Disability in Japan

At Japan’s dementia cafes forgotten orders are all part of the service. (2023, Washington Post)

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Overview

Married manga artists tell story about life with disability “Manga artists Eri Nanato, 43 and Satoshi Kameyama, 41, have brought the issue of adult developmental disorders to the fore via the pages of a manga series that conveys the challenges they face in real life.” (2023, Kyodo News)

Disabled author wins prestigious Japanese literary award Saou Ichikawa, who has a physical disability, won the prestigious Akutagawa literary award her work about a disabled woman's anger and desires. (2023, Kyodo News)

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TV and Film

Deaf Japanese actor is a sign of the times feature on the movie “Love Love”. (2022, NHK)

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Proxy agencies for disabled hires grow as firms try to fill quota. “Japanese firms have been using proxy agencies to employ people with disabilities, hiring them to work for unrelated farming projects in a move seen as a way to fulfill official disability quotas, according to a welfare ministry probe and a Kyodo News investigation.” (2023, Kyodo) Reaction from Barrier Free Japan (brief audio, no transcript).

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New film honors life and legacy of disability pioneer Mark Bookman “The American-born Bookman, who was a full-time Tokyo resident, passed away in December 2022 at 31 years of age, shortly after the filming of the documentary took place.” (2024, The Japan Times)

Postwar Disability History of Japan key moments in the legislation of disability. (2023, Wei Yu Wayne Tan)

Shinya Tateiwa, Sociologist who Researched People with Disabilities Dies, Aged 62. (2023, Barrier Free Japan) See some of his articles on Arsvi.

Blind in Early Modern Japan: Disability, Medicine, and Identity a review of a book studying blindness in Japan from 1600 to 1868, including attention on a unique “guild” that created a social category of blind people:

“Tan reveals a dynamic environment in which some men were drawn in to the activities and influence of the guild (which continually attempted to assert its authority through innovative means, such as the making of “model” blind people and “ideal” behaviours, when membership numbers began to decline and new professions, such as acupuncture and massage, began to overtake Heike music as the dominant vocation), and the ways in which other men, and in many instances women who were excluded from the guild on account of their gender, developed their own groups that provided much-needed kinship-style support.” (2023, LSE)

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Towards Dignity and Autonomy a report on personal assistance policies across nine countries. (2024, ENIL and ILO)

Freeing Disabled People from institutions in Japan: conversation with Misako Yasuhara. (2023, ENIL)

Inside Japan’s long experiment in automating eldercare. “A growing body of evidence is finding that robots tend to end up creating more work for caregivers.” (2023, MIT Technology Review)

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JICA Survey and Analysis on Promotion of Disability Mainstreaming and Inclusion in JICA’s Operations:

“JICA has not established any specific organizational targets or strategies for disability inclusion. Furthermore, its efforts in this area are limited and fragmented throughout its operations.” (Link to pdf, 2024, JICA)

Case Studies on Disability Inclusion in JICA Projects Features projects from Bangladesh, Mongolia and Uganda. (Link to pdf, 2023, JICA)

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New documentary Fujiyama Cottonton offers a look at life with disabilities. “In the film, Aoyagi attempts to show audiences how people at the welfare facility live full lives by communicating with others and pursuing simple passions,” (2024, Japan Times)

Profile of Yui Yuda and the care that supports her independent living. (2023, The Japan Times)

Why is Japan Seemingly Obsessed with “Barrier-Free Minds”? “Why is the phrase “Barrier-free minds” almost always used, but there is rarely any mention of ‘Barrier-free spaces’, physical environments where people with disabilities can live?” (2022, Barrier Free Japan)

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Disabled people seek accessible Nagoya Castle to be enjoyed by all “After more than 400 years, the iconic Nagoya Castle is under siege, this time by those wanting to make it more accessible to wheelchair-users and those who are determined to keep it as original as possible.” (2023, The Asahi Shimbun)

Tourism in Japan for everyone interview with Accessible Japan. (2023, Arigato Travel)

Japan’s Transit System and its efforts on disability access (2022, Bloomberg)

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Assessing disability rights in four Asian countries: The perspectives of disabled people on physical, attitudinal and cultural barriers. (2024, Political Geography)

Conclusions from the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the rights of people with disabilities in Japan: “Committee Experts commended Japan’s compensation of victims of eugenic surgery, while asking questions on institutionalisation and inclusive education.” (2022, OHCHR)

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Candidate with severe disability wins seat in Japan's upper house (2022, Disability Insider)

Interview with Eiko Kimura "the first person with a severe disability who is a member of the House of Councillors in Japan" (2022, Equal Entry)

Interview with Eiko Kimura, member of the Japanese Congress. (2021, Disability Visibility Project)

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Japan enforces compensation law for forced sterilization victims

“According to the Children and Families Agency, an estimated 25,000 people are eligible for compensation as victims of forced sterilization, with about 8,400 still alive.” (Feb, The Japan Times)

The Unbreakable Silence: Documentary on the Harm of Japan’s Eugenic Law: “We look into why many of the victims who were forcefully sterilized remain silent on their suffering.” (2024, NHK)

Japan's top court orders compensation for forced sterilization victims 16,500 operations were performed without the consent of individuals concerned under a eugenics law enacted in 1948. (2024, The Japan Times) See further on the BBC, a wholehearted welcome from Japan Disability Forum, and on the Guardian.

Japan court awards damages to victims of forced sterilisation for first time three plaintiffs, in their 70s and 80s, receive payouts. (2022, the Guardian)

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More accessibility: the Tokyo Olympic legacy for people with disabilities. (2022, La Prensa Latina)

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