Asylums of Japan: Makiko's story

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Journalist Makiko Segawa who had a terrifying experience when she was sent to a psychiatric hospital when she was a young woman meets other people who have been caught up in the country's controversial mental health system. She hears harrowing stories before challenging the authorities about what's being done to change methods and Japanese attitudes towards mental health.

Transcript

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0:00.0	World football in Qatar is the podcast taking you behind the scenes with all 32 teams at the World Cup.
0:07.0	We're hearing from the players, the fans and people in Qatar, telling the truly global story of the competition.
0:15.0	That's World Football in Qatar from the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:22.0	I'm Makiko Segawa, a journalist based in Tokyo, Japan.
0:29.0	When I was a young woman in my 20s, I was adamant to admit it to a mental asylum.
0:36.0	It was terrifying. In this program, I'm making others who have been through similar experiences.
0:43.0	I've heard stories of people being tied to beds for days and weeks,
0:49.0	lengthy sessions in solitary confinement, over medication, and one man who was held in a mental health hospital for more than 40 years.
1:00.0	This is a silence of Japan. Makiko's story on the BBC World Service.
1:07.0	In early 2000, I had a breakdown after being involved in a difficult relationship.
1:19.0	I was adamant to asylum where I was diagnosed as a schizophrenic within the first minutes of being there.
1:27.0	I was giving a cocktail of drugs and putting a solitary confinement.
1:32.0	It was exactly like a prison shell and everything was watched.
1:37.0	It was also like a watch house, the building was so old and gray with no windows.
1:43.0	I did not remember seeing any natural light at all.
1:47.0	It was like a punishment being ill, and my body and my mind became completely paralyzed after overdose medication and so much solidally confinement.
2:00.0	I was shamed. The four experience left me terrified and only recently, have I been able to make sense of what happened to me.
2:11.0	When I eventually managed to leave the asylum, we never really talk about it again.
2:17.0	You see, mental health is a taboo for many in Japan, and historically, families are shamed to have a relative with psychiatric condition.
2:29.0	I reviewed my life and became a journalist. I now live in work in Tokyo, but I never stopped wanting to know about people who have been through the system like me.
2:42.0	So for this program, I set up on the journey to find out more about Japan's mental health system and its history.
2:52.0	A good place to start, I saw it, will be an area with an abundance of our islands.
	...

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