Disability News Japan Podcast: Introducing Japanese TikToker with A Disability ‘Wheelchair JK’

By Barrier Free Japan

January 6 2023

JAPAN – Hiyori Tamaki is a popular TikToker who calls herself “Wheelchair JK”. Tamaki aged 17, is a second year high school student at a metropolitan high school.

Tamaki says: “I feel that people think I’m a ‘poor girl’ just because I use a wheelchair. But I don’t have anything to feel ‘sorry’ for myself…I sometimes get messages (in social networking comments) that I only stand out because I’m disabled, or that I only get attention because I’m disabled, and at those times I honestly wondered if it was only my disability that made me stand out. Even so, I knew within myself that I wanted to do my best, so I didn’t let myself be defeated.”