Being a woman in Japan often comes with a variety of challenges, but when you are a woman with disabilities here, the scale of hardships you must endure can be overwhelming.

A recent survey conducted by an all-women sub-group of the Japan chapter of the 30-year-old international non-governmental organization Disabilities Peoples' International (DPI-Japan) highlights the horrendous realities surrounding women with disabilities, including sexual and verbal abuse in their homes and at workplaces, hospitals and other care facilities.

The group's report, titled "Shogaino Arujosei no Seikatsu no Konnan: Fukugo Sabetsu Jittai Chosa Hokokusho" ("Difficulties in the Lives of Women with Disabilities: A Report on Multiple Discriminations") is arguably the first attempt in Japan to make the issues "visible," members of the DPI said during a meeting in Tokyo on June 13, noting that, due to privacy concerns and the nature of the complaints, it has long been very difficult to quantify or categorize the kinds of discrimination and human-rights abuses these women have experienced.