why so yo think japan has the highest rate of atism

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i live in the us so i know 0 about japan. maybe it has to do with unnatural overcrowded islands full of strangers.

Is it true? There are hikikomori kids. Maybe hikikomori are like autistic people in some ways? I think many of them are just stressed and overwhelmed in crouded cities and prefer solitude of their homes.

Never heard that Japan had more autism than any place else.

But did have an interesting conversation with a lady who is the mom of a guy with PDD. Met both her and him at an autism/aspie support group meeting. She had been with the State Dept or something and had lived and worked in Japan, and she said that "many prominent folks in Japan wouldn't be able to succeed in the USA because of their aspergian traits".

Japanese culture always did strike me as being a bit aspie flavored. So I cant help but to speculate that if folks who really are aspie succeed in Japan who would not in the US society - it would follow that such folks would marry more often and have more kids and would meet other mildly aspie folks to marry- causing the next generation to get a double shot of aspe genes- and so forth- could cause autism to be more frequent. Just a thought.

It does? I've never heard of that... if it really does then maybe it has something to do with the fact that being different is highly frowned upon there (or so I often hear) even more so than in western countries. Maybe if someone doesn't fit the role that society thinks that person should be in people will be more active trying to find the reason why and that reason will often be seen in a diagnose... so maybe autistic people get diagnosed more easily there? Or maybe some people with other problems get diagnosed with autism?

might just be highest level of diagnosis rather than highest level of ASD

Japan does have quite a focus on mental health problems

Japan is a very ritualised society with very strong social norms and taboos. Perhaps not complying to those stands out more leading to more early diagnosis.

I read this on Korea and found it interesting, in particular the bit on the ados and cultural markers:
https://spectrumnews.org/news/researche ... the-globe/

The Japanese ideas of appropriate behaviour seem more Aspie-friendly than in Western society (in my opinion; I have studied Japanese in conjunction with Japanese culture, and have considerable interaction with Japanese people in my family). For example, looking others in the eye, even whilst conversing, is considered rude and aggressive; it is preferable to frequently glance away, or look at another part of the face. Additionally, there are prescribed ways to interact with others given their relationship to you. If you need to show respect to them (because of their age/profession/rank within your workplace etc.), there are well-defined rules on what you can and cannot do or say. It could just be me, but this makes it much easier for me to interact in a socially appropriate manner.

Any Japanese people or others with experience of Japanese culture are welcome to refute my comments if they are not entirely accurate.

That was an interesting and depressing article about korean autists.

The source of Japan having the highest source of autism is here http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/coun ... utism.html

another cool article about living with autism in japan
http://themighty.com/2017/10/living-wit ... -in-japan/

Thanks for the article on the Japanese woman with Asperger's. Interesting perspective.

I lived in Japan for a year in my 20s and found much very strange. The fact that nobody made eye contact or acknowledged me as a "foreigner" on my small local commuter train all week but come Friday as soon as there was a little alcohol in the mix I was the focus of the train carriage....bring on Monday and nobody glanced my way again.

It felt a very restrained society but similar to the way Sweden always felt restrained to me, that there was a very strong social drive to conform.

I agree that this is based on levels of diagnosis and the numbers shown in the article suggest that Japan is just better at recognising autism. I think the numbers used the the article are a bit out of date though.

As we have found no evidence that ethnicity has a part in ASD it really shows how different our understanding of what autism actually looks like. Portugal looks really scary as on those numbers they don't recognise anyone with Asperger's and only people with considerable challenges (level 3 and some level 2) can be autistic.
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I've never heard of Japan having autism more than any other country. Maybe the OP assumes this because of Japan's quirky and colorful culture? Wacky inventions like a headband with cat ears that move accordingly to your mood? Having Hello Kitty's face on almost everything?

Its quite nice to know that if the Japanese are Aspie friendly as a people they also have the highest average IQ of any country. Perhaps those two factoids are connected?

I understand where some of the posters are coming from as seeing Japanese culture as aspie friendly. I love Japanese video games, pokemon, samurais, judo so and so forth

I don't think LIVING in Japan with autism would be a good idea though. I don't like seeing too many strangers and the ISLANDS ARE SO OVERPOPULATED. I hope the rest of the world never gets that overcrowded otherwise the human race will have to evolve or something will have to change cuz I'm not saving up until im in my 30s to afford my own place and move out of my parents

OT, but, there is a very strong social drive to conform in North America and the EU as well.

The difference is that in Japan they KNOW they are conforming 'for the stability, blah blah of Society', but in the aforementioned regions, the populous believe they are independent individuals charting their own personal course, all while they are conforming completely to the overall tenor of their Society.

Near total conformity is the norm in ALL countries, it is the view toward such conformity that differs.

Be well.

This is a good point.

This is now totally off topic, sorry, but I always found it very fascinating that pretty much everything there is a need / desire for in Japan was invented and set up in a socially acceptable form. For example, there were lots of issues with men touching women on crowded public transport so in Tokyo they had certain venues where women were hired to stand in simulated public transport and men could pay to come and feel them up!

I always wondered if there were any good studies showing that there was a reduction in "unacceptable" forms of undesirable social behaviour (harassment of women for example) by the creation of "acceptable" cathartic forms of undesirable social interaction.

You see the opposite of this in countries like Sweden where the state and social norms come down quite hard on public humiliation of women and instead I believe (correct me if I am wrong) there to be a fairly large under-ground and behind the scenes abuse of women (sex trafficking and domestic abuse for example), I even remember reading a fascinating study of a correlation between the time period when women became more visible in leadership roles in Sweden and the knock on effect in pornography at the time of more abuse of women.

Sorry if this was off topic I find the notion of social conformity fairly fascinating and I am also snowed in to my house at the moment!

That's a very interesting question, and I think yes, European cultures tend to be hypocritical towards unacceptable behaviors. Like, setting very restrictive employment laws and then outsourcing production to Myanmar. Or being so pacifist that video games can't show blood and messing up in the Middle East at the same time. Or removing children for issues as spanking, disregarding all the social and emotional networks the said children live in. Or securing laws and social acceptance of several sexual minorities but destroying people's lives for accusation of pedophilia based on things like watching children on a playground. Or making a fuss about breastfeeding in public where there are plenty of sexually-suggestive posters.

But I'm not sure if East Asia is much better than that, maybe just different, the freedoms and restrictions, being straightforward and hypocrisy are just placed differently. I've never been to Japan, I visited Korea for a week and was scared by the local culture. The strict social hierarchy was something I couldn't fit in. And you were never left alone.
As far as I know about Japanese language, being context-blind (my issue) and literally thinking would make you considered a rude idiot. There is an issue that the Japanese never openly refuse. You need to see in the subtle way they bow and smile and agree when it really means "no". Parsing this even with slight Asperger's? Close to impossible.
So maybe they have more diagnoses because literal thinking in Japan is more of an issue than, say, in Germany, so the aspies are quickly spotted.