“Something of and in Japan, [is that] it doesn’t matter about who you are. Your health is never private.  They [Japanese] don’t see health as a privacy thing.  So you know, if you want to keep it private, don’t talk to anyone about it.” – Alice

After having my own interesting health experiences in Japan, I remained curious as to what other Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) experienced.  Therefore, I went back to Japan and interviewed 10 ALTs (5 women and 5 men) about their medical encounters.  I quickly learned that it wasn’t “just me.”  I heard a lot of strong comments such as Alice’s.  In fact, everyone managed their medical privacy to some extent.  I share one story below:

“There were no barriers. Every person in the village, every school, you know everyone in the Board of Education, the whole school knew that I broke my leg and what days I was going to the hospital, and medication I’ve been given.  There’s no quiet, patient confidentiality.”

Meet “Jamie.”

An ALT in rural Japan like most of the ALTs employed by ALT organizations.  She loved her job, teachers, and students.  She worked hard and was enthusiastic about English education.

After breaking her leg, everyone knew.  But how?  She explained:

“It starts off with the supervisor who tells the Board of Education, they then informed the schools, and well, the schools tell the teachers, and the students ask, they tell the students, the students tell the parents, the parents go to the restaurant down the road and tell them, and the whole village knows.”

For Jamie, living in rural Japan meant that she wasn’t able to obtain her desired privacy levels.  Suddenly, she was not just the “foreigner,” but the “foreigner with the broken leg.”  She was the talk of the town.  Even her prescribed medication wasn’t a secret.  At the same time, Jamie was a “good sport.”  She laughed about the spectacle of her situation.  However, this somewhat uncomfortable experience influenced later health encounters.

After having appendicitis, Jamie didn’t want to go to the hospital as her doctor suggested.  She told her Board of Education (BOE) that she just needed to go home and “sleep it off.”  However, her tale doesn’t end there.

“I got a phone call from my Board of Education! [The] Doctor called the hospital when I didn’t turn up.  So, the doctor then called the Board of Education and told them everything, what he thought, and that I needed to go to the hospital.  The Board of Education called me and I said “No, I just want to sleep,” and they are like, “It’s too late. Your supervisor is coming to your house to pick you up, to take you to the hospital.” Although somewhat comical to Jamie, she saw this as a privacy violation.  After-all, this isn’t a situation Jamie would have experienced in her home country.  People now knew information she didn’t want them to know.  She attempted to not have her school involved, but things didn’t go the way she planned.  In reality, the doctor’s decision potentially saved her life, but, at the same time, Jamie perceived her privacy to be violated.

This sentiment was echoed throughout stories of ALTs’ health experiences.  Someone told someone, who told someone else…and before they knew it, everyone knew information about them and, yet, they didn’t know much about anyone else.

How did ALTs manage their privacy in this study?

Withdrawing from workplace relationships (i.e., not talking to co-workers), lying, intentionally or through omission, and relying on the help of a non-workplace related friend (i.e., another ALT, Japanese friend, etc.) were the three most common strategies shared.  For example, if an ALT was on medication that they didn’t want their co-workers to know about, they might say it was an “allergy” pill.  If any ALT felt their privacy was violated, they stopped talking to co-workers…sometimes about everything.

Questions for you:

• To what extent was privacy a concern for you?  Why/why not?
• How did you protect your secrets?  (It doesn’t just have to be health!)
• What do you recommend to current ALTs regarding their private health information?  Future ALTs?  Do you agree with Alice?

This blog post is an adaptation of the scholarly article: Simmons, N. (2012). The tales of gaijin: Health privacy perspectives of foreign English teachers in Japan. Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research, 11, 17-38. Retrieved from http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/kaleidoscope/vol11/iss1/3/

This blog post was originally posted at: http://jetwit.com/wordpress/2015/08/14/jets-in-academia-health-privacy-in-japan/

I admit it.

I was “one of those” JETs who lucked out and ended up as an ALT knowing next to nothing about Japan.

No language skills.  Very little cultural knowledge.

Yes, I did my homework once I knew I was going to Japan, but even that was “too little, too late.”  The cultural books I read a month prior to departure ended up lying to me, as once I arrived everything I read was thrown out the window.  Nothing quite captured or described the nuanced life I was about to live in rural Nara-ken.

So how did someone like me survive for two years in rural Japan?  I hurriedly found a tutor who quickly became “my Japanese grandfather.”  Every Sunday morning we drank tea (once he learned I absolutely despise coffee and was making myself drink it as not to be rude) and ate mochi (yes, sweet delicious mochi!).  It was a great life outside of work.  But in work?

It was challenging.

I didn’t speak Japanese and my JTE’s English conversational ability was quite low.  In a town of roughly 8,000 people where I was the only foreigner, I lived in survival mode and I absolutely loved it.  However, because I didn’t speak Japanese, I was reliant on my coworkers (mainly my JTEs) for everything, including my access to health care.

I still remember that day quite vividly.  My JTE’s eyes widened as he looked at a piece of mail that I brought him because I didn’t understand the contents.  The only thing I could understand within the kanji-litterred, bright blue turquoise-esque envelope was the yen (円) sign.  “What bill do  I have to pay now?” I wondered.

“Shimonzu (my Japanified last name), did you use your insurance in Osaka?” he asked after showing the envelope and its contents to various workers in the staff room.

I froze.  I did.  I didn’t want them to know – that’s why I traveled 2.5 hours one way to Osaka without them.

You see, I learned that it was “better” to take my health into my own hands rather than risk my co-workers knowing more about me than I wanted them to know.  Everyone already knew I once had a cold and chilblains (AKA first-level frostbite), but this was different.  To me, my health information should be private.  In other words, my co-workers, as wonderful as they were, need not know my body’s inner workings.  At the same time, I realized I was in a different culture – that was very caring.  I realized my co-workers weren’t “out to get me,” but I did feel embarrassed.

Embarrassed that my private health information was now very much public.  I received numerous stares the remainder of the day and heard my coworkers say my name as they shared the envelope’s contents with others.

I tried my best to pretend that they didn’t now know what I knew they did.

What was the big deal you ask?  Well, it’s private. ;)

Looking back now, I laugh about it, but at the time it made me more aware as to what I did share and did not share at work.  I definitely saw myself being “quieter” at work, which influenced my coworker relationships.

This experience, and others, encouraged me to further pursue my experience in communication.  One thing that I loved about Japan is that I felt as if I was walking the pages of my intercultural textbook.  I finally was able to put my education into practice.  With an interest in culture and health, I went back to grad school to pursue a Ph.D.  I wanted to learn more.  I wanted to make a difference.

Now, equipped with research skills I have interviewed about 50 foreign English teachers and 40 of their Japanese co-workers regarding how they manage privacy at work.  Now that I have completed my dissertation, graduated, and obtained a position as an Assistant Professor, I am seeking outlets, such as JETwit and others, to share my findings both within and outside of academia with hopes that they will create change for those who were in similar situations as me.  It’s my hope that my experiences as a JET and my presence in academia will help improve the ALT-JTE relationship.  This wasn’t my goal pre- or even during JET, but I cannot deny the ways in which my participation within the JET Programme shaped who I am now as a teacher and researcher.  I’m very thankful for it.

 This blog post is an adaptation of the scholarly article: Simmons, N. (2014). My “big” blue health secret: My experience with privacy, or lack thereof, in Japan. Health Communication, 29(6), 634-636. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10410236.2013.786013?journalCode=hhth20#.VJX0LyMLC5A

This post blog was originally published at: http://jetwit.com/wordpress/2014/12/20/lifeafterjet-from-japan-to-academia-researching-privacy-for-change/