Foreward:

If you do not know what ableism is before starting to read this blog post, I highly recommend that you read, or at least take a look at my Crash course to Social Justice Jargon or look it up online. This is a very nuanced subject, and for you, as a reader, to understand all of this, it would be appreciated if you had at least been in contact with some of the jargon.

While disability can be broken up into many different categories for the sake of this discussion, I would like to broadly generalize the categories of mental/ intellectual disabilities (Ex: Down Syndrome, Autism, Bipolar Depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD), etc.) and physical disabilities (Scoliosis, Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, sight or hearing impairments, etc.) As a side note, these categories are absolutely arbitrary as disability does not have to visible or noticeable to a stranger to affect someone’s livelihood or well-being. Additionally, many conditions overlap these categories, such as turrets and eating disorders, as mental well-being often affects physical well-being.

Japan has a long and troubled history of ableism and discrimination. In 2016 Japan had its deadliest massacre since World War II. During what is now called “The Sagamihara Massacre,” 19 residents of a disability care facility were murdered, and an additional 23 people were injured or placed in critical care. The assailant, Satoshi Uematsu, said of the event, “I want to get rid of the disabled from this world…All the handicapped should disappear!” while being taken into custody. In the aftermath of the event, police refused to give names and identify the victims who were killed during this attack to prevent the deceased’s families from being discriminated against for being related to a disabled person. One author, Suzanne Kamata, wrote of the decision:

“Not showing their names and faces is basically like denying them their humanity… Following terrorist attacks in Nice and Orlando, I remember reading a lot about what the victims were like and what they enjoyed doing. Obviously, we couldn’t do that after the Sagamihara incident, which I felt was wrong. Also, it didn’t receive the same kind of attention as other tragedies. There were no hashtags on Twitter or things like that. As a news story, it seemed to die down quite quickly.

While not the first instance of violence against disabled people in Japan, this bloody event marked the turning point in the country’s history and started a conversation, so to speak. But, there are still incredible barriers that Japanese citizens face that prevent them from living lives free from bureaucracy and basic decency. Japanese society is driven by the idea of Wa (倭). Wa, roughly translated as ‘being cooperative in a group and maintaining harmony,’ is a concept that is saturated into every part of Japanese society. Nobel-prize winning chemist Hideki Shirakawa wrote of Wa and Japanese culture:

“Fundamentally, Japanese culture is based on rice farming. Rice farming requires a lot of water, and water must be shared evenly by everyone. Planting rice also required teams of people to walk from row to row at the same speed. And all of this has meant that uniqueness had to be suppressed.”

Any trait or attribute that does not absolutely conform to what is considered normal and acceptable is seen as destructive or distasteful on some level. Wa influences everything in Japanese life from strict school uniforms, rigid archaic tradition, how people greet each other, prompt public transport, and even the stressful work culture that, has unfortunately, lead to Japan having one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world. This idea is so old that Wa was one of Japan’s oldest names in foreign sources, so much so that Wa defines the county.

In a country that thrives in conformity, people with disabilities, by definition, break the mold of neurotypical or non-disabled people, an expectation that is taken very seriously in their culture. Many children with disabilities end up in foster care syndrome or mental facilities. For example, Kiyoko Kojima was abused and abandoned by his foster parents at 18 at a mental institution after he was partially paralyzed with polio. During his stay at the facility, he was physically abused, formidably sterilized, and was given a false diagnosis of schizophrenia. While the practice of forced sterilization was banned in 1996, many during the time it was still legal; over 25,000 people with disabilities were sterilized without their consent under Japan’s “Eugenics Protection Law.”

And while the Japanese government has tried to make operations, including a $29,000 compensation for any individuals who were forcibly sterilized and governmental quotas for hiring people with disabilities, during a 2018 watchdog report, officials in the government admitted that the employment quotas were only met because the government inflated the number by temporarily hiring more people. All of these issues are further exacerbated when it comes to education and racial discrimination.

Special education classes are only a recent development into Japanese school curriculums. Before the 21st century and after the mandate of mandatory public education, separate schools were made of children who had physical and mental disabilities, which was a practice that remained in place until 1979 when the practice was amended, and schools reintegrated. While this seems like a good thing, teachers were not given proper education or information about disabilities. Many new students failed out of the school system or were punished for behaviors out of their control.

Additionally, while people think of Japanese people as a homogenized society, there are many different ethnic groups and indigenous people who are heavily discriminated against. The Ainu people were some of the first people to settle in Hokkaido and, along with the Burakumin and Ryukyuans, are considered untouchables in Japan’s unofficial caste system. During Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone’s leadership, he commented that Japan was better than the United States because it is a country without minorities. In 1980, in a report to the United Nations, the Japanese government said minority groups, as defined in the U.N. covenant on civil and political rights, “do not exist in Japan”. And frankly, Japanese society acts as if they do not, even 40 years later.

Japan has a long and troubled history of racism, ableism, and eugenics. While I know that I have just scratched the surface on this topic, I hope that this gives you some insight and motivation to look into this topic.

Sources:

• https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2016/07/at-least-19-dead-more-than-20-injured-in-stabbing-attack-at-disabled-care-facility/
• https://www.tokyoweekender.com/2017/02/why-is-japan-still-biased-against-people-with-disabilities/
• https://youtu.be/6Mnxx0hsrJo
• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-sterilisations/japanese-passes-law-to-compensate-forced-sterilization-victims-idUSKCN1S00BT
• https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-11-01-mn-17706-story.html
• http://www.jldd.jp/gtid/global_trend/1-Development-of-SpecialNeeds_Educa_J_Som.pdf