2018/02/28

Japan NGO Network for CEDAW (JNNC)
Alternative Report for the Follow-up Procedure
ofthe Committee onthe Elimination of Discrimination against Women

III. contribution from: DPI Women’s Network Japan
Paragraph 21 (d) of the Concluding Observation
Women with disabilities are subject daily to hate speech that is rooted in themultiple discrimination involving discrimination against people with disabilities
and gender discrimination. For this reason, we believe that women with disabilities
should be included in “other minority women” in paragraph 21(d) ofCEDAW/C/JPN/CO/7-8, which reiterates the committee’s previousrecommendation (CEDAW/C/JPN/CO/6).
We believe that legal provisions prohibiting multiple discrimination against womenwith disabilities are necessary.
In July 2016, an incident occurred in Japan in which a man who was a former
facility employee broke into a care facility for persons with intellectual disabilities
managed by Kanagawa Prefecture, stabbing to death 19 of the residents. The man
who perpetrated the incident made the statement that it was beneficial for society tokill persons with severe disabilities. After this incident, many people voiced thesentiment that they felt anxious about going outdoors. A woman with disabilities
said after the incident that she felt terrified when someone said somethingdegrading to her when she was using public transport.
In 2017, it became clear that there is a statement in the booklet commemorating therelocation of the hospital published by the Hyogo Prefectural Kobe Children’s
Hospital in March 2016, that the “movement to prevent the birth of unfortunate
children” implemented by Hyogo Prefecture from 1966 to 1974 was said by theprefectural governor of the time to have been “a unique prefectural people’s
movement that was the first of its kind in Japan” and “was a matter of great pride toHyogo Prefecture.”In response, a group consisting mainly of persons with disabilities conducted
protest activities. But Hyogo Prefecture replied that the statement contains
historical material of the time and refused to offer an apology or create anopportunity for discussion.
Japan had a Eugenic Protection Act that, based on the concept of eugenics, governs
the practice, for example, of eugenic operations such as forced sterilizations. About
16,500 people have been made to undergo sterilizations without consent under thisact. Women account for roughly 70% of those who have been victims of forcedsterilizations. A significant number of the victims were minors. The United Nations
has in the past issued three recommendations regarding forced sterilizations,demanding apologies and compensation, but to the present day the Japanese
government has indicated no intention of offering apologies or compensation,
stating that the operations were legal at the time. In January this year (2018), awoman who was the victim of a forced sterilization under the Eugenic Protection
Act has, for the first time, initiated a lawsuit against the government.
The fact that the Eugenic Protection Act existed in Japan until 1996 and the factthat language and deeds that negate the lives of persons with disabilities, asmentioned above, continues to this day, are inseparable elements of the sameproblem. To eradicate such language and deeds it is required that Japan face up
squarely to the problems of the past eugenic policy, and as stated at the outset, thatthe prohibition of multiple discrimination including discriminative language against
women with disabilities is clearly enshrined in Japanese law.

Full text:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/JPN/INT_CEDAW_NGS_JPN_30527_E.pdf