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Barrier Free Disability Japan Travel

Tokyo-Area Train Fares Raised by 10 Yen, a “barrier-free fee” to Improve Accessibility

East Japan Railway Co, or JR East, Tokyo Metro Co. and other railway operators raised their regular fares for train services in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures by 10 yen on Saturday.

These companies will use increased revenues to install elevators and platform doors and make other efforts to improve barrier-free accessibility at train stations.

Barrier Free Disability Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: Japan’s Disability Discrimination Laws are Revised, Requiring Private Businesses to make ‘Reasonable Accommodations’

On 14th March, the Japanese Government decided to require businesses and other operators to provide ‘reasonable accommodations’, such as installing ramps for wheelchair users at shop entrances and exits, from 1 April 2024. The Cabinet approved the Cabinet Order on the revised Disability Discrimination Law. Until now, the State and local authorities have been obliged to provide reasonable accommodation, while the start date of the obligation for businesses was undecided.

Disability Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: ‘A Personal Matter’ Author Kenzaburo Oe Dies & ‘No Mask Day’

Oe won the Nobel Prize in 1994 as he was working on the “A Flaming Green Tree” trilogy. The prize was awarded for works including the novel “A Personal Matter” — which was dedicated to his son, the composer Hikari Oe — solidifying his place in contemporary literature.

Hikari Ōe was born and developmentally disabled. Doctors tried to convince his parents to let their son die, but they refused to do so. Even after an operation, Ōe remained visually impaired, developmentally disabled and epileptic, with limited physical coordination.

Crime Day Care Service Disability Japan

Operator of Oita day-care facilities for disabled children received 34 million Yen in fraudulent payments

A company operating day care facilities for children with disabilities in nine locations in the prefecture, including Beppu City, was found to have fraudulently received approximately 34 million yen in benefits by padding the number of staff, and Oita Prefecture has decided to cancel the designation of the facilities.

Disability Japan March 11

Twelve Years After Fukushima Nuclear Power Station Disaster Evacuation Plans for Disabled, Elderly Seem to be Vague

In a wide-area evacuation plan designed by the Ibaraki prefectural government, residents are supposed to leave in their own cars.

The prefecture will ask bus companies for cooperation to evacuate senior residents and disabled people.

The prefectural government estimates that more than 400 buses will be needed for the task, and it does not know how it can secure that many buses.

One guiding principle of the nuclear emergency preparedness was created in response to the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Disability Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: Article Co-Authored by Japan Based Disability Studies Scholar Mark R. Bookman Published Posthumously

In December 2022 Mark R. Bookman, a Disability Studies scholar and postgraduate fellow at Tokyo College at the University of Tokyo died. On 1st March an article he was co-authoring with Prof. Carolyn S. Stevens of Monash University about the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and Australia was published open-access by Ritsumeikan University.

Barrier Free Deaf Disability Japan

Civil Lawsuit Over Death of Deaf Girl in Osaka Raises Questions About the Value of a Life

In November 2022, hearings for a damages lawsuit after a girl with impaired hearing was killed in a traffic accident in 2018, estimating lost wages have become a key point of contention.

The Osaka District Court ruled on February 27th that the defendant pay approximately 37.7 million yen. This amount – 85% of the average wage – it was ruled, was the amount Ayuka Ide might have earned in the future as Ayuka Ide was able to “use various means and techniques to reduce the impact of her hearing impairment.”

Disability Japan Jehovah’s Witnesses Medical

Japan Lawyers Submits Report to Government over Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Continued Refusal to Allow Children to have Blood Transfusions

The Jehovah’s Witnesses religious group is continuing to instruct its followers to forbid blood transfusions for their children in violation of health ministry guidelines on preventing harm to children, according to a lawyers’ report that was set to be submitted to the government Monday.

Disability Discrimination Intellectual disabilities Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan: One in Five People with Intellectual Disabilities in Japan Faces ‘Opposition’ when Pursuing Relationships

Kyodo News conducted a survey of people with intellectual disabilities and their families nationwide regarding the problem of people with intellectual disabilities being sterilized or treated at a group home in Hokkaido, it was found on February 26 that approximately one in five (19%) people in their 20s or older have experienced opposition or restrictions from those around them regarding love, marriage or childbirth.

Disability Discrimination Intellectual disabilities Japan

Survey Shows 19% of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Japan Continue to Face Restrictions Regarding Social Relationships

Kyodo News conducted a survey of people with intellectual disabilities and their families nationwide regarding the problem of people with intellectual disabilities being sterilized or treated at a group home in Hokkaido, , it was found on February 26 that approximately one in five (19%) people in their 20s or older have experienced opposition or restrictions from those around them regarding love, marriage or childbirth.

Disability Eugenics Forced Sterilization Japan

Japanese court orders government to pay damages over forced sterilization

A Japanese court on Friday ordered the government to pay damages to a hearing-impaired woman who underwent forced sterilization under a now-defunct eugenics protection law, the fourth such ruling.

The Shizuoka District Court found the 1948 law unconstitutional and awarded 16.5 million yen ($123,000) to the plaintiff, a resident of the central Japan prefecture, who filed the lawsuit in 2019 claiming she underwent sterilization surgery in 1970.

It is the fourth case in which damages have been awarded over forced sterilization, following rulings by the Tokyo and Osaka high courts and the Kumamoto District Court.

Disability Discrimination Intellectual disabilities Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: Documentary ‘On The Way Home’ Alleges Discrimination Against Intellectually Disabled By Japan’s Police

At approximately 6PM on September 25th, 2007, 25-year-old Kenta Yasunaga was cycling home from a workshop he regularly attended in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, when police officers attempted to stop him, believing him to be acting suspiciously.

However, Kenta Yasunaga had difficulties in communicating due to his autism. Kenta Yasunaga would later die at the hospital to which he was taken and his cause of death was found to be acute cardiac arrest.

Crime Disability Discrimination Japan

Documentary ‘On The Way Home’ alleges prejudice by police towards people with intellectual disabilities in Japan

At approximately 6PM on September 25th, 2007, 25-year-old Kenta Yasunaga was cycling home from a workshop he regularly attended in Saga Prefecture, southwestern Japan, when police officers attempted to stop him, believing him to be acting suspiciously. However, Kenta Yasunaga had difficulties in communicating due to his autism. Five officers seized him as he fiercely resisted and moaned in distress. His hands were cuffed behind his back, and he soon fell unconscious. Kenta Yasunaga would later die at the hospital to which he was taken and his cause of death was found to be acute cardiac arrest.

Abuse Care Disability Hokkaido Japan

Former staff member at a facility for the disabled in Hokkaido arrested on suspicion of assault

A 28-year-old former employee of a support facility for people with disabilities in Wakkanai was arrested on suspicion of assault at the facility for deliberately putting their foot on a resident and causing the resident to fall over. The police are investigating in detail whether the abuse was a regular occurrence.

Barrier Free Disability Employment Japan

Disability News Japan Podcast: 69% of people with disabilities in Japan are ‘unaware’ of assistance grants for companies where they work

A survey by a private organization found that 69% of people with disabilities said they were unaware of the state subsidy paid to companies that support the assistance of disabled people in employment. The organizations say that the system is not well known and would like to ask the government to make it known in order to promote the system.

Barrier Free Disability Employment Japan

69% of people with disabilities in Japan are ‘unaware’ of assistance grants for companies where they work

A survey by a private organization found that 69% of people with disabilities said they were unaware of the state subsidy paid to companies that support the assistance of disabled people in employment. The organizations say that the system is not well known and would like to ask the government to make it known in order to promote the system.

Disability Discrimination Japan Podcast Politics

Disability News Japan Podcast: Nine of Hokkaido’s Town Councils Ban ‘mentally disabled’ from Attending Meetings

A survey by the Hokkaido prefectural government found that there are at least nine towns and villages in the prefecture that prohibit people with intellectual disabilities from sitting on the council through bylaws or regulations. The prefecture is calling for action, such as considering amendments to the ‘Act for the Elimination of Disability Discrimination’, on the grounds that this may be in violation of the Act.

Disability Discrimination Japan Politics

At least 9 towns and villages in Hokkaido ban people with mental and intellectual disabilities from attending council meetings

A survey by the Hokkaido prefectural government found that there are at least nine towns and villages in the prefecture that prohibit people with intellectual disabilities from sitting on the council through bylaws or regulations. The prefectural is calling for action, such as considering amendments to the ‘Act for the Elimination of Disability Discrimination’, on the grounds that this may be in violation of the Act.

Crime Disability Japan

Nagoya disability support facility employee allegedly stole ATM card from male client, withdrawing 1.3 million yen

A staff member at an employment support facility for people with disabilities in Nagoya was arrested on suspicion of theft and other offences for stealing the cash card of a male user of the facility, handing it to another user of the facility, and forced him to withdraw approximately 1.3 million yen in cash from an ATM.

Day Care Service Disability Japan

Fukushima after-school care facility for children with disabilities found not to meet legal standards, ordered to return 15 million Yen in funding

A day service facility in Date City that provides after-school care for children with disabilities was found not to meet legal standards for staffing, and the prefecture took administrative action to suspend the facility’s operator designation for three months on the grounds that it had fraudulently received around 15 million yen in benefits.

Assisted Dying Crime Japan

“I didn’t kill my husband” Mother of ALS patient contract killer and former doctor pleads not guilty

On 13th February, the Kyoto District Court held the first trial of Junko Yamamoto’s mother, 78, who was accused of conspiring with her son, former doctor Naoki Yamamoto, 45, and others to kill her husband in 2011, a crime for which he received 13 years in prison. Junko said: ‘I did not kill my husband and I did not conspire with him. I am not guilty” and denied the indictment.

Coronavirus COVID-19 Disability Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: Severely Disabled Woman Contracted COVID-19 in January 2023, Refused Admission to a Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital

In January this year, a woman who lives in Ota Ward, Tokyo, who has cerebral palsy, a speech impediment palsy and uses home visiting care contracted a new variant of the coronavirus and requested to be admitted to a metropolitan hospital, but was refused.

Assisted Dying Disability Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: Kyoto District Court Sentences Doctor Already Accused of Euthanizing ALS Patient to 13 Years for Killing Father

Kyoto District Court on Tuesday sentenced former doctor Naoki Yamamoto, 45, to 13 years in prison for killing his father in 2011, against 20 years sought by the prosecution. Yamamoto had previously been arrested and charged by the Kyoto District Public Prosecutors Office on Thursday August 13th 2020 for allegedly killing Yuri Hayashi, a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an intractable disease, at the victim’s request.

Disability Employment Japan Welfare

Japan’s municipalities reluctant to provide employment assistance for people with severe disabilities

The number of users of a national programme to subsidise the cost of assistance needed during employment so that people with severe disabilities can work was found to be limited to 92 people in 26 municipalities. Many municipalities are reluctant to implement the project because they are unsure whether there is demand for it.

Disability Japan Para Sports Paralympics Podcast

Japan Govt to Give Wheelchair Tennis Legend Kunieda ‘People’s Honor Award’ becoming 1st Para-athlete to Receive the Accolade

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has instructed government officials to consider giving Japanese wheelchair tennis legend Shingo Kunieda the People’s Honor Award, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Friday 3rd February. Kunieda would be the first para-athlete to receive the award since its establishment in 1977.