People diagnosed as schizophrenic have become their ''own experts'' at Bethel Home, a psychiatric facility which is also a business run by the patients themselves, generating annual sales of about 100 million yen by selling local products by mail order.
     Bethel Home, named after Bethel, a name meaning ''House of God'' that appears in the Old Testament, is located in Urakawa, Hokkaido. The town of 15,000 people near Cape Erimo is known as a place where Japanese thoroughbred horses are raised.
     ''We are our own mental health experts,'' 37-year-old Rika Shimizu said on behalf of other home members as they introduced themselves at a lecture meeting in a public hall in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
     There was a big audience in the hall listening intently as the Bethel Home members were invited to narrate the story of their symptoms and how they have coped. Members of the home attend such gatherings and symposiums throughout the nation nearly once a week.
     The facility for patients of schizophrenia, who typically suffer from auditory or visual hallucinations, was launched in 1978 at the initiative of Ikuyoshi Mukaiyachi, a 51-year-old social worker. Mukaiyachi had sponsored consulting meetings with those who were discharged from psychiatric care at Urakawa Red Cross Hospital.
     Shimizu, who had been working at a supermarket in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, after her graduation from university, was bullied by colleagues at the store and lapsed into a type of sensory integration disorder syndrome known among some young Japanese as ''satorare'' -- a new word apparently derived from the passive voice of the Japanese verb ''satoru'' (to recognize or see) and used as the title of a 2001 Japanese film.
     Satorare patients feel that others know what they are thinking, as if their thoughts are being broadcast. Shimizu was concerned that she ''had a talent for ESP'' or extrasensory perception as she did not know it was a disease at that time. She joined Bethel Home after seven years living as a recluse at her home.
     Members share their pain and distress at a daily discussion meeting, leading to the home's fundamental principles of ''rather holding meetings than eating'' and ''making our weakness into our bonds.''
     Bethel Home was a place where Shimizu, who had tried hard to keep her troubles inside by shutting herself off from society, could ease her burden through sharing experiences with others. She is surprised at how much she wanted to open up about.
     Many Japanese had considered talk of mental patients' symptoms as taboo. Mukaiyachi said, ''Bethel Home has covertly changed and transgressed such taboos.''
     ''In Urakawa, we tell them 'you have had precious experiences' and their feelings are shared by all the members. Doing so makes them feel colleagues need them and that they are not alone. We have been stubbornly honest about repeating this very simple method,'' the social worker said.
     Nozomi Chidaka, a 27-year-old member, who diagnoses herself as having a ''dramatic-type'' split personality, has fallen in love with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, saying she can hear ''his voice'' echoing in her ears. She eventually developed the belief that a part of her, split from her body, went to meet the prime minister at his official residence.
     Chidaka won the grand prize at the home's own 2006 annual ''Delusion & Fantasy'' competition convention for honoring members who had outstanding encounters of what they call ''gencho-san'' by personalizing the symptoms of auditory hallucinations.
     Since joining Bethel Home, Shimizu has come to believe that suffering from such hallucinations is not so bad. ''The name of the game is how to lead a rich life'' while hearing them, she said.
     Bethel Home puts great effort into case studies, with members conducting research into each other's conditions. Masako Yoshino, a 25-year-old member who suffers from the same symptoms as Shimizu, concluded that the satorare syndrome, literally ''detected'' syndrome, should be described as ''satorase,'' or ''make people detect'' syndrome.
     The research made Yoshino realize that patients with these symptoms, suffering from a sense of absolute isolation, wish for someone to notice their hardships and want to keep their ties with others.
     Yoshino, who developed the disease in her second year of senior high school and found difficulties communicating with her family and neighbors, came to Bethel Home at age 21. ''I was able to get reincarnated by talking about my disease. I hope I can help people with the same problems feel relieved even a bit,'' she said.
     Some 2,500 mental patients, their family members and researchers visit Bethel Home every year like pilgrims to a holy place. Yoshino said, however, the Urakawa home is not such a sacred place. ''Anywhere you can tell others about your weakness, there'll be 'Bethels' there.''
     Influenced by movements in Europe and the United States in the 1970s seeking to have mental patients live together in communities rather than being housed in facilities, similar ''social rehabilitation and group treatment'' facilities are on the rise in Japan.
     The 150-member Urakawa home, operating vocational aid centers and group facilities, has taken center stage among such movements both domestically and overseas. The 5,000-member National Federation of Families of the Mentally Ill in Japan held a national meeting in Urakawa in the fall of 2006 with some 700 participants listening to reports from Bethel Home members.
     ''Bethel Home members, grappling with many hardships, successfully fit into communities. We hope to learn from the dynamic way they approach their activities,'' said Mitsuo Yamaguchi, chairman of the nonprofit body.
     Karen Nakamura, an assistant professor of Anthropology and East Asian Studies at Yale University of the United States, said, ''Strongly community oriented, Bethel members go out bravely, without taking their diseases negatively.''
     ''I'd like to introduce a 'Bethel' style'' in the United States where there are no such facilities, said the 36-year-old researcher, who has paid three visits to the home and produced a documentary film about it.
==Kyodo