Category: Podcast

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 19, 2025 Number of comments0
Education Forced Sterilization Health Japan Podcast

School Health Checkups in Japan Still Cause Trouble with Parents [Podcast Episode]

School doctors in Japan still have to take the risk of facing complaints from parents about their children’s body parts being exposed during regular health checkups although the education ministry took measures to soothe such parental anxiety over a year ago. According to a survey conducted in June by online medical information provider m3.com, more than 80 pct of the 1,970 responding practitioners and physicians did not want to become school doctors chiefly out of concern that parents “more than necessary” tend not to allow their children’s bodies to be shown to the doctors.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 14, 2025 Number of comments0
Crime Disability Intellectual disabilities Japan Podcast

“Blaming Only the Defendant Would Be Too Harsh”: Chiba Father Given Suspended Sentence for Killing Disabled Son [Podcast Episode]

On March 12th, the Chiba District Court delivered a verdict in the trial of a 78-year-old man accused of murdering his younger son, who had a severe intellectual disability, by strangling him in July last year in Chosei Village, Chiba Prefecture. The court sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for five years (the prosecution had sought a five-year prison term). Presiding Judge Ryuta Asaka noted that “the defendant was in a highly pressured situation, and it would be too harsh to place all the blame on him,” justifying the suspended sentence.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 12, 2025 Number of comments0
Barrier Free Japan Podcast

Saou Ichikawa’s Akutagawa Prize-Winning Novel ‘Hunchback’ Now Translated into English [Podcast Episode]

Barrier Free Japan found a copy of ‘Hunchback’ by Saou Ichikawa in the Osaka Umeda branch of Kinokuniya. Looking forward to reading this. I would love to meet Saou Ichikawa. As people with disabilities we are not meant to use terms like ‘inspires’, but as a fellow person with disabilities, she ’inspires’ me to write fiction about having a disability in Japan – Ichikawa has congenital myopathy.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 10, 2025 Number of comments0
Barrier Free Japan Podcast

Police Investigate Elevator Management Company After Man Dies in Kobe Elevator Accident [Podcast Episode]

On the 27th of last month, Sho Tanaka, 31, a doctor, was found collapsed in a space on the first basement floor of an elevator in a commercial building in Chuo Ward, Kobe, and later died. Before Dr. Tanaka was found, a store employee saw the elevator’s fourth floor door open with no “cage” in place.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 7, 2025 Number of comments0
Disability Education Intellectual disabilities Japan Podcast

Intellectually Disabled Girl Has to Move from Chiba to Tokyo to Attend High School [Podcast Episode]

In August 2024, Ms. Koyuki Hamano, 16, an intellectually disabled girl who was a resident of Chiba City, was rejected from the Chiba prefectural high school entrance examination, and asked the prefectural government to cancel her rejection, the Chiba District Court rejected her request to be provisionally obligated to enroll in the school. On February 4, Hamano’s parents held a press conference in the city and announced that they have given up on the idea of continuing her education in the prefecture, terminated the trial, and that she will enroll in a Tokyo metropolitan high school from April.

by Michael Gillan Peckitt March 3, 2025 Number of comments0
Disability Employment Japan Podcast Welfare

(Update) Yamagata Employment Support Offices for Disabled Closures Confirmed, Seven Offices to Close in March 2026, 217 Layoffs [Podcast Episode] 

A report by All Nippon News Network (ANN) broadcast on February 28th confirmed that the seven employment support offices of the company ‘Union Social System’ that has its headquarters in Shinjo City, Yamagata prefecture, will close in March 2026; leading to 217 employees losing their jobs, a result of the so-called “1.06 million yen barrier.”

by Michael Gillan Peckitt February 26, 2025 Number of comments0
Care Crime Disability Japan Podcast Sexual abuse

Former Niigata NPO employee sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman with a disability [Podcast Episode]

On February 19th, the Niigata District Court handed down a sentence of 14 years in prison to a former employee of an organization, who was charged with crimes including sexually assaulting and injuring a woman with a disability while transporting her in Sanjo City. The court ruled that “he repeatedly committed the crime, taking advantage of the fact that the victim could not resist, which is despicable.”