Disability News Japan

In response to a Kyodo News report that the number of people being denied Japan’s national disability pension has surged in fiscal 2024, the National Federation of Associations for the Support of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (Zenkoku Te o Tsunagu Ikuseikai Rengōkai), which consists of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families, issued a protest statement by May 2, sayi...

One year after Japan’s revised ‘Act for the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities’ came into effect—mandating that businesses provide reasonable accommodation to people with disabilities—surveys show that public awareness remains low, with 60% of disabled respondents unaware of the new legal obligation. Experts stress that without such awareness, meaningful dialogue and s...

A mother in Hiroshima reported that her 21-year-old autistic son was mistakenly accused of groping on a bus after failing to respond to a woman’s request to move, highlighting how individuals with developmental disabilities are often misjudged due to difficulties with communication and social cues; although the police confirmed no wrongdoing through surveillance footage, the emotional impact remai...

Tuesday 29th April was both ‘Showa Day’ and Michael Gillan Peckitt’s of the Disability News Japan Podcast birthday. Unusually he had to work that day, but he made a brief podcast on the way home about recent news regarding the book depicting neurodivergent people as animals. Episode notes: ‘Amidst Controversy Over Book Depicting Neurodivergent People as Animals, Publisher Changes Author’s Credenti...

As Golden Week approaches with Showa Day on April 29th, ‘Barrier Free Japan’ & ‘Disability News Japan’ has been busy! Here is a digest of recent news stories about disability issues in Japan. *Apologies for the background noise, it is why Disability News Japan sometimes engages ‘AI mode’. ‘Digitalized Osaka Expo Troubling Elderly Visitors’ (April 19): https://barrierfreejapan.com/2025/04/20/__tras...

A group home for people with disabilities located in Uruma City has been found to be operating without meeting required standards and allegedly overcharging for service benefits. The prefectural government has announced that it will revoke the facility’s designation as a disability welfare service provider. According to the prefecture, from the time the facility was designated as a disability welf...

Publisher Mikasa Shobo released a press statement on April 18th addressing the criticisms of the book ‘Psychological Techniques to Skillfully Handle 'Difficult' People in the Workplace' by Yuko Kanda ahead of its publication on April 22nd. Episode Notes: ‘Ahead of Going On Sale Publisher of Controversial Book Depicting Neurodivergent People as Animals and as ‘Difficult’ Responds to Criticism’: htt...

A new book by the counselor Yuko Kanda, that categorizes people suffering from conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, depression, and trauma disorders as animals — and portrays them as “troublesome people in the workplace” — is drawing strong backlash for promoting discriminatory views. The book claims to be packed with “techniques for winning without fighting.” Episode Notes: ‘...

On April 15th, Musashino Higashi Gakuen, an educational corporation based in Tokyo renowned for its inclusive educational model, filed a lawsuit seeking 725.72 million yen in damages. The lawsuit names several defendants, including individuals affiliated with an association purporting to protect the school, parents and guardians of graduates from its advanced vocational school, along with a report...

Barrier Free Japan is now freed from hospital! After a stay during there the weekend after an ‘episode’ on Friday after work, he is out! Apologies for the audio quality , but I thought it was still worth posting to reassure those who listen to the podcast or read the blog and sorry for the rather overly vague description of what happened. As I say in the podcast, it is not infectious or communicab...

In the appeal trial of a lawsuit where a visually impaired couple residing in Isogo Ward, Yokohama City, is seeking damages from the prefectural police, alleging that police officers entered their home without permission, the prefectural police have newly asserted that "(even without sight) the movements of police officers can be understood by the sounds of their equipment.” Episode Notes: ‘Yokoha...

The US has imposed an import ban on solar salt products produced by a Korean company, citing “forced labour.” This is the first time that a foreign government has banned the import of a Korean company’s products for the reason that they were made using forced labour. Since 2014, suspicions of human trafficking and forced labor of intellectually disabled people have emerged in salt fields in Sinan-...

The Japan Branch of Disabled Peoples’ International (DPI) has announced that Shoji Nakanishi, a former Chair and long‑serving Standing Committee member of DPI Japan, died on March 26, 2025. Nakanishi founded Japan’s first ‘Independent Living Centre’ in 1986. Episode Notes: ‘Shoji Nakanishi, Founder of Japan’s First Independent Living Centre, Dies Aged 80’: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2025/04/06/s...

In 2024, at a vocational high school run by Musashino Higashi Gakuen in Musashino City, a male board chairman was sent for indictment on suspicion of coercion for forcing a female student, then in her third year, to write an apology letter. On the 2nd, the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office announced that he would not be prosecuted. The decision is effective as of Mar...

Parents of students attending Musashino Higashi Gakuen raised concerned about the appointment of Kenzo Matsumura as early as February 2024. In their change.org petition, parents express their concerns that the school as a “safe haven for our children is in a deep state of crisis, and with an ever growing concern about the future of our school”. Episode Notes: ‘Parents Raised Concerns Early About A...

Musashino Higashi Gakuen is an educational corporation that has two kindergartens, an elementary school, a junior high school, and a higher vocational school under its umbrella and is known for its inclusive education model, in which children with and without autism study together. A teacher at Musashino Higashi Gakuen says this with a grim resolve: “For the sake of the students and parents who re...

A school operator in the Tokyo suburbs required parents of newly enrolled students to submit a written pledge promising not to leak internal school information to outside parties, sources have told the Mainichi Shimbun. Musashino Higashi Gakuen is known for its inclusive education model, in which children with and without autism study together. Some parents have noted that "few places offer inclus...

An organization made up of parents of severely physically and mentally disabled children receiving medical care at home has requested Sendai City to expand hospital beds and day care services. The organization visited Aoba Ward Office in Sendai City on March 24th and handed in a request letter calling for an increase in short-term hospital beds for severely physically and mentally disabled childre...

Yasuhiko Funago (67), a member of the House of Councillors of the Reiwa Shinsengumi, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is severely disabled, attracted a great deal of attention when he was elected for the first time in 2019. About five and a half years have passed since then, and Funago says he feels that the reasonable accommodations being promoted in the Diet for people with disabi...

By March 17th, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare had thoroughly informed local governments that it is prohibited for disability welfare service facilities and businesses to pay money or goods to referral companies in return for introducing users to them, as this is a violation of the operating standards. It was originally prohibited to pay referral fees to consultation support specialists...

School doctors in Japan still have to take the risk of facing complaints from parents about their children's body parts being exposed during regular health checkups although the education ministry took measures to soothe such parental anxiety over a year ago. According to a survey conducted in June by online medical information provider m3.com, more than 80 pct of the 1,970 responding practitioner...

A stabbing and attempted murder of a political party leader; as well as a ‘livestreamer’ being stabbed and killed, leads one to revisit about how crime and narratives about mental illness play out in the Japanese media. Episode Notes: ‘NHK Party Head Tachibana Attacked with Weapon’: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2025/03/15/nhk-party-head-tachibana-attacked-with-weapon/

On March 12th, the Chiba District Court delivered a verdict in the trial of a 78-year-old man accused of murdering his younger son, who had a severe intellectual disability, by strangling him in July last year in Chosei Village, Chiba Prefecture. The court sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for five years (the prosecution had sought a five-year prison term). Presiding Judge Ryuta As...

Barrier Free Japan found a copy of ‘Hunchback’ by Saou Ichikawa in the Osaka Umeda branch of Kinokuniya. I have been looking forward to reading this. Saou Ichikawa’s ‘Hunchback’ won the Akutagawa Prize in 2023. I would love to meet Saou Ichikawa. As people with disabilities we are not meant to use terms like ‘inspires’, but as a fellow person with disabilities, she ’inspires’ me to write fiction a...

On the 27th of last month, Sho Tanaka, 31, a doctor, was found collapsed in a space on the first basement floor of an elevator in a commercial building in Chuo Ward, Kobe, and later died. Before Dr. Tanaka was found, a store employee saw the elevator's fourth floor door open with no “cage” in place. Episode Notes: ‘Police Investigate Elevator Management Company After Man Dies in Kobe Elevator Acci...