Japan
Introduction:
The initiative to develop a hearing voices network was taken by longstanding INTERVOICE member, Wakio Sato, a psycholgist and a lecturer of Kyoto Kohka Women's College. Wakio became interested in the work on hearing voices when working in the UK in the 1990's. On his return to Japn he introduced the research through translating articles about hearing voices for Japanese psychological journals.
The first public meeting was held in June 1996 attended by eight people including three voice hearers. From this beginning the group went on to organise three public meetings with a guest speaker from the Resonance, (the Dutch National Voice Hearing Network) in December 1996. These meetings were very successful and were attended by over 400 people.
The Japanese Hearing Voices Network was established in this way and has been gradually growing. Now it has a membership of 160 people with a small membership fee, and three small groups in different areas meet bimonthly, one of which is just for voice hearers.
In 2000, Marius Romme, Sandra Escher and Ron Coleman conducted a lecture tour of the country.
A regular newsletter is sent to all members and other interested groups and agents. They also run symposia and workshops in cooperation with The Japanese Association of Clinical Psychogy of which Wakio is now the president.
Corresponding with the World Hearing Voices Day in September last year, the network had a symposium in Okayama city. There, two voice hearers and another user, a psychiatric doctor and Wakio gave speeches. It was successful and was attended by over 30 local people. Yet regular meetings of every group have been attended by only a few people, especially by few voice hearers. This must be the problem and/or the task to be overcome by the network.
Contact
For further information about hearing voices activities in Japan, contact Wakio Sato
Resources
Japan Hearing Voices Newsletter, No. 60 Click here to view
The front page of the latest edition of the Hearing Voices Newsletter from Japan.
