Japanese society indulge people who cannot speak well.
Fukuda, K. (1991). Hanashibeta Sayounara. Tokyo: Nippon Jitsugyo Publishing.
I differ from Mr. Fukuda in opinion, but I agree that Japanese society seems to be generous to mute people.
In some cases silence is even a virtue in Japan.
For instance, Ishin-denshin is a word that characterizes Japanese culture. When people can understand each other although they don't talk at all, that is Ishin-denshin. Traditionally, Japanese people have seen Ishin-denshin as a virtue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishin-denshin
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One typical advice to Japanese people who are going to English spoken countries is that people in these countries don't understand what you think unless you say it definitely. Japanese people tend to think people guess what they think even if they say nothing.
A proverb "Silence is golden" is also famous among Japanese as Chinmoku ha kin. In addition, there is a similar proverb in Japan Kenja ha mokushite katarazu (Smart people don't speak).
Since Japanese society seems to be generous to mute people, maybe Japanese children with selective mutism don't have severe difficulties as those children in the West. In such society, fewer people view selective mutism as a problem. That may be one reason why fewer researchers study selective mutism in Japan.
But recently virtue of silence has been lost.
And as far as I read from Japanese websites about selective mutism, many former or current sufferers have troubled by the disorder.
Selective mutism is a severe problem also in Japan.
Index of SM in Japan
