May 21, 2015 – Born with cerebral palsy and unable to walk, Kenichi Okubo of Hyogo, Japan, was denied boarding his flight by Jetstar and forced to spend the night in the airport. He and his lawyer say he is the victim of discrimination based on his disability and his Read more…
As mentioned in a previous post, recently two women with hearing impairments won seats in the recent municipal elections. The city first considered using a sign-language interpreter but has opted for implementing a new system instead. Famous for being a club hostess who communicated only with note, Rie Saito won Read more…
Thanks to extended support services and government quotas for disabled workers, employment for the disabled in Japan is on the rise. In 2013, the number of disabled people finding work through employment services went up by an astounding 9,562 cases over 2012 data to a total of 77,883 cases. This Read more…
Japan has a great welfare system. Often neighbouring countries come to study the Japanese system so they can implement something similar back home. But the demographics of Japan are rapidly changing and the system needs to adapt. The government has started working on an integration of the current welfare systems Read more…
Disclaimer: My dad worked at IBM, I am an Apple fan-boy, and my full-time job is at a seniors facility – so this news hits close to home in many ways. As you may know, Japan has a super greying population. The population pyramid is actually doing a somersault. While Read more…
Elections in Japan seem to be never ending. Being a foreigner, I of course cannot vote and usually just ignore the whole thing. However, the results of last weeks municipal elections caught my eye. Two women with hearing-impairments won seats in the assembly. The reason that this likely made the Read more…