Category: Podcast

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 16, 2023 Number of comments0
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.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 13, 2023 Number of comments0
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.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 5, 2023 Number of comments0
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.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt February 27, 2023 Number of comments0
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.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt February 25, 2023 Number of comments0
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.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt February 17, 2023 Number of comments0
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.