PTSD Guam War Survivors - Tokyo Asia Forum Gathering

Guam native tells Tokyo gathering of WWII atrocities

"Cruz is a 70-year-old Chamorro, a native of the Mariana Islands, and one of the few witnesses still alive to tell of the tragedies that occurred in Guam under Japan's rule from 1941 to 1944 during World War II.

For the first time in her life, Cruz came to Japan to talk about her experiences at a meeting in Tokyo hosted by Asia Forum on Friday...

... I am grateful to be able to come here and to tell the story," Cruz said, after her testimony was read aloud. "The story is for the younger generation so that we can all have peace."

As a specialist in community trauma, psychologist Taimanglo spoke of the posttraumatic stress syndrome afflicting many war survivors. Taimanglo stressed that PTSD symptoms are especially severe and long-lasting when caused by atrocities such as torture and rape committed during war.

"The outcome of war is multifaceted and its effects are transmitted to the future generation unless the trauma is resolved," Taimanglo said. "Sixty years ago, World War II on Guam physically ended. To the survivors, however, the war is not over."

A former senator in Guam's legislature and an active nationalist for Chamorro rights, Hope Alvarez Cristobal expressed her concern over women like Cruz, who are still hurting from the brutal memories. She said she hopes these women will be able to find peace and reconcile with the Japanese people before their deaths.

"The atrocities of World War II that happened in Guam are war crimes and have no statute of limitations," Cristobal said. "We hope that we can continue to work together for immediate remediation, such as creating a foundation to assist those Chamorros who are still suffering today."

The Japan Times: December 12, 2004

Eating Disorders

Japan diet risks on rise

When Hiroyuki Suematsu left medical school in the early 1960s eating disorders were still rare in Japan. During his own childhood after the Pacific war binge eating would have been almost unthinkable.

"When I was at elementary school we didn't have enough food to eat. No-one knew what bulimia was."

Even just ten or twenty years ago eating disorders were thought to be much less common in Japan than in other developed countries. But recently Japan appears to have caught up, and the number of sufferers may still be increasing.

A government survey in 2002 found that 2 percent of female high school students in Japan were anorexic. Doctors say that cases of bulimia are even more common. As in Europe and North America, many sufferers in Japan are women in their teens and twenties.

Dr Suematsu deals treats patients suffering from eating disorders and is Director of the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Kawamura Gakuen Woman's University. He says that, while men and middle-aged and elderly women are generally putting on weight, young women are getting slimmer.

"For young women, obesity simply isn't an issue . . . being underweight is the problem. When surveys have been done asking young Japanese people 'do you want to be slimmer', most say yes -- even young people with a standard body weight."

Foreign residents too can be surprised at perceptions of beauty. "I get a lot of these papers in my mailbox for beauty salons. They have pictures of girls before and after (slimming) treatment," says one 28 year old Austrian student in Tokyo. "The pictures of before look fine to me, but in Japan they are already overweight."

A 2002 survey by the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare found that a quarter of Japanese women in their twenties were underweight. And doctors say that for every person who suffers from anorexia or bulimia there are many more at potential risk of developing an eating disorder.

"What is increasing is the number of 'sub-clinical' cases," says Dr Aya Nishizono-Maher, a research psychiatrist at the Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry. "They don't fit the diagnostic criteria of anorexia and bulimia, but sometimes (sufferers) diet, sometimes they vomit, sometimes they eat normally, sometimes they binge... "

Well researched and serious article on growing public and official awareness of the increasing numbers of young women and girls suffering from anorexia and bulemia. Even greater efforts seem necessary to find effective ways to educate people on the physical and mental health risks of young women dieting beyound healthy standard body weights. - Timi

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Sexless Couples

Until dearth do we part

"... Though Japan may to some extent simply be facing up to problems that existed all along, experts believe the number of (sexless) cases really is on the up and up.

In a reflection of the trend, respected psychiatrist Teruo Abe, a pioneer in the field of Japanese sexuality, reports visits from 165 sexless patients this year to his Tokyo clinic, nearly nine times the 19 he saw in 1993. For her part, Keiko Watanabe, a sex counselor and researcher across town at the Japan Society of Sexual Science, says that of her 100 or so new cases a year, the percentage involving sexlessness in marriage has grown "astonishingly."

Even though it takes a lot to shock Myongan Kim -- who is an outspoken authority on Japanese sexuality, a sexual anthropologist and counselor to hundreds of women in sexless marriages -- he admits to being taken aback by the spread of the phenomenon.

"I can't tell you how many of my clients have never -- not once -- had sex while married," Kim said at his office, also in Tokyo. "Their marriages shouldn't even be called unions between man and woman."

In the early 1990s, Abe helped lay the foundation for researching the problem when he created the country's now widely accepted definition of a sexless marriage. This is one in which, "in the absence of any reason of which they are aware, a couple forgoes consensual sexual intercourse or sexual contact for a month or more, with no change expected in the foreseeable future."

By that standard, a survey of more than 1,600 married women across Japan conducted by Mayumi Futamatsu -- author of "Tonari no Shinshitsu (The Bedroom Next Door)," a book on marital sex published this year -- found that 45.1 percent were sexless ..."

Sunday, December 12, 2004

A wide-ranging article combining a mixture of references to general surveys by popluar magazines combined with remarks from mental health care professionals specializing in human sexuality in Japan. Provide a broad coverage of many of the basic problems contributing to the increasing number of sexless couples in Japan. - Timi

Post Quake Stress Solitary Deaths

A life worthwhile prevents solitary deaths

" After the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake, a number of people who survived the initial jolt died from shock believed to have been caused by intense post-quake stress. Even now, further deaths among the elderly in the stricken area are expected.

In the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, too, many people died after having suffered mental distress. I sincerely hope the lessons of the Hanshin earthquake will be put to good use in providing care for sufferers of the Niigata quake.

For some time after the earthquake, ``solitary deaths'' among elderly people living in temporary housing in the quake-stricken Kobe area attracted public attention. Although it has been nearly 10 years since the Hanshin earthquake, even now, many elderly residents living in homes built for survivors of the quake are dying ``solitary deaths.''

When I say ``solitary deaths,'' I refer to suicides and deaths from illnesses that involve various social factors. They include, for example, poor temporary housing environments, ``isolation'' from the local community, low income and chronic illnesses.

To recap, let me cite the following figures. Across Japan, the number of elderly people who live by themselves now tops 3 million, up by more than 1 million over 1995 when the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck.

Furthermore, the number of people, most of whom are elderly, receiving welfare throughout the nation has jumped by almost 500,000 in the last 10 years.

Naturally, the number of elderly people with disabilities and chronic illnesses that make it difficult for them to evacuate quickly when disasters strike has risen sharply. Actually, I estimate that as many as 30,000 elderly people will encounter ``solitary deaths'' or deaths under similar conditions each year in Japan.

I wish to refrain from arbitrarily summarizing the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake as a whole. However, it is a fact that the stricken area is made up of depopulated communities with a high suicide rate and there is nothing that suggests elderly residents in this area are better off than the average Japanese of their age in terms of personal relations, income and health.

There are plans to build 3,000 temporary homes but people who move into them could also suffer quake-related deaths ..."

The Asahi Shimbun. (International Herald Tribune/Asahi: December 8, 2004)

Human Trafficking of Women

Anti-trafficking plan targets fake nuptials

Anti-trafficking plan targets fake nuptials

"Japan wants to get off rights `watch list' with stricter laws.

Tokyo intends to crack down on sham marriages as part of its plan to eradicate the human trafficking of foreign women, sources said over the weekend.

The comprehensive action plan is scheduled to be worked out by the end of this month.

Fake marriages are one way foreign women, especially those from developing countries, are brought to Japan and forced to work in the sex industry.

Other main points in the government's plan will include measures to help human-trafficking victims return to their home countries, the sources added.

But there will be no measures to set up shelters that specialize in protecting those victims, they said.

Instead, such women will be shuttled off to regular domestic-violence shelters, which critics say will overburden that system.

In June, the U.S. State Department's annual report on human trafficking said Japan's measures against human trafficking were insufficient.

It put Japan on the ``Tier 2 Watch List'' and said Japan was a destination for Asian, Latin American and Eastern European women trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation.

Japan must now make new laws or revise its current laws in order to ratify the international human-trafficking prevention agreement.

To do so, the government has already asked the Legislative Council, an advisory panel, to examine revisions to the Criminal Code. The planned revisions are included in the main points of the government' action plan.

However, revisions of the Criminal Code alone are apparently insufficient to completely eradicate the trafficking.

Therefore, several other measures, not only those for the prevention of sham marriages but also those to introduce stricter standards for the issuance of entertainment visas for singers and dancers, will be included in the plan."

International Herald Tribune/Asahi: December 7, 2004

Quake Volunteers Need Long-term Outlook

Yuko Kuroda/ Quake volunteers need long-term outlook"

POINT OF VIEW/ Yuko Kuroda/ Quake volunteers need long-term outlook

Considering the stricken areas affected by the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake and the numerous typhoons and floods that hit Japan this year, I feel that the lessons of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake are finally starting to take shape in Japanese volunteer activities.

However, there is still much room for improvement.

In Niigata, earthquake victims have begun leading their life at temporary housing units. Although the situation is different from the Great Hanshin Earthquake in some ways, people providing support should understand that relief activities could extend over a long period. I urge them to work out a long-term strategy.

In the Hanshin earthquake, it was at least five years before temporary housing was no longer needed and could be torn down. However, even after residents moved out and settled in new public housing, people needed follow-up care. The elderly especially tend to become isolated.

Disasters can deprive people of their homes, jobs and other belongings. Natural upheavals can also disrupt social ties, and people can become separated from the local community with which they had strong ties. It is very difficult for displaced people to recover their independence and stability.

After the Hanshin earthquake, more than 1 million volunteers rushed to the stricken area. That is why 1995 came to be called ``the first year of volunteerism.''

However, six months after the earthquake, just as I thought we were about to face the moment of truth, I looked around and found few supporters still in Kobe. Most volunteers had left, and the media had shifted their attention to the Aum Shinrikyo incidents. I felt as though the media had given up on the quake survivors ..."

International Herald Tribune/Asahi: December 4, 2004

Revised domestic violence law

Revised domestic violence law falls short
State, public still seem ignorant of severity, can't even call it a crime

"The abuses Nakajima suffered should have been subject to a strict assault law, but such legislation is lacking.

A revised domestic violence law enacted in May took effect Thursday, but it is narrowly defined and pertains only to married and divorced couples, not unmarried couples living together, let alone dating pairs living separately. The definition of domestic violence was expanded, however, to include psychological abuse.

There are also new measures to prevent further abuse and to provide support services for the victims.

But the law, enacted in 2001, leaves out dating violence, which in many cases progresses into domestic violence if marriage occurs.

"The law may have been revised, but so many people like dating singles, gay couples and the elderly are excluded," said Nakajima, who founded Resilience, a victim support group for domestic violence.

... The revised domestic violence law says the state must draw up a basic policy for helping victims recover and orders each prefecture to come up with its own plan.

Hiroko Goto, a professor of gender issues at Chiba University, said that while the revisions are a step forward, specific plans have yet to materialize.

"The law started out as a means of crisis intervention," Goto said. "It was designed to help (authorities) decide whether to step in when a person was being abused. But what then became necessary was a way to support victims after such violence had occurred.

"I think such support should be treated as one component of (overall) support for crime victims. Awareness that domestic violence (should constitute) a crime is still very low in Japan, especially by the media.

"If a child died after being neglected at home, the media would call it child abuse. But if a woman kills an abusive husband in self-defense, his behavior toward her would never be termed domestic violence."

... While an abusive husband can be arrested for assault, including that of causing injury resulting in death, Japan's legal system does not outline specific penalties for perpetrators of domestic violence.

"The current (domestic violence) law is only for the victims," Yamaguchi said. "But if they are to be really safe, a program for offenders should be included. These men need to be legally bound to mend their ways and learn to take responsibility for their actions."."

Saturday, December 4, 2004

Domestic Abuse

Directives target domestic abuse -- but lack specifics

"The government has issued directives that call on ministries, local governments, police and civic groups to better coordinate efforts to protect and support victims of domestic violence, but they spell out no concrete preventive measures.

The targeted entities are asked to cooperate in such areas as providing counseling and consultations as well as help in securing employment and housing. The directives were issued jointly by the Cabinet Office, the National Police Agency, the Justice Ministry, and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry as a revised domestic violence prevention law took effect Thursday.

The directives will be used by prefectures to devise basic measures as required under the revised law. There is no deadline, however, for local governments to finish compiling their own plans, Cabinet Office officials said.

The 30 pages of directives note the need to encourage the public, as well as doctors and other medical personnel, to report any suspected domestic abuse. Prefectural consultation centers and police should then take action to support and protect victims.

Such steps include providing temporary shelter for victimized spouses or partners and children, arresting the perpetrator, and applying the law against stalking to protect victims' relatives if necessary.

The directives, however, do not provide concrete preventive measures. They only say the central and local governments should promote public education on gender equality and awareness that violence must not be tolerated.

... Between April and September, the nation's 120 prefectural consultation centers offered consultations in 24,818 cases of domestic violence. Of the total 103,986 consultations since fiscal 2002, 99.6 percent involved women, the Cabinet Office said.

According to the Supreme Court, 1,579 applications for restraining orders against abusive spouses were sought in the first nine months of this year and 1,256 were issued.

The orders either banned perpetrators from approaching their victims or ordered them to move away from home, or both."

The Japan Times: December 4, 2004

Disabled Persons Disrimination

DISABLED PERSONS DAY-JAPAN: Fight to Get Thumbs Up for Down Syndrome

"TOKYO, Dec 2 (IPS) - Kyoko Mita, 52, has never recovered from the shock she suffered when her newborn son tested positive for Down syndrome 23 years ago.

''Life has never been the same despite the later birth of two 'normal' children. I now look at my son and worry so much about his future,'' Mita told IPS on the eve of the International Day of Disabled Persons which falls on Dec. 3.

Mita's son, Yosuke, lives at home and works at a small factory where he packs hundreds of disposable wooden chopsticks into paper folders each day sitting by a conveyor belt in a room without windows.

He is paid 800 yen (eight U.S. dollars) an hour and has been on that salary for the past six years - a pittance compared to what Yosuke's sister earns working in a bank. But according to Mita, at least it's a job that he can hold on to.

Nobody, she said, would want to employ a person with intellectual disabilities.

The difficult plight of those with developmental disabilities in Japan, as underscored by people with Down syndrome, is no secret but a lawsuit filed by an angry couple recently has finally brought the issue to the forefront.

Last month, the parents of a five-year-old boy with Down syndrome decided to sue for fair compensation, after their son died in July 2001 from a fatal 'E.coli' bacteria infection that he contracted from a city-run daycare center in Ikoma, Nara prefecture, west of Tokyo.

In trying to seek compensation from the Nara prefecture government, the parents - who do not want to make themselves public - were told by the Ikoma city authorities that their son, ''compared to children without disabilities, was worthless to society.''

Incensed by the insult, the parents, now, through their lawyer Takashi Kato have decided to take their case to court and are seeking damages in the sum of 450,000 U.S. dollars from the prefectural government and the city for neglect. The figure includes 320,000 dollars in lost wages based on the boy's potential earnings, if he was alive, from the age of 18 to 67.

''We are unable to bear the fact that our son is still discriminated even in death. That is why we are taking the case to court. If we win we hope to give hope to (the parents of) other children who suffer from Down syndrome,'' the parents said in a statement.

Their lawyer, Kato, explained: ''The case is an important landmark in the protection of the rights of the intellectually disabled. We are fighting to prove that children with Down syndrome also carry enormous potential to contribute to the betterment of society.''

There are 3.24 million intellectually disabled people over the age of 18 in Japan, according to Health and Welfare Ministry. Out of this figure, 60,000 are with Down syndrome. Nonetheless, there are no figures available for disabled people in employment. Each year, approximately one in every 800 to 1,000 babies is born with Down syndrome, a condition that may delay a child's physical and mental development. "

International Press Service News Agency, 2004

Father Daughter Sexual Abuse

Father daughter sexual abuse

JUDGE ADDS TIME TO RECOMMENDED SENTENCE: Father gets 18 years in sex-abuse case.
The man had been violating his two young daughters for several years.

"OSAKA-The Osaka District Court sentenced a man to 18 years in prison on Tuesday for sexually abusing his two young daughters for several years.

The prison term was three years longer than that sought by prosecutors against the 48-year-old man whose name is being withheld.

Presiding Judge Yoshifumi Asayama said: ``The two daughters received the most serious sexual abuse from their father, who should have been the most trustworthy person for them. Their sense of humiliation, sadness and a feeling of helplessness are beyond description. The prison term sought by prosecutors is too light.''

According to the ruling, the father began sexually abusing the elder daughter around 1998, and the younger daughter in 2001, whom he threatened at knifepoint. By the spring of 2004, the two girls were finally taken under protection at a counseling center. The father came after them, armed with a knife, and broke the entrance-door windows and entered the counseling center.

The girl's mother was apparently incapacitated by illness; the girls had difficulty finding someone to help them.

The elder daughter, who tried to shield her sister from the abuse, is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "

International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun December 2, 2004

Both the severity of the sentence in this case of sexual abuse by a father of his two daughters and also the compassion expressed by the court for the sexual, emotional and mental abuse and stress experienced by the girls, seems to mark a strong indication of the growing determination of legal and social authorities in Japan to address the problems of domestic violence, sexual violence and father daughter incest.

OSAKA-The Osaka District Court sentenced a man to 18 years in prison on Tuesday for sexually abusing his two young daughters for several years.

The prison term was three years longer than that sought by prosecutors against the 48-year-old man whose name is being withheld.

Presiding Judge Yoshifumi Asayama said: ``The two daughters received the most serious sexual abuse from their father, who should have been the most trustworthy person for them. Their sense of humiliation, sadness and a feeling of helplessness are beyond description. The prison term sought by prosecutors is too light.''

According to the ruling, the father began sexually abusing the elder daughter around 1998, and the younger daughter in 2001, whom he threatened at knifepoint. By the spring of 2004, the two girls were finally taken under protection at a counseling center. The father came after them, armed with a knife, and broke the entrance-door windows and entered the counseling center.

The girl's mother was apparently incapacitated by illness; the girls had difficulty finding someone to help them.

The elder daughter, who tried to shield her sister from the abuse, is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "

International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun December 2, 2004


Both the severity of the sentence in this case of sexual abuse by a father of his two daughters and also the compassion expressed by the court for the sexual, emotional and mental abuse and stress experienced by the girls, seems be a strong indication of the growing determination of legal and social authorities in Japan to address the problems of domestic violence, sexual violence and father daughter incest. - Timi