Being Seen Together: A Family’s Journey Through School Refusal

Separate Voices, One Story

Recently, my child and I were interviewed by Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s largest and most influential newspaper.

We were not interviewed together. We spoke separately, for ninety minutes each:

My child's point of view (Paid article in Japanese）

My point of view (Paid article in Japanese)

While my child was interviewed downstairs in the living room, I waited upstairs.

Two different spaces. Two different voices. One shared story.

That distance mattered.

School refusal is often discussed about children, not with them. This interview gave my child their own time, their own space, and their own words.

They were not presented as a problem. They were not filtered through a parent’s explanation.

The Weight of Visibility

Agreeing to speak to Japan’s biggest newspaper was not an easy decision. Its reach is vast. Its impact real. This was not a small story shared quietly. It would be read by families across the country, including those struggling behind closed doors.

We said yes not to explain or justify ourselves, but in the hope that visibility might create understanding.

A Hope, Quietly Offered

When the article was published, what I felt was calm. A quiet acknowledgment that our experience was real, and that it could exist publicly without shame.

My child read it too. That mattered.

We did not share our story to offer answers. Only the hope that these words might gently hold someone, somewhere, going through something similar.