Originally intended as a statement against an ableist-inspired killing spree in which 19 residents of a care home were murdered eight years ago, the film “Fujiyama Cottonton” ultimately took a more sanguine approach, although director Taku Aoyagi was clear in his purpose.
Barrier Free Japan has been searching the internet to find out whether the film “Moon”, in which part of the story is modelled on the Sagamihara Massacre. This trailer for ‘Moon’ with English subtitles is from the ‘Free Stone Productions’ website.
The movie “Moon,” modelled on the Sagamihara Massacre has opened nationwide in Japan and today I watched it. Here are my initial thoughts, given almost right after watching the movie.
The film ‘Moon’ is set in a facility for the severely disabled, where the disabled are repeatedly subjected to heartless treatment and violence. The story depicts an employee with an irrationally amplified sense of justice and mission as he approaches the incident.
In June of last year, the users of “AGALA” (Arita City, Wakayama Prefecture), a facility that supports the employment of people with disabilities, were offered the chance to appear in a movie.
The Sagamihara stabbings were committed on 26 July 2016 in Sagamihara, Kanagawa prefecture. Nineteen people were killed and twenty-six others were injured, thirteen severely, at a care home for disabled people.
The movie “Moon,” modeled on the incident, has opened nationwide.
In the film, disabled people play the roles of disabled people.
At the Kanagawa Prefectural Assembly on September 12, Governor Kuroiwa announced his intention to transfer three of the prefectural support facilities for people with disabilities to the private sector.
Shinya Tateiwa, a sociologist and professor at Ritsumeikan University, who was known for his essays on the disabled and euthanasia, including a critique of the murder case at a facility for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, passed away at 1:33 p.m. on July 31 at a hospital in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City due to a malignant lymphoma. He was 62 years old.
Yukari Okutsu (54), who has lived in the facility since before the attack, told the gathering at the ceremony that she tries to ease the anxiety of her fellow residents by talking to them when they are in trouble. She went on to say, “My 19 friends, please continue watching over us from heaven.” Okutsu gave the first memorial speech by a resident of the facility.
Yukari Okutsu, who has lived in the facility since before the attack, told the gathering that she tries to ease the anxiety of her fellow residents by talking to them when they are in trouble. She went on to say, “My 19 friends, please continue watching over us from heaven.” Okutsu gave the first memorial speech by a resident of the facility.
July 26th 2023 will mark seven years since the ‘Sagamihara Massacre’, when, in the small hours of July 26, 2016, Satoshi Uematsu, a former worker at a care facility for people with disabilities in Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture, broke into his former place of employment and killed 19 residents aged between 19 and 70 with a knife and injured 26 others, specifically 24 residents and two employees.
Satoshi Uematsu’s death sentence was finalized in March 2020.
Barrier Free Japan