The Unification Church backed 290 lawmakers of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party in the 2021 House of Representatives election, according to South Korean media reports citing internal documents of the religious group. The documents also reportedly show that, after Abe was shot dead while delivering a campaign speech in 2022, the Unification Church deleted records on Tetsuya Yamagami, who is on trial for the murder.
Speaking at an award ceremony recognizing contributions to the promotion of barrier-free and universal design initiatives, Takaichi said: “The society we aim for is an “inclusive society” in which all people, regardless of whether they have a disability or not, respect each other’s human rights and dignity, support each other, and are able to enjoy vibrant lives.”
The number of deaths from indirect causes, such as deterioration of physical condition during evacuation, rose by 194 over the past year to 470, including people who died in Niigata and Toyama prefectures, which were also severely affected by the earthquake.
Akemashite Omedetou, Happy New Year from Japan! Nagasaki Prefecture reported a record 3,961 people with disabilities employed at private companies as of June 1, 2025, up 125 from the previous year, according to figures released by the Nagasaki Labour Bureau on Dec. 19, so we begin 2026 with good news about disability in Japan.
People with disabilities in Hyogo Prefecture will hold an emergency rally in Kobe on January 24th to protest violence at residential care facilities and to call for the early realization of deinstitutionalization. The gathering was prompted by reports that a resident with intellectual and physical disabilities died after being assaulted by staff at a facility in Sanda City. Organized by the Independent Living Center ‘Ring Ring’ and co-hosted by ‘Remember 7.26 Kobe Action’, the event will feature speakers from ‘Hyogo People First’ and will focus on disability rights and the need for community-based living.
A Japanese member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has criticized the United Nations for failing to provide adequate sign language interpretation, saying it is not complying with its own disability rights convention. Hiroshi Tamon, a deaf lawyer who began a four-year term on the committee in January 2025, says interpretation is provided only for official meetings, forcing him to pay most costs himself for other essential activities. Japan’s Foreign Ministry has raised the issue with the UN, calling it a “grave issue.”
It was revealed on December 28th through interviews with stakeholders that the Japan Pension Service, which handles the administration of national disability pensions, has been secretly discarding evaluation records and requesting new rulings from different doctors whenever staff members deemed the original doctor’s decision on benefit eligibility to be “problematic.” The Pension Service admitted to this practice during interviews, stating they are “currently investigating the facts, including the number of cases involved.”
Of the 3,142 facilities surveyed from August to October, 84.2 percent said they are facing staff shortages ranging from severe to slight, with many citing increased burdens on workers and declining service quality as a result, Kyosaren said.
Nagasaki Prefecture reported a record 3,961 people with disabilities employed at private companies as of June 1, 2025, up 125 from the previous year, according to figures released by the Nagasaki Labour Bureau on Dec. 19. The prefecture’s disabled employment rate stood at 2.84 percent, 0.43 percentage points above the national average and the fifth highest in the country. The share of companies meeting the government-mandated statutory employment rate of 2.5 percent rose to 58.2 percent, up 0.8 points from a year earlier. By industry, employment was highest in medical and welfare services at 3.56 percent, followed by compound services and lifestyle-related services and entertainment.
Japanese Princess Kako, the second daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, turned 31 on Monday 29th December. As an adult member of the Imperial Family, Princess Kako has performed various official duties at home and abroad this year, while working twice a week since April 2024 at the Japanese Federation of the Deaf, which she joined as a part-time employee in 2021. As this year marked the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II, she has an even stronger wish for peace after studying stories of the war again and feeling anew the importance of thinking about the suffering caused by conflicts around the world, according to the Imperial Household Agency.
Cases of abuse against people with disabilities in Japan reached a record high of 3,770 in fiscal 2024, the welfare ministry said Tuesday 23rd December, citing an increase in consultations and reports to local governments. The total, confirmed by prefectural and municipal authorities, rose by 293 from the previous year, the ministry said.
It was revealed on the 28th through interviews with stakeholders that the Japan Pension Service, which handles the administration of national disability pensions, has been secretly discarding evaluation records and requesting new rulings from different doctors whenever staff members deemed the original doctor’s decision on benefit eligibility to be “problematic.” The Pension Service admitted to this practice during interviews, stating they are “currently investigating the facts, including the number of cases involved.”
Saying the practice “left neglected without due consideration” and a case of “following precedent,” the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology expressed remorse for long excluding graduates of special needs schools from the School Basic Survey, saying the practice dates back at least to the 1970s, though a review based on interviews with 1980s-era officials failed to clarify how the method was adopted. Education Minister Yohei Matsumoto apologized publicly, bowing before cameras, as the ministry moved to swiftly revise the survey within a month of the issue surfacing amid anger from those affected.
An awareness-raising video released by the Cabinet Office to coincide with this year’s Disability Awareness Week (December 3–9), the government introduced claims, without scientific evidence, that sign language leads to brain activation and improved memory. The video was removed after a wave of criticism on social media, where many said it showed a lack of understanding that sign language is an indispensable means of communication for people who are deaf. Immediately after the video was released on the 3rd, criticism spread on social media, with comments such as “there is a lack of recognition that sign language is a ‘language’ for deaf people” and “this is from an able-bodied perspective.” The Cabinet Office withdrew the video on the 5th.
The number of new influenza patients in Japan remained above the warning level of 30 per medical institution last week, the health ministry said Friday. New flu cases reported by 3,000 regularly monitored hospitals and clinics across the country stood at 32.73 on average in the week through Sunday.
Cases of abuse against people with disabilities in Japan reached a record high of 3,770 in fiscal 2024, the welfare ministry said Tuesday, citing an increase in consultations and reports to local governments. The total, confirmed by prefectural and municipal authorities, rose by 293 from the previous year, the ministry said.
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering adding Japanese language proficiency as a requirement for permanent residency for foreigners, sources familiar with the matter said Friday. To obtain the status, foreigners will also be mandated to take a program aimed at helping them smoothly integrate into local communities, the sources said. The envisaged new requirements will be included in a draft package of proposals on policy for foreign nationals, to be compiled next month for submission to the government.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has decided on a policy to make an extraordinary revision to disability service fees in June 2026, under which the basic remuneration for newly established providers of four services, including Continuous Employment Support (Type B), will be reduced for fiscal year 2026 only. Existing providers will continue to receive the current basic remuneration.
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama and health minister Kenichiro Ueno agreed Wednesday to raise medical service fees by 2.22 pct for a fiscal 2026 review. The two ministers agreed to increase the main portion of the fees, which mainly cover labor costs for medical workers, by an annual average of 3.09 pct over the two years from the fiscal year starting next April, while lowering official drug prices by 0.87 pct.
Japan plans to raise overall government-set medical service fees by 2.22 pct in fiscal 2026, informed sources said Tuesday. The government is set to increase the main portion of the fees, which mainly covers labor costs for medical workers, by an annual average of 3.09 pct over the two years from fiscal 2026, which starts next April.
Nearly two years after Japan’s revised Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities made the provision of “reasonable accommodation” mandatory for private businesses, progress remains uneven. While some companies in Okayama Prefecture have introduced measures such as sign-language captions, communication apps, Braille menus, and barrier-free design, people with disabilities say daily experiences have changed little.
Nearly two years after Japan’s revised Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities made the provision of “reasonable accommodation” mandatory for private businesses, progress remains uneven. While some companies in Okayama Prefecture have introduced measures such as sign-language captions, communication apps, Braille menus, and barrier-free design, people with disabilities say daily experiences have changed little.
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering adding Japanese language proficiency as a requirement for permanent residency for foreigners, sources familiar with the matter said Friday. To obtain the status, foreigners will also be mandated to take a program aimed at helping them smoothly integrate into local communities, the sources said. The envisaged new requirements will be included in a draft package of proposals on policy for foreign nationals, to be compiled next month for submission to the government.
Japan’s ruling parties agreed Friday to seek to reduce the country’s medical costs by 188 billion yen per year, by revising the eligibility of certain drugs for insurance coverage. The agreement was struck between the policy chiefs of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai). The government plans to hammer out the details of the revised medical insurance system for pharmaceuticals based on the two parties’ agreement for implementation in the fiscal year beginning next April.
Well, that’s more or less a wrap for 2025! I might make a few podcast episodes should something momentous happen, other than have a Barrier Free Solstice and New Year and Disability News Japan will return in 2026!
It has been learned that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is making arrangements to set an upper limit on the number of “retained workers” used to calculate support bonuses. This move comes in response to allegations that three “Type A Support Centers for Continuous Employment” in Osaka City received excessive payments. The Ministry revealed this plan on the 16th during a meeting to discuss revisions to the compensation system for disability welfare services.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced on the 19th the results of a survey showing that, as of June 1, the number of people with disabilities working at private companies stood at 704,610, a 4.0% increase from the previous year. This marks the 22nd consecutive year in which the figure has reached a record high. However, only 46.0% of companies achieved the legally mandated employment ratio of 2.5%, unchanged from the previous year.
Public prosecutors on Thursday sought a life sentence for Tetsuya Yamagami, who is charged with fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a homemade gun in the western city of Nara in July 2022. In the 15th hearing of the lay-judge trial of Yamagami, 45, at Nara District Court, the prosecution said that the shooting was “an extremely grave incident unprecedented in our country’s postwar history” and a “shortsighted and selfish” crime, leaving “no room for leniency.”The defense requested a fixed-term sentence. The verdict is scheduled to be handed down on Jan. 21.
Japan’s health ministry is planning to introduce a cap, possibly as early as next fiscal year, on the number of “retained workers” that can be counted when calculating additional payments for disability employment support, following allegations of large-scale overpayments in Osaka City. The move comes after three Type A continuous employment support facilities allegedly cycled users through repeated six-month employment periods and reported around 200 retained workers per year—despite each facility having a capacity of only 20 users—resulting in suspected excess subsidies of more than ¥2 billion.
Three years have now passed since the disability studies scholar and Japanologist Mark Bookman (1991 – 2022) died on December 16th 2022. At the time of his death, Mark was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Tokyo College and about to take up a position at Ritsumeikan University.
Victims of an arson attack on a psychosomatic clinic in Osaka were remembered on Wednesday, the fourth anniversary of the 2021 incident that killed 26 people including clinic head Kotaro Nishizawa, then 49. In front of the building that housed the clinic, people related to the victims gathered and prayed for them. Nishizawa’s younger sister, Nobuko, 48, arrived at the building shortly after 9 a.m. She made offerings including tea, lit incense sticks and recited a sutra for some 10 minutes.
Four years after a deadly arson attack on a psychosomatic clinic in the western Japan city of Osaka, the sister of the clinic’s then 49-year-old director is helping rehabilitate inmates, as well as people suffering from drug addiction. Nobuko Nishizawa, 48, whose brother, Kotaro, was among the 26 victims of the Dec. 17, 2021, attack, began meeting with inmates this year.
In April two years ago, in Oguni Town, Yamagata Prefecture, a bullet fired by a hunter engaged in a bear extermination operation struck another man in the leg, causing serious injuries that resulted in permanent aftereffects. The injured man has filed a lawsuit against the town, seeking approximately 30 million yen in damages.
“Hunchback,” a novel by Japanese author Saou Ichikawa, is rapidly gaining international recognition, earning nominations for several major Western literary awards despite being the writer’s first published book. Ichikawa, who relies on a ventilator and electric wheelchair due to an incurable congenital muscle disorder, has drawn praise from critics who describe the novel’s global rise as an “unprecedented achievement.”
In April two years ago, in Oguni Town, Yamagata Prefecture, a bullet fired by a hunter engaged in a bear extermination operation struck another man in the leg, causing serious injuries that resulted in permanent aftereffects. The injured man has filed a lawsuit against the town, seeking approximately 30 million yen in damages.
Japanese Princess Aiko on Sunday attended a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Chiba University’s School of Nursing.
“I hope that you will continue to thrive while supporting people, and that you will dedicate your efforts to the further advancement of nursing and nursing science,” the princess, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, said in her speech at the ceremony held at the university in the eastern Japan city of Chiba. Chiba University is the country’s only national university with a nursing department. Some 400 people, including students and university staff, attended the ceremony.
Almost half of Japanese nationals feel familiar with loneliness and isolation, a government survey showed Friday. According to the Cabinet Office’s first public opinion survey on the issue, 48.4% of respondents answered they feel “familiar” or “rather familiar” with such feelings, while 49.6% chose “not familiar” or “rather do not feel it.” The remaining 2.0% did not answer.
“Black Box Diaries,” an Oscar-nominated film directed by Japanese journalist Shiori Ito documenting her experience after suffering sexual violence, was released in Japan on Friday. It was screened at overseas film festivals in 2024 and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film at this year’s U.S. Academy Awards. Meanwhile, lawyers, including those who helped Ito win a civil lawsuit against the former TV journalist over her sexual abuse case, had criticized the use of hotel security camera images and statements from taxi drivers without permission.
Almost half of Japanese nationals feel familiar with loneliness and isolation, a government survey showed Friday.
According to the Cabinet Office’s first public opinion survey on the issue, 48.4 pct of respondents answered they feel “familiar” or “rather familiar” with such feelings, while 49.6 pct chose “not familiar” or “rather do not feel it.” The remaining 2.0 pct did not answer.
Around 11:44 a.m., a quake with an estimated magnitude of 6.7 occurred off Aomori, logging 4 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale in 38 municipalities in five prefectures, including Hokkaido’s Hakodate, Aomori’s Hachinohe and Iwate’s Morioka. The intensity is the sixth-highest level on the 10-point scale. All the advisories were lifted at 2:05 p.m. after minor tsunami waves were observed in some municipalities, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
According to the city, the three offices, linked to welfare services firm Kizuna Holdings, reported around 200 such workers annually for fiscal 2024 and 2025 by repeatedly placing service users in regular employment as in-house staff for six months before returning them to beneficiary status. The offices received several billion yen in add-on payments based on these figures, prompting the city to launch an audit. A separate Osaka Prefecture survey of Type-A offices found an average of just 1.3 people per office who remained in regular employment for six months or longer in fiscal 2024.
Aikawa Shinseien, a remote facility in Akita Prefecture housing nearly 90 intellectually disabled people sent from Tokyo, illustrates the long-standing practice of placing disabled residents far from their home communities due to Tokyo’s high land prices and neighborhood resistance to disability facilities, with some locals claiming such facilities would “damage the image” of the area. Many residents have lived there for decades, seldom see their families, and feel trapped, one 65-year-old man, who has lived there since the facility opened, says poignantly, “I don’t want to end my life here.” As parents age and die and “out-of-Tokyo facilities” continue to fill in replacements, some question what a truly inclusive living environment for disabled people should look like.
The new block “is designed in a way that makes it easy for people with visual impairment to recognize (boundaries between roads and pavements) while making it easy for wheelchair users to get past them,” said Satoshi Hano, associate professor at Kyushu University specializing in public space design, who led the development.
Aikawa Shinseien, a remote facility in Akita Prefecture housing nearly 90 intellectually disabled people sent from Tokyo, illustrates the long-standing practice of placing disabled residents far from their home communities due to Tokyo’s high land prices and neighborhood resistance to disability facilities, with some locals claiming such facilities would “damage the image” of the area. Many residents have lived there for decades, seldom see their families, and feel trapped—one 65-year-old man, who has lived there since the facility opened, says poignantly, “I don’t want to end my life here.” As parents age and die and “out-of-Tokyo facilities” continue to fill in replacements, some question what a truly inclusive living environment for disabled people should look like.
Tomihiro Tanaka, Japan head of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, resigned from the post Tuesday. “We cannot underestimate the fact that we have caused deep pain to some people,” Tanaka told a news conference held at the head office in Tokyo of the controversial religious group’s Japan branch. “I’m sorry.”
A powerful earthquake mainly struck Japan’s Tohoku northeastern region, including Aomori Prefecture, on Monday night, measuring up to upper 6, the second-highest level on the country’s seismic intensity scale. The temblor, with an estimated magnitude of 7.6, occurred at a depth of about 50 kilometers off the east coast of Aomori around 11:15 p.m.
A powerful earthquake mainly struck Japan’s Tohoku northeastern region, including Aomori Prefecture, on Monday night, measuring up to upper 6, the second-highest level on the country’s seismic intensity scale. The temblor, with an estimated magnitude of 7.6, occurred at a depth of about 50 kilometers off the east coast of Aomori around 11:15 p.m.
Shimon Sakaguchi, distinguished honorary professor at the University of Osaka, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, underscored the significance of medical science at a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden on Saturday.
With his Nobel prize win, Sakaguchi said at a press conference, “I hope…our society will recognize the importance of medical science and medical research.” Sakaguchi attended the press conference with his two co-winners, ahead of the award ceremony to be held on Wednesday local time.
Japan plans to introduce a ban with penalties on implanting a genome-edited fertilized human egg into the womb of a human or another animal amid concerns over “designer babies.” A Japanese government expert panel broadly approved a proposal, including the ban, at a meeting on Thursday 4th December.
Barrier Free Japan