(Tokyo Metoropolitan University)
This is a report on the human rights of persons with disabilities in
Japan. Only a few current issues will be referred here. You will be able
to get information more in detail about these and other issues if you read
other authors' reports in this volume.
For many years, to be disabled in Japan meant to be forgotten or discriminated.
But today, change for the better is evident. Many persons with disabilities
have ceased to be reticent about putting themselves in the public eye and
standing up for their rights. At the same time, recent years have seen
real growth in society's understanding that the persons with disabilities
have needs and rights just like everyone else. The International Year of
Disabled Persons and United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons were particularly
effective in raising the public consciousness.
The recent most remarkable change must be the revision of The Fundamental
Law for Countermeasures for Mentally and Physically Disabled Persons(1993).
The revised law named The Fundamental Law for Persons with Disabilities
declared to advocate the basic human rights of the persons with disabilities
and promoting their participation in society. As the object of the Law,
it newly included persons with mental disorders who are excluded before.It
is also one of the good features that the Law provided the disabled person's
right to participate in the policy making process concerning that of themselves.
But nevertheless this revision, on the other hand, has some problems
to be solved as soon as possible. For example, persons with epilepsy, infantile
autism, many types of chronic serious diseases are not yet included. Many
articles are not sufficient to assure the disabled person's human rights
completely, although it made some advancement compared with those of previous
Law. I think t hat The Fundamental Law for Persons with Disabilities is
the starting line for promotion and attainment the " Full Participation
and Equality".
Accurate figures on the number of persons with disabilities are simply
not available. In fact it is difficult to even make an estimate. Ministry
of Health and Welfare figures for 1987 put the number of physically disabled
persons at 2.6 million. As of 1990, the ministry reports 385,100 mentally
retarded persons. Members of these two groups are officially recognized
as disabled and carry ID cards making them eligible for special welfare
benefits. Add to these groups the approximately one million people known
to have mental disorders. And the total figure for Japan's disabled persons
is slightly more than four million. This represents only about 3.4 percent
of the country's population. As you know, according to United Nations estimates,approximately
one-tenth of the world's population is disabled.
Why is the Japanese figure so low? One reason is the strict limitations
on the types of disabilities recognized by the three laws that apply to
persons with disabilities:the Physically Handicapped Welfare Law, the Mentally
Handicapped Welfare Law, and the Mental Health Law. As mentioned above,Sufferers
of certain mental disorders, epileptics, rheumatics, and people with a
variety of other serious disorders are excluded
The right to education is guaranteed under the Constitution of Japan
which was enforced in 1947. And in fact, students with seeing or hearing
disabilities have been subject to compulsory education, which runs through
junior high school. They also have been able to attend senior high school
for the deaf or for the blind.
But special education for students with other physical disabilities,
for mentally retarded, or for the health impaired was not made compulsory
until 1979. Before 1979, only a few special schools existed for these students.
The special classes in regular schools were reserved for those with minor
disabilities. Most of the students with moderate to severe disabilities
were denied access.
Today, in principle, all students, even the severely or profoundly
disabled, can receive compulsory education. Special education in Japan
has made a remarkable progress in last two decades.
The School system for the disabled students in Japan involves 5 kinds
of special schools and 7 kinds of special classes, almost of them are public.
In Japan, when children reach the age of 6, whether they have disability
or not, they are eligible to attend school. And eligibility continues until
the age of 15. This means compulsory education.
Though it depends on which district they live, if children or their
parents wish, the infants and toddlers program, the pre-school program,
and the education of senior high level are available. I would like to talk
about this issue later.
Here I would like to mention several major problems to solve in school
system.
The first concerns education beyond junior high school. Too few motor
disabled, mentally retarded, and health impaired youth have the opportunities
to receive the equivalent of a high school education. But I think every
youth should be guaranteed that chance. As I mentioned before, Japan was
late in including the motor disabled, the mentally retarded, and health
impaired in the compulsory education system. And so, it is not surprising
that the country is tardy in extending educational opportunities beyond
that level. Nevertheless, It is said that while 95 percent of children
without disabilities matriculate to high school, only 70 percent of the
16- to 18-year old with these disabilities are in the school.
The reason is lack of special schools is the cause; the demand for
spots in existing special schools far exceeds capacity. But at the same
time, we must open the door to the disabled youth in order to get them
into the ordinary high schools.
The second concerns joining the mainstreaming. In Japan, those enrolled
in schools for the blind, schools for the deaf, special schools, and special
classes in regular schools account for only less than 1 percent of all
students of their age. This number is surely too small.
There are no accurate figures for determining the total number of disabled
elementary and junior high school students. But according to the estimation,
at least 3 or 5 percent of pupils at those levels are disabled. This means
that majority of students with disabilities must be enrolled in regular
classes. Yet, it does not mean that Japan has made great inroads in mainstreaming.
The majority of students with disabilities in regular classes cannot expect
their disabilities to be taken into account at all:They do not get special
attention. Consequently, many of them fall behind academically. And they
cannot achieve personal growth. With their self-esteem lost,they come to
hate schools.
The cause of this may be that parents of such students tend to hesitate
or refuse to enroll their children in special classes or special schools.
And one of the reasons of this tendency is that they are afraid their children
to be discriminated, now and future, because of enrollment in special education
system. Therefore, we must overcome this obstacle which is surely brought
about by social, economical, and cultural factors.
Once the disabled persons graduate school, they face great difficulties
in seeking employment, and both the public and private sectors have been
reluctant to tackle the problem.
Japan has had a law promoting the employment of the physically disabled
for many years. In 1955,the government's attitude toward this law was exposed
when it adopted the International Labor Organization's Resolution 99. The
government mistranslated the term "disabled person", using in
its place a word that means only "physically disabled". Concerned
people felt that this was not an inadvertent error, but rather an intentional
alteration made to exclude the persons with mental retardation. For many
years, Japan had no law that promoted the employment of people in this
group.
Parents and other supporters of the persons with mental retardation
worked to rectify this, and in 1987 the law promoting the employment of
the disabled was revised to include this group. This was a big step forward.
The law is based on a quota system that requires 1.6 % of the total
number of employees in all companies and government agencies to be the
disabled persons. But according to the Employment Security Bureau of the
Ministry of Labor, as of June 1991, only 1.32 percent of the 16.2 million
workers in private businesses were disabled persons. Forty percent of companies
with a work force of between 63 and 99 employees did not meet the disabled
quota. A full 82.1 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees did
not fulfill their lawful obligation. Bureau statistic say that in total,48.2
percent of all businesses employed fewer disabled persons required. Big,
rich corporations are less likely to fulfill their quotas because the system
allows fixed fees to offset unmet quotas. Many large companies feel it
is easier to pay money than to employ disabled persons, and as a result
high numbers of disabled persons are employed at less stable small and
medium-sized businesses.
Moreover, persons with disabilities usually work for low wages, since
they are not covered by Japan's minimum wage law. Article 8 of this law
excludes "those whose mental or physical disabilities have led to
markedly low capabilities."
Nonetheless, the persons with disabilities who can find jobs in regular
companies are the lucky ones. So many more strongly desire to work and
be useful, but they simply cannot find employment. During the past two
decades or so, the government has set up a system of work centers and factories
where the persons with physical and mental disabilities can learn a skill,such
as assembling furniture, and experience the satisfaction of working. But
these places alone cannot help all the disabled capable of working.
To fulfill the desperate longing for work among the persons with disabilities,
parents, teachers, and volunteers have joined forces to create places where
people can work no matter how severe their disability. The movement is
spreading like wildfire, and government authorities, no longer able to
ignore it, have begun these groups small grants.
The financial situation of such enterprises is extremely bleak. Many
operate in rented disused houses or in small prefab buildings erected on
empty lots. The work done varies a great deal, but most places subcontract
work from private companies for assembling clothespins or candy boxes,
crushing used aluminum cans, and so on.
The limited capacity of the devoted workers means that profits are
also limited. Monthly salaries therefore come to between 5,000 Yen and
10,000 Yen, only about one-twenties or one-thirties the normal starting
salary for a company employee. Still the workers feel working for a low
wage is better than being shut up at home. The persons with disabilities
and their supporters pour their energies into these projects, happy to
contribute even a little bit to society and to widen their circle of friends.
Overall working conditions make the financial picture for the persons
with disabilities generally bleak. Disability pensions are also low, and
some of the persons with disabilities are not eligible to receive them.
Some of the disabled persons are affluent, but many cannot exist on their
income and remain financially dependent on their families.
The institutionalized persons are not free from financial worries,
either. In the past, institutions for the persons with disabilities were
funded with public money, but in recent years the trend has been to insist
on the principle that patients cover part of the costs. In calculating
fees, institutions count both the disabled person's income from pensions
and other sources and the income of parents or other relatives upon whom
the disabled persons dependent. The aim, of course, is to minimize government
expenses by making the persons with disabilities and their families pay
as much as possible.
Despite all the obstacles, there have been some major reforms in guaranteeing
income for the disabled persons. In 1985, the government established a
basic pension system that made two major improvements. First, previously
private pension schemes were incorporated into the public pension system.
Second, people disabled before the age of 20 were made eligible for pensions
for the first time. Unfortunately, since the system is focused almost exclusively
on people with severe disabilities, those with milder disabilities reaped
almost no benefits.
Another positive reform has increased the number of disabled persons
eligible for fare discounts on public transport. Whereas previously the
eligibility requirements were quite stringent, in recent years discount
have been extended to people with internal disorders, such as heart, respiratory,
or liver ailments, and to people with mental retardation. While the benefits
afforded the person with disabilities through such a program are not large,
even such slight savings are important to those with limited incomes.
There are many other issues I have not mentioned above. For example,
New Long-Term Program for Government Measures for Disabled Persons:Towards
a Society for All decided on 22 March, 1993 by Headquarters for Promoting
The Welfare of Disabled Persons Office of The Prime Minister of Japan says
as follows; The social environment of persons with disabilities contains
a variety of barriers, including physical barriers in transportation facilities
and buildings, systematic barriers such as restrictions on qualification,
cultural and information barriers due to the lack of Braille and sign language
services, and attitudinal barriers such as the view that persons with disabilities
are to be patronized.
We are longing to remove these barriers and to create a society where
persons with disabilities can live comfortably. The catalyst for change
within Japan's society must be the persons with disabilities themselves.
Many, manymore should be aware of their rights and that they have exactly
the same rights as persons without disabilities. They must next clearly
articulate their needs to the people around them, to their local government,
and to the national authorities, so that they can become the nucleus of
change.
They do not act alone. Many support organization for the disabled persons,
already exist in Japan.
National Conference to Support the Life and Right of Disabled Persons
(SHOZENKYO) and Association of Community Workshops for Disabled Persons
(KYOSAREN) are surely the most active voluntary organizations in our country.
The Japanese Association on Disability and Handicap(ZENSYOKEN),
which is the publisher of this Journal,is also active voluntary organization
for the study on disabilities and handicaps. This association has been
established in 1967. Its aim is to develop the theory and practice effective
for advocate human rights of disabled persons and assure their full human
development. It is the nation-wide organization which disabled persons,
their parents, teachers, and welfare workers with university researchers
and other concerned people belong, currently 5,000 membership.
Public consciousness, too, needs to be raised further. They need to
receive the proper education from a young age. Japan has already begun
lessons for schoolchildren that include about the problems of the disabled
persons and the elderly, visiting institutions for these people, and participating
in volunteer aid projects. This may seem like a roundabout way of dealing
with social sentiment, but in fact it is a shortcut to better attitudes.
The third ingredient for improved circumstances for persons with disabilities
is government policy. For more than a decade, Japan has tried to improve
welfare conditions while keeping expenditures to a minimum. This has been
done by relying on the support of families and local communities. Yet Japan
is an economic superpower. It is high time we stopped restricting our nation's
"welfare" system to effort at self-reliance by those in need.
Instead, we must adopt a policy of providing support that will truly enrich
the lives of the persons with disabilities.
Only when the persons with disabilities make stronger initiatives on
their own behalf, when education of the public improves, and when a far
more generous government welfare policy is adopted will Japan's disabled
persons really see true progress toward a more fulfilling lifestyle.
Mogi Toshihiko,Chairperson of The Japanese Association on Disability
and Handicap, and a professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University.