Western values 'are causing mental illness'

[andrewducker]

THE rapid spread of Western business practices in Japan has causedwidespread mental illness and is responsible for a deepeningdemographic crisis, government officials say.

A spokesman for the Mental Health Institute said that the emphasis on individual performance was driving Japanese workers — particularly those in their thirties — to mental turmoil. “People tend to be individualised under the new working patterns,” he said. “When people worked in teams they were happier.”

From here.

I'm not entirely convinced, but it wouldn't surprise me at all. Anyone got any links on what keeps people sane, and how society does exactly the opposite?

Comments

[balthial.livejournal.com]

Bullshit. I think Japanese working men have emotional problems because they work too hard and never see their wives. Japanese women have a lot of education (which lowers birth rates), families are expected to raise kids in a way which is expensive and incredibly stressful for the mother. In Japan, the single life can be good but the married life is usually pretty bad.

That's my impression from studying a lot of Japanese culture. The birth rate was low well before business practices started "westernizing". Less job security and more inequality arn't helping anything, sure, but blaming those trends on "westernization" is awfully convient for the Japanese government.