he 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.
Efforts to improve women’s rights are facing a backlash globally after decades of progress, Hiroko Hashimoto, head of the UN Women Japan National Committee, said in a recent interview. This concern was highlighted on the 50th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8, when members of 13 national committees around the world that support the UN Women, including in Japan, marched backwards, Hashimoto said.
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.
Barrier Free Japan has learned further details of the situation surrounding the female student expelled from Musashino Higashi Gakuen, specifically that the female student forced to write an apology was expelled when she was just about to graduate.
On the 2nd, an event to deepen understanding of autism and developmental disorders was held in front of Hakata Station in Fukuoka City.
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 March 31, and no reasons have been disclosed.
And yes, Barrier Free Japan has been published in the online publication ‘Unseen Japan.’
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 March 31, and no reasons have been disclosed.
Japan’s National Police Agency is considering setting a ceiling of 300,000 yen per day on the amount of money elderly people can withdraw or send from automated teller machines, it was learned Tuesday.
The agency has consulted with the Japanese Bankers Association to revise the enforcement regulations of the criminal proceeds transfer prevention law in response to the increasing number of special fraud cases targeting the elderly.
Currently, banks voluntarily set the upper limit on cash withdrawals from ATMs at 500,000 yen per day, with no legal regulations.
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 disabilities are being mistakenly interpreted as “giving charity from above.”
In the podcast is an extract from the interview, rendered using text-to-speech software.
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 disabilities are being mistakenly interpreted as “giving charity from above.”
Barrier Free Japan