The audio in this podcast is a short extract from ‘The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan’ video “Victims of the Eugenic Protection Act” streamed live on 21 Jun 2023:

Episode Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/live/6_MQPHddJ-s?feature=share

The speaker, Junko Iizuka (a pseudonym), from Miyagi Prefecture, was forced to undergo forced sterilization surgery when she was sixteen years old.

At a public debate held on June 3rd regarding barrier-free measures when restoring the wooden castle tower of Nagoya Castle, some participants said that an elevator that can go up to the top floor, which groups for the disabled and others are calling for, is unnecessary. Some were claiming that this was a discriminatory remark that made fun of people with disabilities. The restoration of Nagoya Castle has been debated since May 2018 when a proposal that the castle be rebuilt without an elevator - or other ‘accommodations’ for people with disabilities - prompting disability rights groups to write to Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura urging him to rethink the restoration plan.

Episode Notes: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/06/05/nagoya-castle-mayor-apologizes-for-discriminatory-remarks-by-some-participants-in-barrier-free-castle-debate-toward-people-with-disabilities/

The magazine ‘Newsweek Japan’ commented on the Hiroshima Mazda disability TikTok Video controversy saying it served as a reminder of how far Japanese corporate society is separated from global standards.

In response to the spread of a video of a Hiroshima Mazda employee in an electric wheelchair imitating a disabled person and laughing, which caused a firestorm, Hiroshima Mazda released a written statement on April 30 explaining that it never intended to make fun of the disabled person.

Episode Notes: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/05/17/magazine-newsweek-japan-calls-hiroshima-mazda-disability-tiktok-video-apology-unbelievable/

Episode Notes:

35% of Chiba residents with disabilities “felt” human rights violations

https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/05/07/35-of-chiba-residents-with-disabilities-felt-human-rights-violations/

A Timeline of Recent Incidents of Abuse Involving Chiba Residents with Disabilities

https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/05/07/a-timeline-of-recent-incidents-of-abuse-involving-chiba-residents-with-disabilities/

In response to the spread of a video of a Hiroshima Mazda employee in an electric wheelchair imitating a disabled person and laughing, which caused a firestorm, Hiroshima Mazda released a written statement on April 30 explaining that it never intended to make fun of the disabled person.

The video in question appears to have originally been posted on "TikTok," but in late April a third party shared it on Twitter in the form of criticism of a Hiroshima Mazda employee playing with an electric wheelchair to imitate a disabled person.

The video was so bad that it caused a firestorm because it showed a man in a uniform with the "MAZDA" logo on it riding in an electric wheelchair and operating it by tilting his head while slightly sticking out his lips and tongue as if imitating a disabled person, and the filmer who saw it laughed and said, "One more time!”

Episode Notes: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/05/01/video-of-hiroshima-mazda-employee-imitating-wheelchair-user-starts-social-media-firestorm-in-japan/

A Korean disability rights advocacy group on Thursday 20th April staged a surprise “subway-riding” protest at one of Seoul’s busiest subway stations to mark the 43rd Day of Persons with Disabilities, causing train delays for about 15 minutes.

After a standoff with police for about 10 minutes, the activists boarded a southbound train and got off at Yeouinaru Station on Line 5 in the Yeouido district, where the government’s Day of Persons with Disabilities ceremony was about to begin.

Episode Notes: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/04/29/korean-disabled-activists-stage-surprise-subway-protest-in-downtown-seoul-on-national-disability-day/

A female staff member of the Japan Ski Federation for the Disabled (JSFD), in her 20s has told Nippon TV that she was sexually assaulted by the head coach of the Japan Ski Federation for the Disabled in January of this year, specifically that she was raped by the Italian head coach during a trip to the World Championships in Spain.

She said, “He called me over for dinner to show me around or something. I thought it would be rude to ignore him since he was my coach, so I followed him, and he put me straight into his room…”

On the first night of the training camp, the head coach called her out and sexually assaulted her.

Episode Notes: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/04/27/japan-ski-federation-for-the-disabled-coach-fired-after-claims-of-sexual-assault-made-by-female-staff-member/

Mark Bookman PhD, was a historian, whose specialism was disability policy and related social movements in Japanese and global contexts. He studied Japanese Studies at University of Pennsylvania, and at the time of his death on December 16th 2022 he was Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Tokyo.

Before he died, Mark was working on a new project; a charity that would help organisations such as governments & businesses include people with disabilities. The charity is called ‘GLIDE’ or ‘Global Leaders in International Disability Education’.

Mark - 'A Call to Action' Trailer: https://vimeo.com/815400131?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=41605078

An unfortunate event led me to be hospitalised for about 24 hours, annoyingly at the very beginning of the academic year and I had to miss teaching some classes.

More COVID cases at welfare facilities in Shimane Prefecture.

Episode Notes:

Cluster of Eight People Infected with COVID at a Shimane Prefecture Welfare Facility for the Disabled: https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/04/12/cluster-of-eight-people-infected-with-covid-at-a-shimane-prefecture-welfare-facility-for-the-disabled/

Shimane Prefecture’s End-Of-Year Care Home COVID Woes (31st December 2022): https://barrierfreejapan.com/2023/01/01/shimane-prefectures-end-of-year-care-home-covid-woes/

I often experience this in Japan. People who want to ‘help’ but never ask before touching me, often from behind, causing me a lot of pain and shock as I think I am being attacked.

Website: https://barrierfreejapan.com