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Care Disability Japan Megumi Corporation

Gunma Prefecture imposes administrative sanctions on two “Megumi” group home facilities

Gunma Prefecture has announced that it has imposed administrative sanctions on two facilities in Shibukawa City and Isesaki City, prohibiting new users from accepting new users for six months from last month, in response to the issue of excessive food fees being collected from users at facilities operated by “Megumi,” a management company that operates group homes for people with disabilities throughout the country, including Gunma.

Japan Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.

76 New Deaths Suspected of Links with Beni Koji Supplements

Seventy-six new deaths are suspected of having links with the use of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s supplements containing “beni koji” red fermented rice, health ministry officials said Friday. 

Previously, the company had reported only five such deaths, and one of the five cases has turned out to be unrelated to the use of its supplements.The new suspected deaths surfaced after the ministry made inquiries to Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, which had not updated information about the matter.

Care Disability Japan Megumi Corporation Podcast Shog.A.I. Shimbun

The Shog-A.I. Shimbun Podcast #37: ‘Megumi’ Care Home Operator for Disabled Banned from ‘renewals of service provider designation’

Japan’s welfare ministry said Wednesday that it has decided to apply a collective responsibility system to Megumi Co. under a related law over irregularities including overcharging, banning renewals of service provider designations for all of its group homes for disabled people. The ministry notified the company and local governments concerned of the decision. The punitive action was based on the comprehensive law on support for disabled people and the decision was made to apply the joint liability system in the belief that there was organized involvement in irregularities committed by the group home operator, such as service fee overcharging.

Abuse Care Disability Japan Megumi Corporation

Japan’s Welfare Ministry Confirms it Will Apply Collective Liability to ‘Megumi’ Operator of Homes for Disabled

Japan’s welfare ministry said Wednesday that it has decided to apply a collective responsibility system to Megumi Co. under a related law over irregularities including overcharging, banning renewals of service provider designations for all of its group homes for disabled people.

The ministry notified the company and local governments concerned of the decision. The punitive action was based on the comprehensive law on support for disabled people and the decision was made to apply the joint liability system in the belief that there was organized involvement in irregularities committed by the group home operator, such as service fee overcharging.

Abuse Care Japan Megumi Corporation

About 100 “Megumi” facilities for the disabled nationwide unable to operate; joint liability system to be applied

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has decided to apply the “joint liability system” based on the Comprehensive Support for Persons with Disabilities Act to Megumi (headquartered in Minato Ward, Tokyo), which operates a group home (GH) for the disabled. If the joint liability system is applied, other GHs across the country will not be allowed to renew their designations every six years, and will effectively be unable to operate their facilities. Aichi Prefecture and Nagoya City are expected to cancel the business operator designation of five GHs in the prefecture operated by the company on the 26th, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is expected to apply the associative responsibility system on the same day.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, there is no precedent for the joint liability system being applied to a corporation that operates a disability welfare service facility on the company’s scale, and it is possible that up to about 2,000 users will be affected.

Barrier Free Japan Podcast Shog.A.I. Shimbun

The Shog-A.I. Shimbun Podcast #36: Rainy Season Days and ‘Hostile Benches’ in Japan

Taro Igarashi is the author of “Kabobi Toshi” or “Overprotective city” published 20 years ago and in a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun Igarashi warns how phenomena such as ‘hostile benches’ –  benches, often installed in public parks that are uncomfortable to sit on – are designed in way to discourage people from using them, that they have an “exclusionary purpose” which “has long been forgotten.”

Barrier Free Disability Elderly Japan

As Public Spaces Become Limited in Japan, Architectural History Professor Warns of Threat to Vulnerable Groups

Japan is a country of some 125.1 million people, approximately 13.96 million of whom live in Tokyo. Space is at a premium, so where there is space it will be used, even if; as Taro Igarashi, a professor of architectural history and theory at the graduate school of Tohoku University points out, how it is used excludes vulnerable members of society.