Disability News Japan Podcast: Forced Sterilization & Itoham’s Request For Interview With Disabled Employee To Be Cut Controversy
In the last week a lot of stories have been reported that concerns people with disabilities in Japan.
Category: Disability
Request to Cut Interview with Disabled Employee from Japan’s ‘Itoham’ Video Sparks Controversy
When a restaurant that employs people with disabilities was interviewed on Itoham’s official YouTube channel, the company instructed to cut out the part of the interview with a disabled employee. The controversy stems from a post by Hiromichi Shizume, a TV producer and writer in charge of production and appearances for the channel’s project, which has sparked controversy over Itoham’s response to the situation.
Dementia-related missing person cases in Japan has doubled over past the 10 years
A total of 18,709 people with dementia were reported missing in 2022, up 6.1% from the previous year, making it the highest number on record. The number of dementia-related cases has increased every year since the agency began keeping count in 2012, when 9,607 cases were reported.
Disability News Japan Podcast:”My Name Is Junko Iizuka, I Was Forced To Undergo Eugenics Surgery”
By Barrier Free Japan June 23 2023 JAPAN – The audio in this podcast is a short extract from ‘TheContinue Reading
Disabled Resident of Hokkaido Care Facility “felt coerced” into being Sterilized
On June 21, an interview with the Hokkaido prefectural government revealed that a person with a mental disability who wished to get married or live together at a group home run by Asunaro Fukushikai, a social welfare corporation in Esashi, Hokkaido (Hidetoshi Higuchi, president), stated that he “felt as if he was forced to do so” when asked by the prefectural government about the sterilization procedures being performed on him.
“Take our sufferings seriously soon,” Says Victim of Japan’s Forced Sterilization Program after Government Report is Submitted to Diet
Referring to findings in the Diet report, an 80-year-old victim of forced sterilization at age 14, said it showed the government “had been doing terrible things by deceiving children.”
“I would like the state not to shroud the issue in the darkness but take our sufferings seriously soon,” the victim, who goes by the pseudonym of Saburo Kita, said at a news conference.
62 ‘My Number’ Disability Certificate Linkage Mistakes Found in Japan’s Social Security System
Sixty-two cases in which My Number personal identification numbers were mistakenly linked with certificates for people with disabilities have been confirmed in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka, it was learned Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the health ministry asked local governments across the country to report by July 20 on how procedures for linking My Numbers with certificates for people with physical disabilities, for people with intellectual disabilities and for people with mental disorders are carried out and report by Sept. 29 whether there are any linkage errors.
Japan’s Social Security System ‘My Number’ Mistakenly Linked to Disability Certificate Holders in Shizuoka
Dozens of cases in which My Number personal identification numbers were mistakenly linked with certificates for people with disabilities have been confirmed in the central Japan prefecture of Shizuoka, the health ministry said Tuesday.
They are the first linkage mistakes involving disability certificate information that came to light in the country.
Report on Forced Sterilization in Japan Submitted to Parliament
A report on forced sterilizations of people with disabilities carried out under the now-defunct eugenic protection law was submitted to the chiefs of both chambers of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Monday.
According to the report, there were cases in which sterilization operations were carried out under false pretenses, as well as those conducted without the holding of necessary screening panel meetings.
Report sheds light on forced sterilization under Japan’s now-defunct law
Japanese authorities have drawn up a draft investigative report shedding light on how thousands of people were forcibly sterilized under the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law.
National statistics show that roughly 25,000 people underwent sterilization under the eugenics law, including those who did give their consent for the surgery. The law had authorized surgery without consent on people with mental or genetic disabilities to prevent the birth of what the law called “inferior descendants”. It was scrapped in 1996.
Barrier Free Japan 