Category: Disability

by Michael Gillan Peckitt July 20, 2021 Number of comments0
Disability Japan Tokyo 2020

Disability News Japan Episode 71: Composer For The Tokyo 2020 Games Resigns Over Revelation that he Assaulted Disabled People

Keigo Oyamada, who was in charge of composing the music for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games, has informed officials of his intention to resign.

According to Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic officials, Keigo Oyamada, who was in charge of composing the music for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, informed officials of his intention to resign on the 19th.

It followed days of controversy over his confessions in magazines published in the 1990s in which he boasted about bullying disabled people in his childhood.

Mr. Oyamada had been criticized for saying in interviews with magazines and other media that he bullied his classmates and disabled people when he was a student. The organizing committee said it hoped Oyamada would “continue to make every effort to prepare for the Games until the end,” after he posted an apology on his official website.

Oyamada, who was in charge of composing some of the music for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, had apologized for bullying disabled classmates in the past but continued to stir an outcry on social media with growing calls for him to step down.

Some reports also say that Oyamada’s four minute long composition that was to be performed at the opening ceremony has been cut. I’ll

by Michael Gillan Peckitt July 19, 2021 Number of comments0
Disability Japan Mental Health

Japan to address the issue of loneliness affecting its citizens living abroad during the coronavirus pandemic

According to a survey by the ministry, suicide was the second leading cause of death among Japanese nationals living abroad in 2019, following injury and illness. People living abroad especially could face the issue of loneliness and isolation, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told a press conference on July 9, when the ministry’s project was launched. “We would like to make efforts to carefully listen to the voices of such people.”

by Michael Gillan Peckitt July 17, 2021 1
Disability Japan Tokyo 2020

Composer for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for the opening and closing ceremonies apologizes for “bullying confessions” regarding disabled people

Oyamada confessed to two magazines that he bullied during his school days. In the January 1994 issue of the Japanese music magazine “Rocking On Japan,” he wrote, “I would make him naked, wrap a string around him, and make him masturbate. I’d make them eat shit.” In the August ’95 issue of the subculture magazine “Quick Japan,” he revealed without any guilt the many ways in which he bullied Mr. A and Mr. B, both of whom have disabilities.