We were delighted to see our frieds from Japan on Thursday 29th September when they paid us a visit for our monthly SUGAR meeting.

Prof Kazuyo Kitaoka is based at Kanazawa University and Prof Kayoko Ohnishi, at Sonoda Women’s University in Hyōgo, Japan.

Both have visited before and have set-up a mini SUGAR Japan, which is more of a peer support project and they have sent us a video clip before to use at a conference.

This time they brought a new person, Junko Katsuragawa, who has been awarded a fellowship and is keen to establish a similar SU research group along the lines of SUGAR. Stigma is MUCH more of an issue in Japan so this is a massive shift.

We had a lovely time together and exchanged gifts and they were extremely generous as always. They seemed very impressed with the group dynamic and were keen to know about how we went about recruiting for new members and how well we managed a large group and for everyone’s voice to be heard.

We’re very glad to say they had a safe journey back to Japan and who knows, one day we could be visiting them to see just how far their own service user group has developed……