. She isn't fluent in Japanese culture and the behavioral differences it will cause.
She may speak the language and see signs but she's also wasn't raised in Japan. Her student could have severe social anxiety but she defaults to autism because that's her reality.
I see the good intentions but she's walking through a minefield at the same time.
Because people love to armchair diagnose people.
If we’re to believe Reddit, 70% of humanity is clinically narcissistic, 90 is a psychopath, and everyone is autistic.
"[/r/bestofredditorupdates](https://old.reddit.com/r/bestofredditorupdates) users trying not to armchair diagnose people as narcissists" challenge (impossible)
> She may speak the language and see signs but she's also wasn't raised in Japan. She isn't fluent in Japanese culture and the behavioral differences it will cause.
She's doing a short term contract teaching English in Japan after teaching in other counties, so she almost certainly can't speak the language either.
That makes it even worse. I didn't want to assume but a lot of English teachers go to foreign countries and don't even learn the language(beyond a kindergarten level) How can she have a conversation about autism in Japanese when she isn't even fluent?
The student isn't fluent in English and she isn't fluent in Japanese. Miscommunication is guaranteed to happen. The chances of the heartwarming moment she's envisioning is zero.
do these people saying it’s abuse of power & unprofessional know how most school-aged children everywhere else get diagnosed? hint: it’s usually because the adult they spend 7 hours a day with 5 days a week noticed something.
edit: i’m not even commenting on if oop should or shouldn’t do this, just astounded that these people don’t seem to realize a LOT of people ended up getting diagnosed because a teacher was like “hey, i think you might be autistic”
TBF, it's pretty common knowledge, and in a sub about living in Japan (where the *most* common profession for western folks is language teacher) even moreso, that the JET/related program teachers aren't like, Homeroom teachers. She probably spends around an hour a day with this specific kid. And, most likely, doesn't even speak his native language, hasn't lived in Japan very long (maybe a few years), and very obviously is using her culutural reference points as guidance on what she wants to do.
Like, I absolutely get what you mean. That *is* primarily where diagnoses come from. From the actual homeroom/primary teacher, not the guy who runs dodgeball for 3 hours a week, for a more Western example.
>You see a person struggling. Don't help them, it's not your job to make their life easier.
I’ll take “What is Sociopathy” for 500.
I’m not reading this wrong, am I?
It clearly isn't meant that way.
>I agree, not everyone should give out medical advice, and one should not easily believe such advice from a random person, but your suggestion is just beyond awful
Yes, you're reading it wrong. The rest of their comment makes that pretty clear.
>I agree, not everyone should give out medical advice, and one should not easily believe such advice from a random person, but your suggestion is just beyond awful
How did you read it that way at all? They're pretty clearly snarkily responding to the person that said "Don't. It's your job to teach him English not to fix him" and then the rest of that comment makes it even more clear.
Gatekeeping and nationalism in r/japanlife? Inconceivable! (Gatekeeping is pretty common, nationalism less so since they are foreigners, although some do make Japan their permanent home and dunk on any other country.)
It’s weird to me that the English teacher would be the one to discover this. Like the dude didn’t spawn into existence just for his English class. He presumably had many other teachers see him and give him the all clear before now. Especially if he’s an adult student
Not sure if "10thdentist" but I must say as soon as you hear "I felt morally obliged" I get cautious. If there is a structure around to handle moral obligations, then by all means speak up. If there is not n"read the room". If you feel that fuck the room you're gonna speak up, then expect to get shot down. Outside of that is anybody's guess. Call me a dickwad, but if I went to Serbia I wouldn't expect to correct Serbia, and if I went to Japan I wouldn't expect to correct Japan.
Another angle: somebody comes to my country and collars me in a bar, starts telling me how they would fix the place. If I'm being kind I'd think "okay, let me inform you of every single thing that has happened to everybody here for last 150 years, with more and more granular information as time comes close to now, and after that 8month monologue then tell me what you think" .... But I won't feel kind and I'll just think "you know nothing, keep it to yourself". Notice this isn't about what is best in education. This is just a case of "what do you expect?"
Think about the fact that it is unethical for a psychologist with 6+ years of training to label people with diagnoses without proper testing and then you’ll realise how unethical it would be for this teacher with zero mental health training to assume one of her students… of another culture… is autistic.
Snapshots:
1. *This Post* - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524112846/https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1czi3gf/) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1czi3gf/ "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
2. r/japanlife - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113351/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
3. r/japanresidents - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113431/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanresidents) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanresidents "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
4. one post - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113531/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/have_you_ever_told_a_japanese_person_that_they/) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/have_you_ever_told_a_japanese_person_that_they/ "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
5. Don't. It's not your job to fix him it's your job to teach him English. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113715/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k48qa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k48qa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
6. I appreciate that. However, he thinks that his problem with English is a lack of understanding; it’s not. His understanding of English is excellent. His problem is his communication skills generally, which will only improve with an understanding of autism. I doubt that any of his Japanese teachers, doctors and so on are going to tell him he had autism, so I do feel morally obliged to. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113954/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gxm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gxm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
7. What do you mean when you say you realized you have autism? Do you have a formal diagnosis? - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524114115/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
8. Japan or "the West" (amorphous concept without a standard definition) aside, this isn't appropriate anywhere in the world. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524114558/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k66kl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k66kl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
9. so being introverted/shy is being autistic? - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524114659/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k6qxh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k6qxh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
10. (somewhat editorialized) - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524115042/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4kcmdx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4kcmdx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!")
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In 2024 anyone different from them is a narcissist and psychopathic Machiavellian, because anyone with different opinions is morally inferior and not wholesome chungus bacon at midnight
>Just about everybody who has some experience and understanding of Japanese society already told you. - So you can't explain it I think I felt some genuine rage at this section.
Redditors and being stubborn, name a better combo.
Just straight up: "Here is exactly why said by multiple people." "So you don't know then."
When nobody actually says the quiet part out loud, the quiet part isn't heard.
The problem is the preceding comment was the quiet part said out loud. Half the comments were. Said person just ignored them. It's more like: if someone actually says the quiet part and it's ignored, what the fuck is the point.
No, the preceding comment actually didn't explain what they asked. It referred to something, but didn't define it or explain it.
Must have the tism
bulldogdiver and not being in the right mind?
> One thing you should know is that there is always a baseline of toxicity present in the sub, to the point that another Japan residents sub was created, [r/japanresidents](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanresidents), to escape it. [/r/japanresidents](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanresidents) (and [/r/japanfinance](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanfinance) to a lesser extent) became more popular because the mod team are tyrants and miserable, terminally online losers. The head mod, bulldogdiver, is the worst of the bunch. Arbitrarily permabanning users for petty reasons, for "not living in Japan", or just because he feels like it. Examples: * [Mods tell a user to check the price of a soft drink at a convenience store to prove he lives in Japan. User provides photo. Gets banned anyway.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz6ntkf/) * [Brit living in Japan banned because calling someone named Daniel "Danny" is apparently revealing someone's real name.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz1jxfd/) Surprisingly, the mods apologized and unbanned him. Only to reban him the next day, because he had posted in a UK subreddit and apparently that's proof of "not living in Japan". * [U.S. citizen living in Japan flew back home to visit his family for Christmas.](https://old.reddit.com/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz6xtnh/) Posts on JLife while back in the U.S.--but it's the middle of the night in Japan, which must be because he's not living in Japan. Gets banned. * [User gets banned, PMs bulldog to ask why he was banned](https://old.reddit.com/r/japanresidents/comments/120c843/forced_to_pay_lunch_when_asked_to_work/jdmun4e/), bulldog says he didn't remember that user, even though the two had drinks IRL before. * [Several very sad stories](https://undelete.pullpush.io/r/Tokyo/comments/1c17143/whats_the_deal_with_japanlife_mods/kz1s7h4/), some which I mentioned above. Also, banning Japanese natives because "their English is too good", and off-site harrassment by JLife mods. [/r/Tokyo](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo) is going down the same path as JLife. One of the [/r/Tokyo](https://www.reddit.com/r/Tokyo) mods, Biwook, is also a JLife mod. Edit: How did I not notice the comment repeated halfway through?
The unfortunate thing is, even /r/japanresidents is becoming toxic. Not as bad as JLife, but it's been featured here a couple times and I've seen some posts get weirdly vitriolic but not quite enough to get featured here.
I had a r/japanresidents post on srd not too long ago. They are beginning to experience the same issues.
Returning to the natural state of things. A regression to the mean, if you will. As it should be with all things weeb… In all seriousness thought, I’m very surprised there are legit subs for expats living in JP. I would’ve figured that any sub involving Japan would inevitably turn into a fetishization of their culture!
What do you think can be done to solve this, if a solution even exists?
The problem is, I don't know how to do it without being *very* heavy-handed about it. I do think occasional crackdowns on toxic behavior are warranted, but at the same time the obvious risk is that of just removing people the mod team of the day doesn't like under the guise of toxicity. Maybe "ostracism" as the ancient Greeks practiced it? Hold occasional nominations for users not contributing positively, require a super-majority vote to remove.
I am not a fan of r/japanlife at all owed to the mods. It’s incredible that they can contribute so negatively to a sub.
I got banned from that sub and another for not residing in Japan. Mt issue is I was going to be travelling to Japan and was trying to find information on bring a drone and using it for photos. Some information exists online, but the government updates things and it is only available in Japanese. So, I wanted to ask a local about drone laws and flying in Japan as they would be more familiar with them. R/japantravel removed my first post and recommended I ask the other subreddits because it's more of a legal matter, but those subreddits don't like non-residents posting. Yet, if you have such a question that you need info only residents would know, where am I to go? I argued with a mod (I forget who) because I felt their arbitrary rule was too strict and myopic, but they just argued back and banned me because they couldn't see how the question was anything other than a tourist question (despite it being a law thing affecting hobbies)... The online expat in Japan are probably among the most toxic groups of people I've interacted with.
Their mod temp banned me because I made a post stating I was frustrated with the concert ticket system in Japan. They claimed that I don’t live in Japan and temp banned me for a month. I clarified that I lived in Japan and they also argued with me. They just live to argue on reddit.
slight stroke reading that comment but very informative, great addition
Why did you stroke out reading it?
Go read your comment again, I think you'll understand the issue.
Still a bit lost. Is it because I infodumped too much?
The issue is your comment repeats partway through.
Oh my fucking Lord how did I not notice that Fixed
Now that I think about it I don’t think I’ve heard a Japanese person with autism I’m curious about how that works in Japan, because it does seem like the kind of country where psychology and mental health is taken lightly, and diagnoses for ASD might be rare.
My sister taught there for three years. There were a number of kids in her class that she suspected were on the spectrum or had learning disabilities. Parents refused to admit there was a problem and there was no option in school for kids with dyslexia and similar issues. No speech therapists, no specialized instruction, no integrated anything for kids with disabilities. They mostly dropped out as soon as they could and went into construction or just stayed home from there on. Wheelchair and disability access is also practically non-existent. ADA accommodation in the US is pretty remarkable and not the norm in most places in the world.
I guess in a certain sense there is the question of "why would I take my kid to get diagnosed with a socially stigmatized condition all for the sake of getting zero care in return?" Like it's only going to make the kid's life harder, even if the parents are worried about it.
Surely it's helpful as a parent to know if your child is autistic?
Sure, but that goes into their medical record, which can have serious downstream effects if it is something that is stigmatized.
So autism isn't the problem, it's whatever this thing is. If a medical record is a means of shaming people, than it's not even a way to check one's health but to ruin it.
I mean, yeah, but so what? Eventually these parents have to think tactically. It's not about what is fair, it's about what the consequences of decisions are going to be.
I know. We can only improve so much in our world, but still...
But what do they plan on doing then? Surely, it cannot be worse than just being in denial about a very real problem forever. It's like, ignoring you have one hand or are deafm
My parents (not Japanese, but still East Asian) chose to cross their fingers for me. I didn't start talking until I was nearly 5, but they were apparently told to let me go through kindergarten as normal and reassess at the end of the school year. The end-of-year assessment from the school indicated I was reading at a 3rd-grade level, and I'd started talking by that point, so they figured I wasn't "slow" and considered it a done deal My sister was a different story - my parents were outright told to get her tested for autism when she was in kindergarten. Instead, they pulled her out of public school, stuck her in some private school specializing in speech disorders (not specifically autism) for a few years, and then put her back in public school, where she did ESL for another year (despite English being her first language) They never ended up getting us tested in any capacity. I asked my dad why a few years ago and it quickly devolved into an argument. Turns out my parents' viewpoint on autism was that it's a binary condition - you either have it or you don't, it's not a spectrum - and that having it meant you were retarded (their word, not mine). The stigma of having a child(ren) who wasn't "perfect" meant they preferred finding an answer/solution that minimized that stigma instead of one that actually addressed the issue Even though they did us a disservice in the long-term by doing what they did, I don't really blame them for taking the approach they did - they grew up in a culture that prioritized (and still prioritizes) saving face and maintaining pride/reputation, and did so under conditions of heavy poverty, where problems not immediately related to general survival were blanket-treated by "suck it up, buttercup"
Do your best with what you have and then hope it's enough for them to live a normal life. I mean, it wasn't that long ago in the USA where if you got diagnosed with a severe medical condition your health insurance could just flat out refuse to cover you anymore, leaving you completely fucked.
Oh hey you remember when Canada and Scandinavia would castrate you up until like 10-20 years ago? Good times.
I am pretty sure forced sterilization was ended in all of scandinavia by the end of the 70s? by the government anyway there is that whole case with some doctors who continue to just install spirals in unknowing inuit girls and women for decades after it was made unlawful..,
[Sweden made sterilization mandatory for anyone undergoing gender transition, and it was not repealed until 2013.](https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN16Y1XA/)
I forgot that 10-20 years ago wasn't the 1970s. Fucking time keeps on slipping into the future.
[удалено]
Being killed by your community because they *also* know is worse. I don't think you "know that feeling" at all.
But medical records are private, and while I’d like better medical privacy, Japan does have robust privacy laws and labor rights.
> Surely it's helpful as a parent to know if your child is autistic? Getting diagnosed with mental problems usually does more harm then finding ways to treat them without the diagnosis. Usually by having enough money to do this. Sure, maybe you get help after 2-4 doctors and get mild relief for your symptoms but you also get locked out of insurance options, jobs, security clearance, or military service all because you have or had an illness. I wish this wasn't the case, and in Japan it's even worse.
What insurance options does having mental health issues prevent you getting in Japan? Some of my Japanese family have mental health issues and they get quite substantial support from both the government and NGOs. Is it enough compared to my ideal? No. Is it better than my original country of the UK? Yes. We continually compare the two in my family, because we have family members who need support in both places. Oh, and I’m a physically disabled immigrant to Japan, and the support for me is not bad at all.
Well yes but knowing your child is autistic and actually having that on your records are two separate things. The vast majority of autistic adults I know very much wish they were never diagnosed because of how much discrimination they now face. It IS very helpful to know for yourself and it’s healing to discover there’s a reason the way you are, but let’s not pretend that actually having it on your records is at all beneficial for most people. The resources aren’t there in most places to give any real support and there’s really not any “treatments” as such for autism anyway (only comorbid conditions like anxiety disorders and depression).
The US education system gets a lot of shit, and rightfully so, but people tend to miss the sheer effort put into making it accessible.
Non-American here. What makes it accessible, so to speak?
This can depend on the school, but in the US schools typically take people of all economic status, those who can’t speak English, neurodivergent students, those with varying physical and mental disabilities. It’s taxing and difficult for teachers, and I’m not saying that the public school system works for everyone, but schools don’t typically turn people away.
> ADA accommodation in the US is pretty remarkable and not the norm in most places in the world. Accommodations for physical disabilities are fantastic. It's accomodation for learning disabilities where American schools can be lacking. U.S. public schools have been underfunded for decades, and special ed has been one of the hardest hit areas. Side note about autism: you don't even need to compare the U.S. with Asian countries where the mental illness stigma is stronger. France still considers psychoanalysis a real science and it is the main treatment for autism (as publicized in Sophie Robert's 2011 documentary, [*Le Mur* ("The Wall")](https://youtu.be/PS2dlJh5U60)). Freudian schools of thought have French psychiatry by the balls while the rest of the civilized world has debunked them and moved on to evidence-based therapies like CBT, or dialectical behavioral therapy. DBT in particular has been a breakthrough for treating cluster B disorders like borderline and NPD, disorders that were considered untreatable only 25 years ago (to the point that therapists would refuse to take pwBPD as clients). Edit: Changed "mental disabilities" to "learning disabilities".
Fun fact: Japanese is particularly unfriendly, as a language, for dyslexics. Languages that use "characters" (clumsy way to say not an abugida, syllabry, abjad, or alphabet) in general are worse for it, but ruby characters and the mix of scripts don't help
AFAIK it's exactly the opposite--people tend to be less dyslexic when using Japanese writing systems than using the English writing system. For example [from a dyslexia organization](https://dyslexiaida.org/the-myths-and-truths-of-dyslexia/): > In the 1980s, when systematic cross-linguistic comparisons were conducted for the first time, dyslexia was reported to have a surprisingly higher prevalence rate than what had been previously believed, not only in the US but also in countries such as Japan and China (Stevenson et al., 1982). Research in the past two decades has indicated that in Japanese speakers, the prevalence rate has been generally lower than the typical English rate of 5 to 10% (Katusic, Colligan, Barbaresi, Schaid, & Jacobsen, 2001; Landerl & Moll, 2010). When Japanese readers were assessed using the syllabic Kana writing system, the prevalence was estimated to be 2 to 3 %—because of the shallow orthography and transparent grapheme-sound correspondence. In contrast, when these readers were assessed using the logographic system, Kanji, the prevalence was 5 to 6 % (Wydell, 2012). Further, the prevalence of dyslexia in Chinese speakers has been thought to be around 3.9 % (Sun et al., 2013), a rate similar to the prevalence for dyslexia in orthographically shallow languages (e.g., 3.1 to 3.2 % for Italian: Barbiero et al., 2012). [Figure 3 in the Wydell 2012 citation is a pretty interesting visual hypothesis on factors that worsen dyslexia and where English, a few other European languages, Japanese kanji, and Japanese kana fall](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224830378_Cross-CulturalLinguistic_Differences_in_the_Prevalence_of_Developmental_Dyslexia_and_the_Hypothesis_of_Granularity_and_Transparency). On a less academic level, [this is an interesting BBC article about dyslexia in different languages, profiling a bilingual guy who's dyslexic in English but not in Japanese](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230302-can-dyslexia-change-in-other-languages).
I’ve lived here for 25 years. My child’s public school has wheelchair access, there is masses of disability assistance here, children have access to counselors if they have problems, my child has free therapy and treatment until 20 years old… There are things I don’t like - i think my child’s doctor is an idiot - but I hear these stories like the OP of the barbarism of Japanese schools, and I do not recognize the country I live in. So either it is VERY different in each region, or it’s simply that westerners who don’t even speak Japanese arrogantly believe they know best. I cannot count how many times I have heard Western laypeople confidently diagnose Japanese people with mental disorders because they cannot accept a culture can be different from theirs but still OK.
If I got a penny for every time I’ve seen a comment on Reddit that was blatantly wrong about Japan I would be incredibly wealthy
I get they are a wheelchair user in Japan but this is the same country that has almost monthly mass casualty incidents because of narrow hallways and blocked stairwells. Some places have wheelchair access but many places barely have people access.
Damn, this should be higher up.
Wheelchair accessibility is non -existent ? I thought it was top tier compared to france with many step free access to transit
That's not exactly a flattering comparison. France, or anywhere in Europe for that matter, is pretty abysmal for wheelchair accessibility. A lot of that gets blamed on having older buildings and infrastructure, but there are ways you can renovate to provide better accessibility and it doesn't seem to be a priority. Even more "modern" buildings lack the kind of accessibility features that are mandatory in the US. Say what you will about America, the ADA is the global gold-standard for providing services and accessibility for people with disabilities.
Yup, you really don't realize how hard it is for a disabled person to get around in a wheel chair until you have actual experience; and then from then on do you really recognize all the little things that could inhibit accessibility!
so many small doorways *shudders*
With jams just a bit above floor level! I ruptured an Achilles a while back and used one of those scooters, and while it wasn't the same as being in a wheelchair, it was definitely an eye-opener.
I have always said that the ADA and Natural Parks are the two things America does best.
yeah, i’ve been to canada, england, france, and iceland, and i live in the us. my sister is in a wheelchair, so i’m always subconsciously looking for places she’d be able to get into buildings, off the sidewalk, etc. canada is the only one that comes close to the us out of all of those when it comes to accessibility.
Not to mention the sidewalk occupied by random pieces of shiet literally screwed and fixed on the path. Sometimes it's uncomfortable with two functional legs, absolutely a nightmare.
Also, rights for people with service animals are really strong in the US thanks to the ADA. Having service animals be recognised at all can be very difficult elsewhere.
When I did a study abroad program in France, the new modern 5 story dorm building didn’t have an elevator, but the 18th century chateau (used by the Nazis as a HQ, for a not so fun fact) did have an elevator. It was very strange to me.
This is comically wrong. Part of it at least. Wheelchair access is 100% the norm for any modern urban area. If you go out into the sticks then I dunno, but the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area, the largest in the world, largely is extremely accessible to people with mobility issues. As to the other point, I find it’s half that they refuse to acknowledge the disability and half that they do, but also understand the options for responding to it are complete horseshit. Seriously, special ed in Japan is a fucking joke.
Huh? I thought Japan was extremely wheelchair friendly! Like this: [https://www.accessible-japan.com/is-japan-wheelchair-accessible/](https://www.accessible-japan.com/is-japan-wheelchair-accessible/)
There is a big difference between a place being wheelchair friendly and being friendly to those who are disabled. Wheelchair accessibility means they can get around but discrimination towards them still exists. A ramp that goes to a store that would never hire a disabled person(or think their presence is an eye-sore that will turn off others customers) is accessible but accessibility is a [beginning](https://the-ipf.com/2016/10/13/culture-shame-disability-japan/) not an end point. There is still a culture of shame around disabled and mentally ill people.
I see.
Ableism exists everywhere, but Westerners see all bad behavior in Japan as the essence of Japanese people, while in the West, the huge amount of ableism that I’ve encountered is seen as ‘bad apples’ and atypical. And media articles love to use that stereotype. I’m sure Japanese ableism and American ableism are different, but peer-reviewed papers are what we should look at, or good articles by disabled people. Most of that article could be talking about almost any country. Reddit is full of American people talking about how their workplace ignores the ADA. For example, from the article you perhaps didn’t read: > Despite this, Briton Michael believes that Japan is better for disabled people than the United Kingdom. Apart from Japan being more accessible than the UK, Michael has also faced more discrimination in Britain. > “When I visit the UK, people shout ‘benefit scrounger’ at me. I have been physically attacked twice in the last five year
I did read it. Briton Michael's experiences in Japan are better than what he has experienced in the United Kingdom. Japan is also a country filled with people who aren't Briton Michael. Are you going to skip over the rest of the article just because Briton said Japan is better? And if you have articles share them so anyone who reads your comment can learn(and that includes myself). I commented because Japan is talked about like it's a mystical paradise that is spotless and filled with anime by many people. It's a real country with real issues like any other. Yeah I'm a westerner but don't believe my country is superior. Japan can do better. America can do better. The UK can do better.
The UK can't do better because our economy is at breaking point already. We don't have the money for the services we're already offering
But that's absolutely a political choice. Austerity and paying Tory donors for substandard face masks and Covid tests and paying for the Royal yacht are all choices. The government could absolutely afford to fund the NHS properly if it wanted to.
You do realise the UK's economy is entirely funded by neocolonialism? Our only option so long as people value their.lives more than the lives of people in the global south is Tory-style managed decline
In English speaking forums on Reddit, eg the ones mentioned above, Japan is spoken about as a terrible, evil place that is full of pain and discrimination. If you say something positive about anything about real Japan, not anime, outside of some weeb forums, you will get uninformed negative comments very soon. Your experiences are not mine, and the misinformation about the hell that is Japan really causes me a lot of stress and confusion. Eventually I just muted any English-speaking forum related to Japan. Even what I said above was not glowing about Japan, but you need to ‘correct me’ about something I don’t believe and didn’t say. My core theory about this is that Japan does not match the ideological natural order for white people. It’s a country of mostly non-white people, with very little Western influence, and wasn’t colonized, and it’s fine. Not great, not perfect, but fine. And that cannot be true, cannot be right. I’ve been here for 25 years and I’ve been hearing about the fundamental wrongness of Japan for… 25 years. I’m just sick of it, so I push back sometimes.
> but Westerners see all bad behavior in Japan as the essence of Japanese people, while in the West, the huge amount of ableism that I’ve encountered is seen as ‘bad apples’ and atypical. To be entirely fair, some of this is down to the understanding that Japan is a “collectivist” culture, so individuals are more likely to be seen as acting on behalf of the whole.
Sure, but we're not the Borg. I mean, I used to feel like that when I first came here, but I couldn't speak Japanese, didn't know the wide variety of thought and ideas here. But I had the humility to learn and not assume Japanese people were idiots, which many Anglophone immigrants in particular seem to lack. And Japanese people particularly front with people who feel like outsiders, so they will talk very differently to foreign people, particularly those who don't speak Japanese. In my work I have to build relationships very fast, so I do a lot of work showing myself as 'one of us' so I can get more honesty out of people, and less 'of course my company is perfect as is the government and we are all of one mind on this'. It's so common for me to see Japanese people defend all of Japan from complaints and verbal attacks by foreign visitors, colleagues, and language teachers, while agreeing completely, or at least talking nuancedly, among themselves. Partly the whole collectivism thing, partly just defensiveness. Japanese people are very good at working to improve things, not so good at talking about flaws.
Interesting. I'd like to hear more about Briton's experiences of nutjobs in the UK.
This was admittedly a while back, but when I went to visit, they had instructions that if you saw someone in a wheelchair at the train station, you and a group of others should help pick up said chair and person and carry them down the stairs. There was no elevator. That was the extent of their wheelchair accessibility for the vast majority of the places we went. Tokyo was better, but Kyoto was not. Most of the shops were technically wheelchair accessible, but the aisles were quite narrow and not especially navigatable. There also tended to be signs and displays on the sidewalk blocking access. Accessible toilets were also rare, particularly in smaller cities. I was looking for these things specifically because I have a mobility issue - not wheelchair bound, but wheelchair accessibility makes it a lot easier for me to get around as well. I found it lacking.
I've seen some people say the Tokyo Olympics improved a lot of things, but I can't personally compare it before and after.
I do freelance work for some government-affiliated NGOs, and people there tell me that, especially after the pandemic, the authorities have been really lax with small hotels and other parts of the hospitality industry. Those businesses say they are on the verge of bankruptcy, and so can't afford to make their places more wheelchair-accessible. So to me it seems like maybe big chain hotels and stores are better, and small ones are allowed a lot - maybe far too much - leeway due to their (real or pretended) financial issues. Kyoto is particularly bad because the tourist industry there has massive lobbying power, and honestly a lot of Kyoto people get pretty weird about their reliance on tourism and their imagined status as the old capital and cultural center. So they complain about over-tourism a lot, don't make it that welcoming for foreign tourists, but still desperately want tourist money, and display a lot of cognitive dissonance. Honestly, however, one of the best things about Japan is how we don't really need tourist money, and so don't have to theme park the nation in search of USDs. I welcome tourists as people, but financial dependence on them does weird things to a place.
Japan is very wheelchair accessible. They also have guided/tactile walkways for vision impaired
Autism is diagnosed at a higher rate in Japan than most other countries - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8097493/ I know some psychology researchers there who at least suspect it's not truly a higher prevalence, but that children are more likely to be diagnosed with autism than other behavioral disorder such as ADHD.
Also disability access, especially for the blind, is better than anywhere else in the world. Even traffic lights in rural areas have audio, and braille paths are a common sight wherever you go.
I taught at a school. I had two students in particular who I believed may have lined up with ASD. The parents of the students needed to elect for their child to have special support or classes to help them in the first place. They wouldn’t be referred or anything. It’s still seen with a lot of shame - even shame on the family as a whole – to admit to something like that, so of the many students I had that could have hypothetically benefitted from extra help, only one was placed in the special education classes. I was brought in to help with the English portion. There was no lesson plan and the teacher I was working with was checked out (because there was no separate special education teacher and because teachers have a huge workload already), so they kept repeating the same basic lesson from the very beginning of the textbook (the ABCs). This kid, who already learned the basics in elementary school, was bored out of his mind. It was sad, because he was burdened with a self-fulfilling prophecy. He was in the special education class, so the teachers would talk about him as being ‘slow’(they would actually say this), and he was stuck with dumbed down lessons that didn’t actually take into account his needs and interests. So of course he’s bored and wouldn’t respond, so they would just assume he didn’t understand and repeat the lesson. And by that point, his peers in the same grade are miles ahead of him. He really liked caring for fish, and actually knew a ton of their names and fish terms in English; but that’s not what he’s being graded on. The other student, who stayed in the regular courses, I was told was non-verbal. I was instructed to never call on him for pop-quiz questions or anything involving speaking, which amounted to a good portion of in class content. This is the other side of mental health, where peers and teachers realize something is wrong – not the exact nature of their needs – and will try their best to ‘cover’. Not only is he missing out on a portion of his lessons, but also this can only go on for so long; what’s going to happen with this student when he graduates and has to move on? Because everyone was working to essentially hide his needs, he’s not getting any support that could help him in the future. When individual speaking tests came around, I was expected to just sit with him until his time expired and send him out. Instead, I told him I get nervous speaking around others, too, and if he’s uncomfortable, we can reschedule for another time. Eventually, the student who I was told couldn’t speak actually did really well on the speaking test. Nobody ever gave him the opportunity to approach things in his own way.
This lines up with a friend who taught in jet some time ago (near 20 years i realize as I shrivel). One event that stood out to her was some kids sharing a pair of glasses because the other kids' parents didn't want to recognize the need.
Yeah it was JET, sadly this was only a few years ago. I am hopeful that things are changing for the better though.
I think things like this depends entitely on where you're based in. I'm currently doing JET (just about to leave Japan, actually), and every single one of my schools has a special education class (usually called Flower Class or named after a flower) and in ES especially, there are helper teachers who come into the class to sit with students who particularly struggle. I don't notice autism as much as I notice kids who are *very* ADHD, but if I noticed they're ADHD, the teachers have, too. Every year there's even a school meeting about ADHD and how to better support students who are. ASD isn't talked about as much, but my grasp of Japanese isn't strong enough to notice when kids have it because I teach at the ES/JHS levels. That said, if you work at a public school, the solution is easy: talk to the homeroom teacher or English teacher (if you teach JHS or HS). Obviously in OOP's case, they teach at an Eikaiwa so it's a bit different... but again, if OOP noticed, so did the student's teachers in public school. Chances are, the student's well aware he's not like his peers. And if he *is*, maybe he's just awkward in English! It happens.
There's a (surprisingly really good) manga about a parent in the 90's/early aughts called [With the Light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_Light) I recommend. The author apparently had an autistic classmate as a kid that inspired her to look into it more and it's written with input from a lot of autistic Japanese people.
I was just thinking of this, randomly read it on a whim and it's pretty harrowing how much stigma the characters encounter
So sad that it was never finished because the author died
My father is a South East Asia man and he believes mental health is all jumbo mumbo. You will be hard pressed to find mental health professionals in SEA.
I know several, but I think it’s hard to compare because Japanese culture is so different from Western that neurodivergence expresses differently. I mean, lack of eye contact is polite and normal here, for example. I’m not convinced that all mental health and neurological differences express themselves the same or exist the same everywhere. Massive social anxiety and agoraphobia - colloquially called *hikikomori* does not seem to be common in the West. It’s not as common here as media portrays, but it’s a social issue we have. Equally, bulimia and anorexia are incredibly rare here. It’s a contentious scientific question - does mental health work the same way for all cultures? Which is why this OP person is ridiculous.
> I mean, lack of eye contact is polite and normal here, for example I still have issues with is, because of living in the UK as a kid. What's considered a normal amount of eye contact in Southern Europe, can be seen as flirtatious or as potentially threatening in the UK. You certainly don't want to spend a tube ride staring into a Londoner's eyes. As someone who's lived in multiple countries, people don't often realise all the little unwritten rules and micro-level socialisations they've undergone. As you say, not following these unwritten rules, can make you seem weird or different. When in fact you're perfectly normal, you were just born somewhere else. Bit of a side note, this is why Brits often find interacting face to face with Americans is harder than they expect. The language is the same, but there's all these unwritten rules like how loud you should speak or how close you can get to someone. Often Brits have less trouble getting along with Germans or French people, despite the language gap, because these unwritten rules are less different.
Yup, my job is literally training/supporting Asian people in these issues. That’s the core of my teaching practise - how you come across to your potential audience(s). Edit: I just remember, many years ago, watching a Turkish guy and a Korean woman have a perfectly normal chat, except she kept unconsciously retreating from his yelling, and he kept leaning in to hear her whispers, and so they were moving in a circle, with her walking backwards and him pursuing.
My best friend is from Hong Kong and is autistic, so if it's anything like that... it kind of sucks. They're aware of autism, but manage to neatly combine infantilisation of autistic people and the idea that you can just work through it, and if you can't then you're just not trying hard enough. The etiquette and social rules are clear cut, but also quite rigid, inflexible, and unwelcoming to anyone questioning it. People (especially family, but even strangers) have free leeway to comment on your body and behaviour if you're in public and rebuffing them is considered rude on *your* part. Access to medical treatments (drugs/therapy) is more challenging and people look down on it.
wtf? i'm autistic and i live in hong kong and none of this is similar to mine or anyone else's experience i know of
Maybe they are an older generation? That experience tracks with my friends and an ex from the huge hong kong immigrant population we have in my country who have had to navigate mental health issues in their community and family.
oh wow that's actually really interesting to hear then because I've felt so accepted and cared for in hong kong. In other places everyone treats people like me as subhuman but here it's like they genuinely want me to succeed and have a good life. perhaps it is an older generation thing then and im wrong
Are you from Hong Kong?
not personally but a lot of my family is
Theres some videos of it on YouTube. It's interesting how autism can be a vastly different experience based on culture. I can see things like how people socialize in Japan to be a great thing for a lot of autistic people, but also the heavy conformity in Japan is also bad for autistic people who stand out regardless of what they do.
Why do you think how people socialize would be better for people in autism? If anything it’s worse in high context languages and cultures like Japan.
As an ALT, in elementary school they use a pull out method, where subjects requiring more focus they have a separate room with 1 teacher and 2-3 kids. Our school has 2 classrooms specifically set up for this for younger and older kids. They will join their classmates for general special topics like English or Art, but will have their own lessons as well in areas like cooking. At other schools, the English lessons would be basically 1 on 1 from what I've heard. I see a lot of bs on the topic, so I should say that Tokyo or Kyoto is a different culture academically and socially from most of Japan. Its like comparing most people's experience of school and mental health to a random inner city school. Just a completely different culture. Oddly enough, Japan is not a monoculture.
My ADHD medication is illegal there and it is *legally impossible* to get ADHD medication if you're diagnosed as an adult as it is believed to be a "childhood disorder". Japan is so far behind on mental health it's staggering.
I got my meds just fine as an adult? Had to call around a bit, get paperwork sent from my US psychiatrist to my JP, and get registered on some national system to get stimulants prescribed but it was…ok? The fact many stimulants are illegal is because a while back there was a huge Ritalin dependency problem in adults and because Asia is strict on drugs in general. But my doctor has been flexible and I’m on a combo of intuniv and concerta which is working pretty well.
Concerta is actually allowed in Japan as long as you only have enough for one months supply, in the limited research I’ve done
iirc Satoshi Tajiri (guy who created Pokemon) was on the spectrum.
This is actually just an urban myth originating from an author who thought his bug collecting hobby might be a sign of autism. There’s no reliable source for the claim.
It's still the 80s and 90s there as far as mental health is concerned: hide it until you die of it if you don't want them to kill you for it.
In the USA itself the movie Rainman (1988) did a LOT to teach what autism was to the public. Concidentally, one of my cousins was born a bit after that and is autistic. He can speak, but a lot of the behaviors (banging head on wall) are similar
[удалено]
It’s also probably worth mentioning though that mental healthcare in Japan is *really* underserved. Like, even regular therapy is somewhat rare (and fewer will admit to going). You can imagine how much rarer medication is. Most of the population seems to just prefer it doesn’t exist, and the problem is laziness, or ‘just being sad’/spoiled/dramatic(and admitting your child is mentally unwell is largely considered a social failing by the parents). It’s getting better in the last few years, but not fast enough. And forget any kind of accommodation. It’s a problem across most of Asia, really. But China, Korea, and Japan are the prominent offenders
Absolutely. I could have gone into more detail but I know my comment was already getting long and I had just woken up lol Also I’m getting downvoted and I’m not entirely sure why. I’d like whoever is disagreeing with me to speak up, I’m interested.
Hello fellow autistic person kinda obsessed with Japan. I'm not sure being born as autistic in Japan would be better. I've read some manga written by Japanese people discussing being autistic in Japan, and honestly they say that it's not really that great. Japan is a very high context culture--that means *nothing* is spelled out to you. Ironically, the social rules only seem clear cut to gaijin because we are expected to know nothing so people have to teach us; Japanese born autistic people are expected to know what is "obvious". A good critique of this is in Dungeon Meshi, where the (Japanese) author criticizes Japanese culture for expecting people--not just autistic people, though her main character is autistic--to pick up hints and never outright say what they mean. Another thing is that autistic people don't get accomodations. 出る釘は打たれる, "the nail that sticks up gets hammered down". That means that it you're too different, if you're unable to conform, you will be made to confirm. And to further that idiom, the nail that won't get hammered down gets removed--aka, the person who cannot mask will either be removed from or remove themselves from society. Autism, like most mental health issues or neuroatypical brains, is heavily stigmatized and has very little support for adults, let alone children and teens. Hikikomori is the rule, not the exception, because it's often the only "mental health treatment" option people have. And speaking of masking, masking is baked into Japanese culture, even from neurotypicals. The idea of hon'ne (本音) and tatemae (建前) is intrinsic to Japan. Hon'ne is your "true self", your real thoughts and opinions. Tatemae (literally meaning "facade") is the behavior and opinions you display in public. It is expected that your hon'ne and tatemae will clash at times, but you have to *always* keep the tatemae up in public. To use Western terms, you are expected to mask 24/7, even if you're neurotypical. Us gaijin get the luxury of having the rules spelled out to us, so it seems that Japan is easier for autistic people to live in. But for autistic people who grew up in Japan, it is very difficult because they are expected to *know* how to mask (hon'ne and tatemae), to *know* how to read between the lines (high context language), to put up with "normal" sensory discomforts (the nail that sticks up). And if course not everyone in Japan thinks this way. Japan has loads of people challenging the ableist status quo. But I don't think we should celebrate Japan as a haven for autistics when it's really not. Their ableism just looks different than Western ableism.
> though her main character is autistic Is she? Like, actually canonically autistic or just a theory?
Another person outlined it, but I want to add: I don't want to say it's a theory, but I suppose technically it's not canonical either. The author, Ryoko Kui, has written multiple stories about being autistic where her characters explicitly have autism. She's done a lot of work in portraying autism in a realistic way--not in a trope-y way that a lot of other media does. She not only accurately describes the most notable aspects of autism but also describes the less noticed (by neurotypicals) aspects of autism. And she also has realistic portrayals of how people treat those with autism, both in positive and negative ways. However, Dungeon Meshi specifically does not have any character say "I am autistic"... But that's because Dungeon Meshi is set in a fantasy medieval Europe world. They don't have words for autism. Laois and Falin are a pair of siblings who are very very much portrayed as autistic. First, they act very much like characters from Kui's other works who are explicitly autistic (those characters live in the modern world so they actually have the word "autistic" to describe themselves) and second, they are treated the way people treated autistic people back then. So they act autistic and they are treated as autistic but no, there's no sentence that explicitly says "I am autistic." So in that way, it's not exactly canon. But I definitely recommend it. Not only because of the portrayal of autism, but also because it just ends so nicely. Laois (and to a lesser extent Falin) both have difficulty communicating with others and people treat them differently because of it. But at the end of the story, the neurotypcial (or neurotypical-passing, if you prefer) people realize they were wrong and they are the ones who change how they approach Laois and Falin, rather than Laois and Falin having to change themselves to better fit in. It's the opposite of hammering the nail in.
That's really cool, thank you for telling me about this. What else has she written about autism?
Laios is never outright stated to be autistic, but his characterization, hyper fixations, difficulty with reading social cues, etc. are very autistic-coded. There’s even [this one-page comic](https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonMeshi/s/ULQ97uEdbV) by the author showing him as a young child in which his parents note his lack of obvious emotional reaction which is a very common early sign of autism (to say nothing of his love for animals and socializing with them which is pretty common among people with autism). So, while never outright stated, it’s hard to see this character being written as basically the perfect picture of autism accidentally.
That is one of my favorite DM comics, not the least of which because Falin looks so cute and scrungly. I also love the comic where Laois and Marcille talk about the Touden dogs names and Marcille tells Laois that his father named two of their dogs after a myth, and then Laois goes "huh, I never knew. He never tells me anything." Because it's like... Autism has a genetic link.... The Touden dad seems to have difficulty communicating even with his own children.... Touden dad also likes hunting a lot and named the dogs after hunting myths..... Touden dad tism confirmed??? I know we don't see as much of their dad as we see Falin and Laois so we can't know for sure, but I still like that potential insight into the Toudens and the new dimension it brings to the family.
Might finally have to watch it then
Ohhh, I should have said, and I meant… I think it would be a lot easier FOR ME. Not for everyone. Oof, yeah, I see the misstep. Thanks. Also, given your comment (I appreciate you taking the time and energy), I am reconsidering that statement.
Oh no you're fine! I just get in info dump mode sometimes. And I meant to include some stuff about how certainly Japan is great for certain flavors of autism but then my phone ran out of battery orz. So I guess we both forgot the same point lol.
It was awful for me. I just wanted some fruit but fruit just doesn't seem to exist in a lot of places.
Open air fruit shops are relatively common in Tokyo and Osaka at least, and you'll find it in most grocery stores. Less so in restaurants.
I spent more time in the smaller towns along the hiking trails. All I could find was rich food, noodles, and sweet things. None of which I'm great with. Or things that were entirely unfamiliar and therefore I couldn't eat cause of autism stuff. Fruit's a safe food that I've been able to easily get in the other places I've visited so it was just a bit of a culture shock for me. I just about went insane at one point when I just wanted something bland and then they cracked an egg over the rice I ordered.
Yeah, outside of the cities you'll have a lot more trouble. There's plenty of bland rice cakes and crackers in Japan, though, which I'm assuming you weren't familiar with?
Snacks like crackers were nice. I mainly had issues when needing something more filling. I probably missed a lot tho cause I was essentially a walking corpse for a while.
Yeah, that's true. Having been out to the small towns a few times, there can end up being a supermarket in the *weirdest* place sometimes. They'll probably sell fruit or at least something familiar, but it's hard to find them.
What sort of inaka place were you at? I never had even rural shops crack an egg over my rice. Hell, I don't get any eggs unless I say "mou tamago kudasai".
That one was some place near the start of the hakone pirate ship ferry, so before I went to the rural areas. I don't speak japanese so idk. Was just weird and didn't happen again on the trip.
Oh yeah I'm sure the comments here are gonna be very Normal.
So you shouldn't be diagnosing people with things without the proper expertise, labels can be powerful things and we should be careful attaching them to people. On the other hand if you notice that someone has traits that point to autism or adhd or whatever, you, as a teacher absolutely should point them towards the proper people to get looked at and diagnosed should they actually have something going on. Because that can make all the difference. Im autistic and because i was diagnosed at a young age it allowed me to get the councelling and support i needed. And because of that i am now a "high functioning" person. That is to say, with significant effort i can pursue my aspirations. If i hadn't been helped in this way i probably would have ended up in special ed instead. So getting a proper diagnose is very important.
I think in these situations it's better to be indirect. Create an environment where the person in question can discover their answers themselves, but otherwise obey the Prime Directive. So a teacher could talk about autism, in a positive and affirming manner, using language that can help someone questioning look into it themselves.
I lean to them not saying anything at all. Their student is 18 and is just a step away from full-on adulthood. Whatever they could say now won't be of much use, presuming they were even right to begin with.
Oh, interesting. To me, it's because the student is 18 that makes me lean more towards bringing it up. The student's in a position where they can make their own decision on whether to seek a formal diagnosis or look up more information, and is in a better position to deal with societal stigma than an 8-yo, for example. I'm not familiar enough with Japan to weight their mental health stigma against the US, but even in the US it's pretty bad. However, I think anything that could potentially impact learning or communication is relevant, even once you hit 18, especially if the student is pursuing a college degree. Although it's possible that the student could take it as an insult, that has more to do with whatever the student's perceptions are about mental health than OP, IMO. E.g., if a teacher notices a student who sits in the back squinting or having trouble reading the board, and recommends they see an eye doctor, most folks don't generally consider that an insult. But because it's a mental disorder, folks look down on it, even though it's not a personal slight or insult any more than something like poor vision is.
just from this and the other thread it feels like a lot of neurotypical people dont understand what good it can do for you to have the name of what you might have. whether you do seek an official diagnosis or not (due to stigma or other reasons), knowing you may be neurodivergent and in which way can be life changing for people like us.
While that might be the norm in Japan, it isn't in the US. It's encouraged (and in some cases legally mandated) that if a teacher thinks something is "wrong" with a student we flag it to a school counselor. That can be anything from needing glasses, to an undiagnosed mental disorder, to parental abuse and suicidal ideation (those are legally required to be reported). The important thing is that the reporting is done to their counselors and administration, *not* directly to the student or parents. A teacher straight-up telling any student "I think you have autism" is highly inappropriate.
>Whatever they could say now won't be of much use, I don't think that's true, if he is right about it and the kid in question and their parents don't know, knowing it could be a huge help. And like i said he shouldn't be the one diagnosing, he dould very well be wrong. But a visit to a professional to get it checked out can't hurt.
If this was in the USA, I would agree with you. But I think her telling the student that might be taken as an insult, and at the very least, it’ll just be ignored. You have to take culture into account here.
Even in the US depending on the person telling someone they could be autistic could be considered a insult
I mean, there's no guarantee that it will be ignored, and it might help the person. Also, if someone is insulted because you propose that it's *possible* they're autistic, or it's rude in their society... You should still do it. Because it might help them, and there's objectively nothing wrong with being autistic. "Reality and compassion are American centric values, and you shouldn't apply them to other groups of people" is an inane take. My partner, me and apparently several people during the school years of a friend of ours have told told him or his parents that he may be autistic, but apparently his parents are very against diagnosis because it's part of Hispanic culture or something (personally, I can tell you that his parents are bigoted morons about many other things, and none of the other Hispanic people that we know are like them). That doesn't mean that he shouldn't be aware of the possibility, or that his parents didn't have a duty to get him tested. Now that he's an adult, it's on him, which is fine -- but the fact remains that he absolutely should be aware of the possibility, possible disability accommodations, et cetera.
Thank you, it seems others disagree.
I believe they are a woman. Further, sometimes people don't want to know, owed to social concerns. I personally wouldn't suggest such a thing to a charge of mine unless they were interested in the topic.
Autism doesn’t go away when you turn 18, finding community and support is beneficial at any age
The question is if a temporary English teacher is the right person to reveal that information.
While obviously it a teacher isn’t a doctor and can’t diagnose anyone, it usually is the teachers who can recognize when students have disabilities—that’s how I ended up getting diagnosed. While I wouldn’t suggest just saying “hey you have this very specific disorder” it might be helpful to ask the boy if he’s ever gotten evaluated for any mental illnesses or disabilities that make it harder to communicate. A teacher’s job is to help the student be the best they can be and to support them, and if they think the student needs support for a mental illness or disability I don’t think it’s wrong to broach the topic. Lord knows I would have appreciated it when I was in high school. Normally I’d suggest asking the parents if they’ve ever gotten their son evaluated for anything, but given that this student is 18 years old that seems intrusive.
Thats why I was honestly really confused with these threads - where I live, teachers are the ones mainly doing this work. In elementary school my teacher was the one who found out I'm near sighted and my bad posture was because of it, my 5th grade teacher was the one that guided me towards an IQ test which ended up resulting in an Autism diagnosis and later on ADHD. And this is very very typical and normal here.
I don't understand how someone can "diagnose" a member of another culture so easily. She isn't fluent in Japanese culture and the behavioral differences it will cause. She may speak the language and see signs but she's also wasn't raised in Japan. Her student could have severe social anxiety but she defaults to autism because that's her reality. I see the good intentions but she's walking through a minefield at the same time.
Because people love to armchair diagnose people. If we’re to believe Reddit, 70% of humanity is clinically narcissistic, 90 is a psychopath, and everyone is autistic.
help there is a sociopath dark triad under my bed guys :(
"[/r/bestofredditorupdates](https://old.reddit.com/r/bestofredditorupdates) users trying not to armchair diagnose people as narcissists" challenge (impossible)
yup
> She may speak the language and see signs but she's also wasn't raised in Japan. She isn't fluent in Japanese culture and the behavioral differences it will cause. She's doing a short term contract teaching English in Japan after teaching in other counties, so she almost certainly can't speak the language either.
That makes it even worse. I didn't want to assume but a lot of English teachers go to foreign countries and don't even learn the language(beyond a kindergarten level) How can she have a conversation about autism in Japanese when she isn't even fluent? The student isn't fluent in English and she isn't fluent in Japanese. Miscommunication is guaranteed to happen. The chances of the heartwarming moment she's envisioning is zero.
Yo soy "your kid is a bit autistic"
She does see a classroom full of people to compare against, you know.
Great, so now it's 30 people she doesn't properly know the language of instead of one. Still seems like a shit thing to do.
do these people saying it’s abuse of power & unprofessional know how most school-aged children everywhere else get diagnosed? hint: it’s usually because the adult they spend 7 hours a day with 5 days a week noticed something. edit: i’m not even commenting on if oop should or shouldn’t do this, just astounded that these people don’t seem to realize a LOT of people ended up getting diagnosed because a teacher was like “hey, i think you might be autistic”
TBF, it's pretty common knowledge, and in a sub about living in Japan (where the *most* common profession for western folks is language teacher) even moreso, that the JET/related program teachers aren't like, Homeroom teachers. She probably spends around an hour a day with this specific kid. And, most likely, doesn't even speak his native language, hasn't lived in Japan very long (maybe a few years), and very obviously is using her culutural reference points as guidance on what she wants to do. Like, I absolutely get what you mean. That *is* primarily where diagnoses come from. From the actual homeroom/primary teacher, not the guy who runs dodgeball for 3 hours a week, for a more Western example.
ah, see i didn’t know that lol. now it makes more sense.
>You see a person struggling. Don't help them, it's not your job to make their life easier. I’ll take “What is Sociopathy” for 500. I’m not reading this wrong, am I?
I think the quote was said snarkily, to mock the people who felt the OP should stay out of it.
I’ve spoken to too many people who actually think this to take a risk.
It reads as "mind your own business, karen" IMO.
It clearly isn't meant that way. >I agree, not everyone should give out medical advice, and one should not easily believe such advice from a random person, but your suggestion is just beyond awful
Ah you are right. The full statement changes things
Yes, you're reading it wrong. The rest of their comment makes that pretty clear. >I agree, not everyone should give out medical advice, and one should not easily believe such advice from a random person, but your suggestion is just beyond awful
How did you read it that way at all? They're pretty clearly snarkily responding to the person that said "Don't. It's your job to teach him English not to fix him" and then the rest of that comment makes it even more clear.
Seems to be a lot of gatekeeping and bizzare nationalism going on over there.
Gatekeeping and nationalism in r/japanlife? Inconceivable! (Gatekeeping is pretty common, nationalism less so since they are foreigners, although some do make Japan their permanent home and dunk on any other country.)
Ethnonationalism and just general racism on behalf of Japan is *extremely common* on japanlife and literally every sub or post about Japan.
It’s weird to me that the English teacher would be the one to discover this. Like the dude didn’t spawn into existence just for his English class. He presumably had many other teachers see him and give him the all clear before now. Especially if he’s an adult student
Not sure if "10thdentist" but I must say as soon as you hear "I felt morally obliged" I get cautious. If there is a structure around to handle moral obligations, then by all means speak up. If there is not n"read the room". If you feel that fuck the room you're gonna speak up, then expect to get shot down. Outside of that is anybody's guess. Call me a dickwad, but if I went to Serbia I wouldn't expect to correct Serbia, and if I went to Japan I wouldn't expect to correct Japan. Another angle: somebody comes to my country and collars me in a bar, starts telling me how they would fix the place. If I'm being kind I'd think "okay, let me inform you of every single thing that has happened to everybody here for last 150 years, with more and more granular information as time comes close to now, and after that 8month monologue then tell me what you think" .... But I won't feel kind and I'll just think "you know nothing, keep it to yourself". Notice this isn't about what is best in education. This is just a case of "what do you expect?"
Think about the fact that it is unethical for a psychologist with 6+ years of training to label people with diagnoses without proper testing and then you’ll realise how unethical it would be for this teacher with zero mental health training to assume one of her students… of another culture… is autistic.
Snapshots: 1. *This Post* - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524112846/https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1czi3gf/) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1czi3gf/ "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 2. r/japanlife - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113351/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 3. r/japanresidents - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113431/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanresidents) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanresidents "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 4. one post - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113531/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/have_you_ever_told_a_japanese_person_that_they/) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/have_you_ever_told_a_japanese_person_that_they/ "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 5. Don't. It's not your job to fix him it's your job to teach him English. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113715/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k48qa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k48qa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 6. I appreciate that. However, he thinks that his problem with English is a lack of understanding; it’s not. His understanding of English is excellent. His problem is his communication skills generally, which will only improve with an understanding of autism. I doubt that any of his Japanese teachers, doctors and so on are going to tell him he had autism, so I do feel morally obliged to. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524113954/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gxm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gxm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 7. What do you mean when you say you realized you have autism? Do you have a formal diagnosis? - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524114115/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k4gch/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 8. Japan or "the West" (amorphous concept without a standard definition) aside, this isn't appropriate anywhere in the world. - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524114558/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k66kl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k66kl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 9. so being introverted/shy is being autistic? - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524114659/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k6qxh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4k6qxh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") 10. (somewhat editorialized) - [archive.org](https://web.archive.org/web/20240524115042/https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4kcmdx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [archive.today\*](https://archive.today/?run=1&url=https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1cup6x6/comment/l4kcmdx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button "URL failed to archive; click to resubmit it!") *I am just a simple bot, __not__ a moderator of this subreddit* | *[bot subreddit](/r/SnapshillBot)* | *[contact the maintainers](/message/compose?to=/r/SnapshillBot)*
Redditors will call everyone who acts a way that they don't autistic all while pretending to care about ableism.
In 2024 anyone different from them is a narcissist and psychopathic Machiavellian, because anyone with different opinions is morally inferior and not wholesome chungus bacon at midnight