Japanese Paris Syndrome
It was a japanese psychiatrist working in france professor hiroaki ota who first identified the syndrome some 20 years ago.
Japanese paris syndrome. In 2006 the bbc reported that 12 japanese people were struck. Syndrome de paris japanese. The difference between what a tourist expects to find in paris and what they actually experience can be so jarring that it sometimes causes such symptoms as anxiety delusions and feelings of prejudice. They were suffering from paris syndrome.
While it s not unique to japan reports show that japanese tourists are most susceptible to it. The problem that japan has with paris that we ll address in this blog article is more societal and psychological than political. How paris syndrome happens.
Paris syndrome is the name given to a psychological illness that almost exclusively affects japanese travellers in the french capital. Franco japanese psychiatrist hiroaki ota first used the term paris syndrome to describe this transient psychological disorder in 1986. It s called the paris syndrome where japanese people who love paris are disappointed by it when visiting it. Although it still has its doubters paris syndrome was first identified in the mid 1980s by hiroaki ota a japanese psychiatrist working in the french capital who found that tourists from japan.
Paris syndrome is a psychological condition experienced almost exclusively by japanese tourists who are disappointed when the city of lights does not live up to their romantic expectations. Having never encountered a sufferer of the now famed paris syndrome i can t speak with authority on this but supposedly the condition consists of what the bbc terms a psychiatric breakdown when faced with the stress of disillusionment and disappointed expectation. Defined generally as a kind of mental disorder which takes hold of tourists who visit paris and are disappointed by what they see it s also one which apparently afflicts japanese people in particular. This is more than simple culture shock say health professionals who now agree that a transient psychiatric disorder is actually taking place.
On reading most definitions of paris syndrome it s easy to assume it s an urban myth and a xenophobic one at that.