Tag - disability

 
 

DISABILITY

Kiyomitsu Nagai (right), head of Tsukui Yamayuri-en, and others offer a prayer before a memorial monument on Friday, the eighth anniversary of a knife attack at the prefectural care home for people with disabilities in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2024
Memorial ceremony held for 2016 care home attack victims
The memorial ceremony was attended by 89 people, including bereaved families, who offered a moment of silence for the victims and laid out flowers.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with plaintiffs of damages lawsuits over forced sterilizations at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 19, 2024
Full settlement likely for forced sterilization suits in Japan
A total of 39 people have so far sued the government at 12 district courts and branches for damages over forced sterilizations under the law.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida receives a petition from victims of forced sterilization on Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 17, 2024
Kishida apologizes to victims of forced sterilization
The apology from the prime minister follows a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month declaring that the now-defunct eugenics law was unconstitutional.
Cochlear's hearing implants will be used for a program to train hearing aid experts in Shizuoka Prefecture, as Japan tries to lower the age when children can receive a cochlear implant.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 17, 2024
Australian government funds Japanese hearing implant program for children
Public health experts In Japan want to lower the threshold and the age when children can receive a hearing implant, currently at one year old.
A study found that long-term caregivers who were age 16 were 2.51 times likelier to engage in self-harm compared with noncaregivers.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 11, 2024
Young long-term caregivers likelier to have mental health issues
A joint study by the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science found that the risk is particularly high for those between 14 and 16.
Plaintiffs in a series of lawsuits over forced sterilization and their lawyers hold banners that read "victory ruling," after the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in Tokyo on July 3.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 10, 2024
Amid discrimination, Japan's eugenics missteps could be repeated, expert warns
After a landmark ruling that finally declared Japan's defunct eugenics law unconstitutional, some may ask how Japanese society openly endorsed eugenics.
An 81-year-old man using the pseudonym Saburo Kita speaks during a hearing of plaintiffs in lawsuits over forced sterilizations, held by a cross-party group of lawmakers in the parliament building on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 10, 2024
Japanese lawmaker group hears from forced sterilization victims
Three people, including two plaintiffs who underwent forced sterilizations, attended the hearing by the cross-party group.
A nine-member refugee team is set to take part in the 2024 Paris Paralympics, with athletes competing in taekwondo, athletics, triathlon, power lifting, table tennis and wheelchair fencing.
OLYMPICS
Jul 9, 2024
Largest refugee team to compete at Paris Paralympics
Athletes will take part in taekwondo, athletics, triathlon, power lifting, table tennis and wheelchair fencing.
Fancl employees offer makeup lessons to those with blindness or low vision.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Jul 8, 2024
Cosmetics makers hold makeup lessons for those with visual impairments
Each company has established its own methods for applying makeup without the need to look in a mirror.
The Kyoto Prefectural Police headquarters in the city of Kyoto. Questioning of a worker with an intellectual disability who was forced into an industrial washing machine has revealed further past instances of abuse, leading Kyoto police to investigate potential bullying in the workplace.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 5, 2024
Kyoto men accused of forcing disabled person into washing machine
They allegedly forced their 50-year-old colleague with an intellectual disability into the machine and turned it on.
Plaintiffs of a series of lawsuits on forced sterilization and their lawyers hold banners saying "victory ruling" after the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 3, 2024
Japan's top court orders compensation for forced sterilization victims
The landmark ruling was made on the basis that the now-defunct eugenics law was unconstitutional.
Hanako and Taro Nomura, who are suing the government over forced sterilization, show their late daughter's birth register issued by a temple, in their living room in a city in Osaka Prefecture. For years, the couple wondered why they could not conceive after the death of their firstborn.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 2, 2024
Seeking justice, deaf couple confronts issue of forced sterilization
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will rule on lawsuits against the government filed by the Nomuras and others who were sterilized under a now-defunct eugenics law.
Occupational therapist Mitsuyoshi Okutsu interacts with children at Kamioka Elementary School in Hida, Gifu Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional voices: Chubu
Jul 1, 2024
Occupational therapists join the ranks of staff at Gifu schools
It is estimated that there are around 110,000 occupational therapists in Japan, working mainly at hospitals and welfare facilities.
Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura explains irregularities found at welfare service provider Megumi during a news conference in Nagoya on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2024
Japanese government punishes operator of group homes for overcharging
About 100 group homes for people with disabilities run by the Tokyo-based firm will be banned from having their service-provider designations renewed.
Dr Yilai Shu examines a young patient at the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University on April 17.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 6, 2024
New gene therapy offers way to hear for some deaf children
The new gene therapy is focused on people born with a mutation of the OTOF gene, or roughly 2% to 8% of those with inherited deafness.
Plaintiffs and lawyers march to the Supreme Court to attend a hearing on lawsuits against the government over forced sterilization carried out under a now-defunct eugenic law, on Wednesday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 29, 2024
Victims of forced sterilization speak of their suffering at Supreme Court
They are seeking compensation from the government over their forced sterilization due to their disabilities under a now-defunct eugenic law.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator, is depicted as a circle in tactile drawing in the new book, as opposed to the three-dimensional figure in the source material that makes it appear oval, to avoid misunderstanding.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2024
Japan translates physics book into braille
The book was produced through cooperation among the authors of the source material, braille experts and researchers with visual impairment.
Kuniko Takahashi, whose 24-year-old son Kotaro has cerebral palsy, had not worked for about 30 years before she joined Cafe de Chill Mill in Sendai. She now happily tells her husband that she is going to work whenever he asks her about her plans.
JAPAN / Society
May 20, 2024
Sendai cafe offers work to families of children with medical needs
Staffers at the cafe work when their children are receiving care or attending schools for special educational needs.
Ryo Wakabayashi, a distal myopathy patient, lives alone in the city of Fukushima.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Tohoku
May 20, 2024
Persistence pays off with approval of distal myopathy drug
The disease is estimated to affect only 300 to 400 people in Japan.
People involved in an appeal trial over forced sterilization head to the Osaka High Court in February 2022.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 17, 2024
Japan's top court to take measures for disabled plaintiffs
It will be the first time for the top court to implement measures for disabled people on a large scale.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals