Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability andJapan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?
Ian Brittain(Coventry University, UK)

Introduction
In recent times, a key policy focus for cities hosting the Paralympic Games is tomake the host city and country more accessible for disabled residents and, byextension, disabled tourists. Over the past half century, a spike in policy and public
interest, and popularity of the Paralympic Games, which have grown to become thesecond largest multi-sport event on the planet after the Olympic Games（Brittain,
2016）, has played a key role in recognising both the sports participation and othereveryday challenges disabled people face within the wider society. When Tokyo
finally got to hold the delayed 2020 Paralympic Games in August 2021 it became thefirst city to ever host them twice, having previously hosted them in 1964. However,the latest version of the Games came with higher and more explicit expectations todeliver social change beyond the Games for disabled people in Japan that although
present in 1964, were on a much smaller and low-key scale, with far lower
expectations（Brittain, 2016）.
In the lead up to the Tokyo 2020 Games, Tokyo’s Governor Yuriko Koike, statedJapan and the host city was prioritising the Paralympics to promote positive change:“…putting weight on hosting a successful Paralympics is more important
than a successful Olympics…In Tokyo and Japan we have an aging society,and it is clear there will be more and more people who will be requiring theuse of wheelchairs or canes in coming years. Preparing for the Paralympics
is preparing for Tokyo’s aging population”（Kyodo News, 2017:［online］）.

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Japan’s broader approach to accessibility, explicitly focused on the elderly, makes
sense at first sight as 1）Japan has an aging population problem often positioned as
the most critical social and economic problem the country faces to date; and 2）there
is a close link between aging and acquired disabilities （United Nations, n.d.）.
However, Japan’s specific emphasis and approach is potentially detrimental to thegeneral aim of universal design, accessibility and improving the lives of disabled
people across the host country and city. For clarity, universal design refers to:‘the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed,
understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardlessof their age, size or disability. This includes public places in the built
environment such as buildings, streets or spaces that the public have accessto; products and services provided in those places; and systems that areavailable including information and communications technology’（Centre for
Excellence in Universal Design, 2020: Online）.
Over-emphasis on one type of disability may over-shadow others which may ignore
challenges faced by those with non-age related disabilities. Cultural factors appear tocompound this problem too. The challenges faced by people with non-age related
disabilities may become deprioritised when juxtaposed against disabled people withage-related impairments, as Japan’s elderly community are often viewed quite
differently to the rest of society（Hashizume, 1998）. This is something I will discussin more detail shortly, but first I will take a brief look at the treatment of disabled
people in Japan.

Disability and Japan
Disabled people worldwide continue to face persecution and discrimination whichisolates them from society. There are two primary mechanisms through which
disabled people become deprioritised within and excluded from society （Brittain,
Biscaia & Gerard, 2020）. First, ableist attitudes subsequently promote negative
attitudes toward disability, a system of thinking that may become internalised forsome disabled people, and, to varying degrees is something everyone in society issocialised in to （OHRC, n.d.）. Second, an inaccessible built environment that is
generally designed only for those who most closely embody normative values
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（Nourry, 2018）ultimately restricts accessibility and the mobility of disabled people
within society. Both mechanisms, inextricably linked with ableism and capitalism,according to Oliver & Barnes（2012）, underpin the structural barriers and the related
psychological and emotional issues that may comprise everyday living for many
disabled people.
Starting in the early 1940s and continuing up until 1996, the Japanese government
forcibly sterilised disabled people because it deemed them “inferior”（Al Jazeera, 2018
［online］）. The Eugenic Protection Law, modelled on a Nazi German eugenic
sterilisation law of 1933, was passed in Japan in 1948（Morita, 2001）and was notamended until 1996. Indeed, up to the 1980s it was not considered a violation of
disabled people’s human rights to confine them in institutions. Although claiming thatthings have since improved, Hayashi and Okuhira（2001）cite the following exampleof how disabled people were treated at that time:‘a standard practice in these institutions was to give hysterectomies todisabled women who menstruate, in order to make the staff’s work easier.
Disabled women were simply not regarded as women’（Hayashi andOkuhira, 2001; p.857）.
Despite Hayashi and Okuhira’s claims for improvement, the Shogaisha ResearchInstitute （2017） found that 89％ of disabled survey respondents felt that
discrimination against disabled people had not improved despite the introduction of
the Disability Discrimination Elimination Law in April 2016. In addition, 59％ of
respondents felt they had experienced direct discrimination in their daily lives, whichappears to be in line with comments made by many of the disabled interviewees in
my research. It would also clearly indicate that, from the perspective of disabled
people at least, the law is not fulfilling its purpose. In addition, a national survey
carried out by the Cabinet Office（2017）in Japan highlighted that 84％ of participants
felt that there is discrimination and prejudice towards disabled people in Japan based
upon their disability. Indeed, Japan’s own recent history is replete with examples of
the impact of negative attitudes towards disabled people and a lack of understandingof the negative consequences for disabled people in Japan of those attitudes. One
recent example is the 2016 Sagamihara massacre ─ Japan’s deadliest mass killing73

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since World War II, where nineteen residents at the Tsukui Yamahiro En （Lily
Garden） care facility for people with intellectual disabilities were murdered by
Satoshi Uematsu, a 26-year-old employee who sought to kill hundreds of disabled
people “for the sake of Japan and world peace”（Hernon, 2017）. Unfortunately, manyof the underlying prejudices of the Eugenic Protection Law still linger within
Japanese society as is highlighted by the fact that families of the 2016 Sagamihara
massacre chose not to release details of those who had died for fear of suffering
discrimination themselves for having a family member with a disability （Adams,
2016）. Further recent examples include three residents at an Aichi care home for thedisabled who were sent to hospital with “holes in the intestines” and the subsequentarrest in December 2020 of a 45-year old care worker for abuse（Barrier Free Japan,
2020a）; the Japanese couple sentenced to 13 years in prison for confining their eldest
daughter, who had schizophrenia, for over 10 years and letting her freeze to death（Barrier Free Japan, 2020b）or the 20-year old university student who was arrested
in August 2020 for threatening to release sarin gas at the Budokan（the Judo Arenabuilt for the 1964 Olympic Games）in order to “kill a lot of people with disabilities”（Barrier Free Japan, 2020c）. This kind of ‘direct violence’ against disabled people isbecoming less common（or at least less visible）in most countries around the world
and forms part of the ‘triangle of violence’ （Direct, Cultural and Structural） thatmany disabled people suffer on an almost daily basis around the world （Brittain,
2012）, which can have a devastating impact on perceptions of what it means to bedisabled.

The focus on age-related disability and a barrier-free environment
According to Palley and Usui（1995）attitudes towards the elderly are influenced
by the Confucian tradition of respect for the elderly and familial responsibility for thecare of aging parents. Hashizume （1998） claims that this stems from filial piety,which means “respect for elders and it charges family members to assume
responsibility for caring for their elderly relatives. Filial piety is internalized as acultural value in Japan through moral education beginning in elementary school”（p.125）. In contrast, Japan’s reticence to attend to the needs of disabled people
illustrates a deep-rooted and endemic social problem: perfection, particularly aesthetic
perfection, which is a cultural value at the heart Japanese society. This is significant
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as it leads to the stigmatisation and physical barriers to mobility across Japan,
therefore leading to social exclusion of disabled people. Anything but perfect is a seen
as not good enough ─ just one of numerous examples and explanations of Japan’shigh depression and suicide rates（Nakamura et al., 2012）. This is reflected in manyof the lived experiences of the interviewees. The interviewee quotes highlight
attitudes towards disability in Japan appear, from the perspective of interviewees atleast, to be highly negative and based in an ableist view of their perceived abilities.
This helps to emphasise why tackling negative attitudes toward disabled people issignificant, not just for Japan but for other countries who share similar prejudices.
Japan appears obsessed with perfection, which may help explain some of theindifference for those who do have a disability and so deviate from the ableist
narrative of physical perfection. It also emphasises the dangers of focussing purely on
environmental barrier removal at the expense of increasing understanding of andattitudes towards disabled people ─ something that will be highlighted further in thefindings.

Methods
Data Collection
This research used a flexible, qualitative design to capture the social reality for agroup of disabled Japanese individuals, using their own thoughts, experiences, andopinions, in their own words. The research was conducted in partnership with two
Tokyo-based gatekeeper organisations（Disabled Person’s International ─ Japan and
the Co-Innovation Laboratory）who enabled access to my interviewees through theirclient base and contacts. At each interview the interviewer was accompanied by anative Japanese speaker who also spoke English to act as an interpreter. Twointerviews were held in English as the participant was fluent. All participants were
given a Participant Information Sheet and Informed Consent Form that had beentranslated into Japanese and so were able to provide written and verbal informed
consent for participation. Interviews all took place in a location convenient andcomfortable to the interviewee and a semi-structured interview guide was usedduring the interviews with extra questions asked for either clarification purposes orto delve deeper into anything interesting that arose. All interviews were audio
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recorded and the English language sections professionally transcribed. The average
length of interview was 35.00 minutes（14.15 − 68.58）.

Participants
In total, twenty-six Japanese disabled people who lived in the Tokyo Metropolitan
area were interviewed. Details of the participants can be found in table 1 along withthe pseudonym used for each in the findings section and an overview of theparticipants by gender, age and impairment group can be found in table 2. The
inclusion criteria for interviewees were a）aged 18 years or older, b）self-identified as
disabled or as having a disability, and c） able to provide freely given informed
consent. The twenty-six Japanese disabled people that formed the sample for thisstudy, included fourteen men and twelve women ranging in age from 19 to 73-yearsold.

Secondary Data
Secondary data（reports, surveys news items, etc.）were also collected prior to andafter the interview period in order to determine themes to be discussed at theinterviews, and then to either back up claims made by interview participants or, insome cases, to highlight differing perspectives.
Table 1. Interview Participant Details and Pseudonyms
Interview

GenderImpairment

Onset

Age

Pseudonym

1M

Physical

201252

Phys1M52

2

M

Physical

2010

52

Phys2M52

3

M

Physical

201651

Phys3M53

4

M

Physical

2004

50

Phys4M50

5

M

Physical

2005

61

Phys5M61

6

F

Physical

1998

73

Phys6F73

7

F

Physical

2006

73

Phys7F73

8

M

Physical（Electric wheelchair user）

2003

55

Phys8M55

9F

Physical

1996

52

Phys9F52

10F

Physical

201349

Phys10F49

11M

Physical

1968

72

Phys11M72

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Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

12M

Physical

2010

69

Phys12M69

13

F

Physical

2011

58

Phys13F58

14

F

Physical

1996

23

Phys14F23

15

M

Physical（Manual wheelchair user）

Birth

19

Phys15M19

16

M

Physical

Birth

26

Phys16M26

17

F

Physical（Electric wheelchair user）

1968

69

Phys17F69

18

F

Deaf

Birth

27

D/HI1F27

19

F

Hearing Impaired

2001

28

D/HI2F28

20

M

Physical（Electric wheelchair user）

1976

52

Phys18M52

21

M

Physical

Birth

35

Phys19M35

22

F

Physical（Electric wheelchair user）

Birth

40

Phys20F40

23F

Physical（Invisible disability）

2014

27

Phys21F27

24

M

Blind

1967

67

B/VI1M67

25

F

Physical（Manual wheelchair user）

1994

45

Phys22F45

26

M

Physical（Electric wheelchair user）

Birth

38

Phys23M38

Table 2. Overview of Interview Participants by Gender, Age and Impairment Group.
NumberAge
Range

Average
Age

Physical
Impairment

Deaf/Hearing
ImpairedBlind/Visually
ImpairedMale

1419 − 72

50.64 yrs

13

0

1

Female1223 − 73

47.00 yrs

10

2

0

Total

26

19 − 73

48.96 yrs

23

2

1

Data Analysis
The recorded interviews were professionally transcribed after which a thematic
analysis was performed, identifying themes, and capturing patterns of data.
Throughout the analytic process, following the methods suggested by Braun and
Clarke（2014）, data was grouped together into themes using content analysis in orderto provide a robust picture of what it was like to be disabled and living in Japan andthe possible impacts the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games might have on their lived
reality moving forward.

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Findings and Discussion
Overall, it has to be said that the interviewees painted quite a negative picture ofwhat it was like to live in Japan as a disabled person. This was particularly clear interms of their perceptions and lived experience of how attitudes towards disability
held by non-disabled people in Japan impacted their lives. This forms the first issue
to be discussed below. The second major issue was the link between non-disabledattitudes towards disabled people and their understanding of the issues they faced,and explicit focus upon the barrier-free programme by the Japanese and Tokyo
Metropolitan governments. The results, discussed in terms of transport within theTokyo Metropolitan area, clearly highlight how a focus on the physical environment
without also attempting to educate and change the attitudes of non-disabled people
may actually mean that physical barriers can remain barriers even when they haveapparently been removed. The related issue of language use and how this may
maintain negative attitudes is also introduced. The fourth and final issue is that ofsegregation within Japanese society in terms of areas such as education, sport andother areas of social life that may also aid in the maintenance of negative attitudes
towards disability.

The Importance of Social Attitudes and Understanding of Disability
The impact of negative social attitudes towards disabled people can be potentiallydevastating, as was highlighted by several of my Japanese residents who acquired
disabilities later in life. Many freely admitted that they either wanted to die or
seriously considered committing suicide rather than continuing to live in Japan witha disability, such was their perception of what life would be like. Phys3M51, Phys6F73
and Phys8M55 all admitted that at the onset of their impairments they all could see
no other option than to die, such was the perception of life with a disability that they
had been socialised into. Phys9F52 even went as far as looking at a suicide website inorder to find a way to end her depression at the thought of the life ahead of her witha disability, such is the power of the ableist narrative and the negative attitudes
towards disability that it portrays. Indeed Phys8M55 highlighted the complicity of thenon-disabled population, and negative attitudes towards disability, in driving these78Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

feelings of worthlessness when he stated:“Directly after my spinal cord injury… the doctor said to me ‘your body will
not work again’. So I thought, I felt, as though I should die, I should die, theonly choice I have, it’s to die”（Phys8M55）.
This clearly helps to emphasise why tackling negative attitudes toward disabled
people is significant, not just for Japan but for other countries who share similar
prejudices.
These negative attitudes towards and lack of understanding of the needs ofdisabled people can also have unintended tragic consequences, such as the cases of
two visually impaired people who fell on to rail tracks from the station platform at
Tokyo stations and were killed. In the first case at Asagaya station in June 2020
there was no barrier to prevent the fall （Barrier Free Japan, 2020d）, but in thesecond case at Toyocho station in November 2020 platform doors had been fitted
earlier that month as part of the barrier free programme, but work was not complete
and they had been left open（Nammo, 2020）.According to Nammo:“At Toyocho Station, one attendant is stationed at the ticket gates at all
times, and is supposed to approach visually impaired individuals who passby. However, the train attendant apparently did not notice that Koike washolding a white cane when he entered. Following the accident, the station
has increased the number of attendants at ticket gates to two people, and is
working to prevent a recurrence”（Nammo, 2020; Online）.
However, this need for assistance for certain disabled people by station staff
highlights another important link in the whole process of improving accessibility fordisabled people ─ that of economics. In December 2020 three disabled passengers
brought a lawsuit against Kyushu railway citing inconvenience and safety concerns
over the increasing number of un-manned stations. Kyodo News （2020a, Online）
claim this is the result of “budget cuts and Japan’s widespread labor shortage issues”
that have “led rail operators to no longer staff many less frequented train stations,causing major accessibility problems for the nation’s disabled”. It is often the casethat when budgets need cutting, the people who suffer most from such cuts are those79

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that society deems less worthy, such as disabled people. In what follows I will
highlight the important links between attitudes towards and understanding of theneeds of disabled people and their connection to removing environmental barriers.
Put bluntly, one without the other is fairly pointless as an environmental barrier,even if apparently removed in the physical sense, may still remain a barrier if
attitudes towards and understanding of the needs of disabled people are not
improved at the same time. I will highlight these issues with reference mainly to thetransport system in Tokyo.

The Important Links between Social Attitudes/Understanding of Disability and a
Barrier-free Environment
A major component of the Tokyo 2020 ‘barrier-free’ policy programme was that all
Tokyo rail and metro stations that were used by more than three thousand users per
day should be made more accessible by the introduction of step free access from thestreet to the platform and all the way onto the train itself. Although at the time ofinterview this process had nearly been completed, the responses of the interviewees
clearly highlighted that there was a disconnect between barrier removal andunderstanding the issues faced by disabled people, and how the two are closely
connected. The interviewees highlighted three key areas in which this disconnect cancause issues ─ i. access to the station and platform; ii. on the train; and iii. finding
reliable and accurate accessibility information regarding stations and theiraccessibility, particularly for wheelchair users. All three of these issues clearlyhighlight this disconnect that stretches well beyond the transport network to allareas of society.
Getting into the station and down to the platform.
Despite the fact that at the time interviews took place the programme to improveaccessibility at rail and metro stations from street level to the platform was almost
complete, many of the interviewees highlighted that issues with the placement, signposting and availability of the elevators often made it hard to find them, or they were
not actually accessible at all times or in some cases even switched on. This issue wasclearly highlighted by one of the interviewees when she stated:“The trains start working five, five-ish in the morning but the elevator from80

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

the ground level to get up to the station’s entrance they don’t open until 20
after six. So at the beginning I didn’t know that so I just checked the time of
the train. I get there, the elevator’s not working. And the elevator not being
open, nobody’s around so like I had no choice just taking cab to go to the
airport”（Phys22F45）.
It would appear then that there is an underlying assumption that disabled people
don’t require access to the transportation system in the same way and at the sametimes that everyone else does. This idea was reinforced by Phys22M38 who stated “ingeneral the attitude is that people with disabilities don’t travel is the culturalimpression I think…that leads to an idea that people with disabilities don’t have theexpendable income or ability to travel”.
A further problem raised by the interviewees, particularly those that use
wheelchairs, is the actual size/ weight restrictions of the elevators and otheraccessibility aids in the stations, including the stairlifts that are installed in some ofthe stations. One interviewee stated “It may be okay for the Japanese small user, but（if the）wheelchair is very heavy…the 180kg is already not accessible”（Phys8M55）.
This clearly highlights the fact that accessibility aids should not only be designed tomake life easier for disabled Tokyo residents, but also disabled tourists and Tokyo
2020 spectators who may visit Tokyo. Although the equipment installed may be
culturally appropriate given the smaller size and weight of the average Japanesecitizen compared to some other nations, it would appear that planners have failed totake into account disabled foreigners visiting Tokyo when implementing the ‘barrierfree’ programme. Given the Japanese government’s focus upon a future tourist legacy
this would appear strange, unless the focus is actually only upon non-disabled tourists.
According to the interviewees, the small size of the elevators leads to a further
problem. It was felt by many that non-disabled passengers often chose to also use theelevators rather than the stairs or escalators, and despite the fact that they wereprimarily installed to make access easier for disabled people, this fact is notunderstood or is simply ignored by the non-disabled citizens who make them wait:“we have only small elevator and we have the person with disability and81

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without disability and they have sometimes the cart for the baby or a big
suitcase then the wheelchair user should wait for a long time to use theelevator”（Phys6F73）.
In this sense, despite the fact that a lift has been installed primarily to increase
accessibility for disabled people, the lack of understanding or perhaps indifference
towards disabled people by non-disabled passengers means that accessing theplatform remains a barrier despite the removal of the physical barrier, which has
been replaced by an attitudinal barrier that is equally as problematic.
On the train.
According to Schulz-Richard（2019）the metro system in Tokyo has 142 stations（although some stations serve more than one line）and has approximately 8.7million
daily users, which make it the busiest subway system in the world. At peak times
this makes for an extremely congested system with at peak times some stations evenhaving guards to push passengers onto overcrowded trains like sardines. Therefore,
even if disabled people safely navigate their way from the street to the platform andget aboard their train, the issues caused by negative attitudes towards disability do
not stop there. As one of the interviewees who is an electric wheelchair user pointed
out:“in the morning the train in Japan is full. And when I get in the train thestaff of the station must prepare the slope and this takes time and thepassengers in the train doing the bad faces and I had some bad feelingbecause I take the time for them. I feel maybe the passengers think we arevery busy and we are non-disabled person and why should we use the time
for the person like this”（Phys8M55）.
He is clearly made to feel an inconvenience to the non-disabled passengers on the
train because he moves round using a wheelchair rather than on two legs which is inline with the failure to adhere to the normative values for bodily function that
underline the ableist narrative.
Accessing Reliable and Accurate Information regarding the Transportation82

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Network.
One issue many of the interviewees highlighted was the need to plan very carefully
and check the accessibility of the stations they would need to use to complete theirjourneys. Many found that the information available on official websites was either
inaccurate or was based upon a very poor understanding of what accessibility reallymeans. Indeed, one respondent stated “I don’t really trust if they say ‘fully accessible’.
If I hear from disabled friends that it is accessible then I can totally rely on it. But if
not like I really, really question it”（Phys22F45）.It is clear therefore, that lack or only
partial understanding of what accessibility and universal design really means canhave a huge impact upon the ability of disabled people to move around freely within
the city.
Transport Issues for Foreign Disabled Visitors.
The interviewees also highlighted that for disabled foreign spectators visiting theGames and possibly future disabled tourists there was a further problem. Accurate
information might be hard to come by for them in Japanese, but in English it isalmost non-existent as pointed out by（Phys23M38）:“finding general information is hard to come by…Speaking in Japanese I
have to look at Japanese websites, and I like to compare back and forth, andthere are way too many times where the Japanese site of information onaccessibility exists and the English version nothing really exists fully at all”
（Phys23M38）.
This would appear to indicate a lack of expectation that disabled foreigners would
visit Japan and so why bother going to the trouble and expense of providing theinformation. Indeed, the same respondent（Phys23M38）felt that as there was very
little expectation of Japanese disabled residents of Tokyo travelling, then the same
thought process probably applies to disabled people travelling to Japan from abroad,which may help explain the comments about accessibility equipment sizes mentioned
earlier. It is clear, however, that from the viewpoint of the interviewees at least, very
little has gone into the barrier-free programme beyond simply removing the problemof the perceived physical barrier, i.e. the stairs to the platform, rather than the wholeprocess of a disabled person needing to get from one place to another and all that83

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entails.

The Impact of Attitudes towards Disability in other related
Areas
Even industry stakeholders like hotels have a major issue. According to Ingle（2019）, Yokohama hotels wanted to charge ParalympicsGB to make hotel rooms forathletes accessible and then charge them extra to convert them back into inaccessible
rooms after the Games! One interviewee（Phys22M38）claimed this was because they
were afraid that they would remind people of hospital rooms and would put nondisabled people off using the hotel, highlighting a lack of knowledge of universal
design, as well as（dis）ableism. However, Ingle goes on to cite the President of theInternational Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons as claiming that the problem“is not a Games specific issue. There is an issue with the legislation in Japan
when it comes to the number of accessible rooms. In hotels with more than
50 rooms you have to have one accessible room but it doesn’t matter if that
hotel has 500 rooms, it can still just be one accessible room”（Ingle, 2019
Online）.
This clearly highlights the importance of strong legally binding and legally enforced
policies that are developed in collaboration with disabled people and the organisations
that support them. Without this, most organisations will simply do the bare minimum
in order to meet their legal responsibilities.

Some Signs of Progress
It would be remiss of me to claim that there are no signs of positive developments
within Japanese society with regard to disabled people and greater inclusion withinsociety. In June 2020, Starbucks opened its first sign language store in Japan staffedmainly by hearing impaired employees（Kyodo News, 2020b）and in November 2020,
Liberal Democrat Party member Eriko Imai asked questions in sign language at
Japan’s upper house plenary session for the first time in its history（Barrier Free
Japan, 2020e）. In July 2020, a supermarket in Fukuoka opened a slow checkout
counter, which is “reserved for older and disabled customers to allow them to pay for84Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

their groceries slowly and without feeling pressured’（Matsumoto, 2020）. In terms of
attitudinal change, for the last two years Bengt Yamada, a Swedish-Japanese citizen,
has been touring Tokyo’s 150 foreign embassies, as well as local government offices inTokyo, together with a group of disabled adults and children, to help tell their stories.
He began this quest after attending a hospital with his own child and seeing
numerous disabled children who, in his opinion, were almost invisible to Japanesesociety. His long term aim is to bring their stories “back to a wider domestic audience
with documentaries he is making based on his visits with disabled people as well as
his prior interactions with them”（Tominaga, 2020 Online）. In November 2021, twomonths after the Games took place, a survey conducted by Kyodo news in 45 of the
47 prefectures indicated that 70％ of disabled respondents stated that the hosting of
the Paralympic Games had led to a better understanding of their own disability or
disabilities, in general （Kyodo News, 2021）. These may appear isolated and small
examples in the overall scheme of things, but they do appear to indicate somepositive signs that things may be changing for the better across Japan, which if
continued and spread, could positively impact the lives of disabled people in Japanand the attitudes towards them amongst the wider non-disabled society. However,whether this is a short-term Games related effect or whether it will have any lasting
long-term impact remains to be seen.

The role of language in the understanding of disability in Japan
According to Brittain（2016）language is at its most simple just a series of words
or characters. It is the meanings attached by humans to these words or charactersthat makes language important. One function of language is communication, but in
communicating humans also, more often than not, convey the underlying meaning
behind the words or characters used. It is also claimed that language plays a key rolein politics, domination and control. The meanings attached to the words or charactersused are socially constructed within the social or cultural group within which anindividual grows up and develops. Therefore, there can be major differences in theperceived meanings of words such as disability, disabled and even what constitutes
sport, dependent upon the social and cultural group within which an individual learns
their proscribed meanings. However, as some social groups and cultures within agiven society are more powerful or have more influence than others, one set of85

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meanings for these words may gain dominance, even over those meanings proscribedby the group they refer to. In Japan the word for non-disabled is ‘Kenjõsha’ whichtranslates as ‘fully healthy person’. This may appear a reasonable description until
you realise that the implication of this is that anyone who doesn’t fit the definition of‘Kenjõsha’ must then be considered ‘not fully healthy’, which in the case of many
disabled people is a complete nonsense. A single arm amputee, a visually impaired
person and even a paraplegic can still be fully healthy even with their impairments.
Following an interview with the author of this article, Akiko Okazaki, deputy directorof the department of science and medicine for the Asahi Shimbun, wrote an article
entitled The fear of lurking in the word “healthy person” to eliminate “yan-no-shi”
that highlights some of the negative impacts that the meanings associated with words
can have upon people who do not fit the prescribed meaning, and how this continues
to enhance divisions between the two groups to the advantage of the group that best
fits the prescribed meaning（Okazaki, 2021）.

Segregation
Shek-Noble（2020）claims that the continuing segregation of disabled people within
Japan from wider society is the result of architectural, social and institutional barriers.
Stevens（2007）claims that of all the segregatory mechanisms used in Japan, the mostimportant is educational segregation, as this is closely associated with financial
success in Japan. Stevens goes on to claim that“even though the Japanese government encourages people with disabilities
to work, the educational sector’s unwillingness to integrate children withdisabilities in mainstream schools even where appropriate represents one of
the main mechanisms of their long-term disempowerment.”（Stevens, 2007; p.
273-274）.
One of the interviewees linked this issue to the lack of understanding of disability
issues in the wider society when he stated “In Japan, disabled students are separated
from other students. So, ordinary kids rarely meet students with disabilities in school”（Phys18M52）. His hope was that the hosting of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo
might gain a better understanding and awareness of the issues faced by disabled
people through watching the Games.
86Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

Another issue with segregation raised during the interviews was the existence ofsports facilities built specifically for disabled people. Christiaens and Brittain（2021）
have argued that disability specific sporting opportunities may form an importantpart of freedom of choice, allowing disabled people to participate in segregatedsettings if that is where they feel most comfortable. However, one of the interviewees
highlighted how these segregated facilities were sometimes used by non-disabledfacility staff to refuse access to disabled people.

Int: I’ve heard there are segregated facilities and that a lot of thenon-disabled facilities won’t allow people with disabilities to use
them.

Phys22F45: Yeah I’ve experienced that too.

Int: And what kind of excuses do they use for?

Phys22F45: Our facility is non-accessible. We don’t have knowledgeabletrainers or personnel. And it’s not safe for the people.

Int: For the people with disabilities or the non-disabled?

Phys22F45: Non-disabled people.

Int: Not safe in what way?

Phys22F45: Just go and maybe I run over their toes like. What the heck isthat right? But like those stupid excuses they come up with. And then likeoh you’d better, you have a better experience if you go to the sports facility
for the disabled. So like I highly recommend for you to go there.

Int: Even though it might be 20 miles away.

Phys22F45: Exactly.
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Journal of Paralympic Research Group vol.17

Int: The other excuse I’ve heard is that they won’t let wheelchairs inbecause they’re afraid it will damage the floor.

Phys22F45: Yes……And then the thing is I was told that exact thing. But
the day I visited the facility they had the unicycle. What the hell? Like aunicycle is okay and a wheelchair is not. Just because they have one wheel
it’s okay, four wheels is not? I did have a good argument but they didn’t
have any.

Int: What did they say?

Phys22F45: Like well that’s the rules.
This exchange highlights multiple issues around attitudes towards andunderstanding of the issues disabled people face within society. The facility staff
would rather the disabled person used a disability specific sports centre, thus
reinforcing their segregation and isolation within the wider society, and uses
numerous dubious reasons as to why they should not use the non-disabled facility.
The facility staff focus on what they don’t have （e.g. knowledgeable trainers or
personnel）or assumed issues such as potential damage to the floor rather than what
they could do to change the situation to allow access for disabled people in theirfacility. This highlights an issue known as opportunity hoarding, which according toBrar（2016）, ‘is a deliberate process by which social closure enables the dominantgroup to disproportionately amass the available rewards in a particular field, thereby
strengthening and entrenching their dominant position within that field’（p.66）. Put
simply, in this case it is a way for the non-disabled majority to keep the use of thisparticular facility for their sole use, but denying access to anyone who does not fit
their normative values for physical appearance and ability.
Finally, something that took me a little by surprise in the interviews was the factthat at the end of the interview six interviewees（all women）actually thanked mefor taking an interest in them and their lives. Phys13F58 stated “I think yourresearch is very important and amazing research” and Phys9F52 said “I am very
88Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Legacy, Disability and Japan ─ Muzukashi desu ne?

happy because person in professional area from abroad has interest in this field, what
is disability in Japan, I am so very happy.” I actually asked one of my final
interviewees about this and she stated that she thought it was because disabled
people in Japan don’t have a voice. She also felt that although the government andpolicy makers might（pretend to）listen to disabled people, the ideas put forward bydisabled people are rarely actioned:
Even the government, you know, like my perception, they host the meetingand invite many advocate from the disabled group. They take the minutes.
Okay we heard all of their advice but the decision makers don’t have any
people with disability. So those ideas are not really implemented（Phys22F45）.
This highlights a key issue when trying to plan for Paralympic legacies for disabled
people living in the host city ─ that of non-disabled people assuming they know what
is best for disabled people or implementing changes that are the easiest and most
cost effective, so that they can appear to have made an effort towards change without
actually changing too much.

Conclusion
The findings clearly indicate that, for these interviewees at least, there is still a long
way to go to achieve any kind of real understanding of the issues faced by disabled
people within the wider non-disabled Japanese society. That is not to say that thesituation is any worse or any better than in other nations around the world, but if thehighlighted issues of i. increasing understanding of how non-disabled actions andattitudes can negatively impact the lives of disabled people; ii. how the language they
use to describe issues around disability can reinforce this negative impact; iii. how
segregation can reinforce both the isolation of disabled people and decrease opportunities
for increasing understanding amongst non-disabled people regarding disabled people;
and iv. government and policy makers only paying lip service to what disabled people
have to say rather than really listening to their needs and acting fully upon them, thenthe chances of any lasting positive changes and genuine Paralympic legacy within
Tokyo and the rest of Japan will be, as the Japanese often say, muzukashi desu ne!!
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Journal of Paralympic Research Group vol.17
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92東京2020パラリンピック競技大会のレガシー，障がいと日本──ムズカシイデスネ？

東京2020パラリンピック競技大会のレガシー，
障がいと日本──ムズカシイデスネ？
イアン・ブリテン（英国コベントリー大学）

2021年８月，東京は史上初めてパラリンピック競技大会を２度開催した都市となった。同パラリンピック競技大会の開催に向けて，小池百合子東京都知事は，東京そして日本全国に暮らす障がい者の生活の向上のためには，パラリンピックの成功がオリン
ピックの成功以上に重要であると述べた。本稿では，2019年５月に行った首都圏に暮らす日本人障がい者26人とのインタビューならびにその他二次データに基づき，日本政府
および東京オリンピック・パラリンピック競技大会組織委員会によるパラリンピック・
レガシーに関する主張のいくつかについて，インタビュー対象者のコメント，またメ
ガ・イベント・レガシーおよび障がいに関する批判的研究における筆者自身の経験を踏
まえて，批判的に分析する。障がいに対する考え方が及ぼす影響力について本当の意味で理解を深めることなしに，人口の高齢化による障がいや，さらにはバリアフリー環境に焦点を当てることが，日本の障がい者の真の生活の向上につながるのかについて問う。さらにまた，日本国内に広く認められる言葉遣いや隔離政策など，真に有益なパラリンピック・レガシーの実現を困難な課題にしかねない重要な問題のいくつかを明らか
にする。
キーワード
東京2020，パラリンピック競技大会，パラリンピック・レガシー，障がい，日本

93