The big mistakes that humans have made to other humans. And reflections - Thinking about the meaning of the adoption of the "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" now 《Kyosaren・Katsunori Fujii｜Special lecture for HERALBONY employees》
December 13, 2006. 18 years ago today, people all over the world came together and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the United Nations.
It was the moment when the voices of people who had been fighting discrimination and prejudice for many years and continuing to seek dignity were finally heard by the world. This treaty opened the door to a future in which everyone, with or without disabilities, can live lives worthy of being human. Katsunori Fujii, representative of the NPO Japan Council on Disability and executive director of the disability organization Kyosaren, said:
"This Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is based on our recognition of our past mistakes and our reflection on them."
At HERALBONY, a special lecture was held for all employees by Mr. Fujii, who is visually impaired and has been active on the front lines of welfare. We would like to convey important knowledge for thinking about the "now" and "future" of welfare for the disabled, as well as Mr. Fujii's words that deeply resonated with all employees, so we will be delivering the transcript of the lecture in two parts.
The origin of my blindness as someone who began to confront issues related to people with disabilities
Katsunori Fujii (hereafter Fujii): I also gave a lecture at HERALBONY four years ago. Today's theme was "The Present and Future of People with Disabilities," which could also be rephrased as "Basic knowledge about disability issues."
I will touch on a variety of topics, including the history of disability issues in Japan and the current challenges we face, but before I get into the main topic, let me tell you a little about myself.
I am visually impaired and can no longer see at all. I broke up with letters about 30 years ago and with light about 10 years ago. I used to be a teacher at a special needs school, and at the time, children with severe disabilities were not allowed to attend school. While I was working on various initiatives to get these children into school, I often felt that society and the government were being unfair to me.
At the same time, I was afraid of becoming accustomed to such injustice. Even though the current situation of people with disabilities has not changed, we stop thinking, thinking, "Maybe things have gotten a little better than before." I wanted to somehow resist this habit.
Injustice and the resistance to becoming accustomed to it: these two things were the starting point for me to confront issues related to people with disabilities.
How many people with disabilities are there in Japan?
So, do you know how many people with disabilities there are in Japan? According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in May 2024, the number of people with disabilities (physical, intellectual, and mental) is approximately 11,646,000. The latest survey estimates the population of Japan to be approximately 125 million, so the number of people with disabilities is equivalent to 9.3% of the population.
In fact, there are two groups that are missing from this number. The first is dementia, and it is said that there are currently about 6.7 million dementia patients in Japan, including those at risk.
The other is a small group of people with weak eyesight, hearing loss, incurable diseases, and developmental disabilities. Their disabilities are called "disabilities in the gap," and not only are they not included in the statistics, they are also not given disability certificates. According to an independent survey by a related academic organization, it is estimated that there are approximately 10 million people who fall into the "disabilities in the gap" category.
If we add these two groups to the statistics above, we get that 22-23% of the population has a disability. Looking at this percentage, it raises questions about viewing people with disabilities as a "minority."
In the United States, social systems are based on 20% of the population, and in New Zealand, 22%. I think Japan should also think of disability issues as a social issue that all citizens need to face.
The death rate for people with disabilities is twice as high during earthquakes. Why?
So what exactly is a "disability"?
Until just a few decades ago, disabilities were thought of as something that "belonged to the individual." However, in recent years, it has come to be thought of as half a disability belonging to the individual, and the other half as something that arises from the relationship with the society and environment that surrounds the individual. Depending on the society and environment in which a person is placed, the severity of their disability can be made milder or more severe.
For example, imagine a woman in a wheelchair entering a cafe. If there are steps at the entrance or inside the store, she will have difficulty moving in. However, if there are no steps, she will be able to move around easily.
Next, imagine a man with an intellectual disability going out into the city. If there are many signs written in kanji, he will have a hard time finding his destination. However, if the signs are accompanied by universal design emojis, which are used in Scandinavia and other countries, the information becomes much easier to understand.
In this way, changes in the environment and information around them can completely change the way they live their lives.
A study on the Great East Japan Earthquake found that the death rate for people with disabilities was exactly twice that of the general population. The damage rates should be equal, so why does such a disparity occur? The conclusion is that the level of policies supporting people with disabilities is low.
The idea that disabilities are viewed solely as a result of factors such as blindness, paralysis, or intellectual disability is called the "medical model." In contrast, the idea that disabilities arise as a result of the individual's relationship with the society and environment that surrounds them is called the "social model." I believe that going forward, we should place emphasis on the social model when considering policies and on-site practices.
The biggest problem is the idea of isolating the mentally ill.
I just showed you the statistics on the "number of people with disabilities," but if you look at the breakdown, you can see that the proportion of people with mental disabilities is extremely high. It is not clear whether this is an absolute number or whether it is due to differences in survey methods, but it has increased by about 2 million people since the previous survey, and it is expected to continue to increase in the future.
There are many issues regarding mental disorders in Japan, but the biggest problem is that the mainstream view is still that "people with mental disorders should be isolated in psychiatric hospitals."
In order to isolate patients, hospital beds are needed for each patient, and it can be said that the lack of a good recuperation environment ultimately leads to the expansion and prolongation of isolation.
In fact, when comparing the number of psychiatric hospital beds in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), Japan ranks far and away No. 1. By comparing Japan with other countries in this way, we can perhaps see the slow response of Japan to mental disorders and the reasons for this.
Approximately 80% of people with disabilities are trapped in "poverty"
A 2023 survey found that 78.6% of people with disabilities live below relative poverty. Relative poverty is a state in which a person is poorer than the majority when compared to the standard of living in a country or region. Simply put, it is the "poverty line."
There is a global formula for calculating relative poverty, and if converted into Japanese currency values, the poverty line in 2023 is 1.27 million yen or less per year. More specifically, if your total annual disposable income after taxes and social insurance premiums is 1.27 million yen or less, you can say you are poorer than the majority.
Approximately 80% of people with disabilities are trapped in "poverty"... Unfortunately, this situation has not changed for a long time.
A life that is based on "personal self-restraint" and "burden on the family" is not healthy.
Among the data from Kyosaren's survey, more than 50% of people with disabilities live with their families. The situation of having to rely on family support due to low income can be described in negative terms as "family dependency" or "family burden," and a life that is based on the hidden assets of the individual's patience and the burden on the family cannot be called healthy.
However, it is also true that the number of people using communal living assistance (group homes for people with disabilities) is gradually increasing. This may be a good thing in the sense that it frees people from dependency on their families, but it is difficult to say whether this is a healthy situation. Eugenics: The idea that people with disabilities are "inferior"
Article 1 of the Eugenic Protection Law states, "The purpose of this law is to prevent the birth of inferior offspring from a eugenic standpoint, and to protect the life and health of mothers." In other words, this country is officially accepting eugenic ideology. And the "inferior" in this article refers to people with disabilities.
This law was enacted in 1948. The reason why this year is important is because the new Constitution of Japan came into effect in 1947. The fact that the Eugenic Protection Law was enacted despite the current Constitution guaranteeing fundamental human rights and equality under the law suggests that there was a strong desire to exclude people with disabilities.The Eugenic Protection Law remained in place in Japan for 48 years until it was revised in 1996. With this revision, the provisions based on eugenic ideology were deleted, but the government did not apologize to the victims whose human rights had been violated for so many years, and no compensation or investigation into the actual situation was carried out. In response, many victims stepped up and filed lawsuits against the government seeking compensation.
Preventing people with disabilities from having children -- at least 84,000 victims
The Eugenic Protection Law prescribes "eugenic surgery" from Article 2 onwards, based on the stereotype that disabled people are bound to give birth to disabled people. Simply put, this means that the government was promoting the removal of the fallopian tubes and vas deferens of disabled people and the provision of induced abortions to prevent them from having children.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare alone has tracked down approximately 25,000 victims of eugenic surgery. In addition, intellectually and mentally disabled people are allowed to have abortions without their consent if they become pregnant, and it is known that there were 58,972 victims of this.
This means that at least 84,000 people were affected, but it is likely that the actual number of victims was much higher.
The impact of the Eugenic Protection Law was not limited to creating a large number of victims. You may not believe it, but high school health and physical education textbooks at the time clearly stated that "you should not marry a person with a disability."The spread of eugenics as a national policy for half a century led to eugenics taking root among the public, and is still the cause of discrimination against people with disabilities in Japan today.
"Eugenic Protection Law has been unconstitutional since its inception" - government apologizes
Litigation regarding the Eugenic Protection Law began in 2018, and the first ruling was finally handed down by the Supreme Court Grand Bench on July 3, 2024.Presiding Judge Saburo Tokura clearly stated that "the Eugenic Protection Law has violated the Constitution since its inception," and then upheld the ruling ordering the government to pay compensation. He also mentioned the statute of limitations, stating that "in this particular case, the statute of limitations does not apply, and the defendants will be punished in perpetuity."
The statute of limitations is a system in which rights are lost if they are not exercised within a legally set period. In the lawsuits over the Eugenic Protection Law, in addition to the unconstitutionality of the surgeries, a major point of contention was the application of the statute of limitations, which means that the right to claim compensation expires after 20 years.
On the day of the hearing, over 1,000 victims gathered around the Supreme Court in search of tickets to observe the trial. There were only 140 seats available. Even if people lined up in a lottery, most people would not win. But they all lined up anyway because they felt that lining up was the only thing the victims could do at the time. 
When the verdict was handed down, the Diet and the government were thrown into a state of panic. On July 17, three ministers, including the Prime Minister, met with the victims, who were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and offered an apology on behalf of the government. Then, on October 8, the House of Councilors unanimously passed a bill to provide compensation for the former Eugenic Protection Law. 
So the trial ended, the government apologized, and a law was passed, but we are only just starting out. Real action is needed from here on out.First of all, how do we provide compensation to all the victims? And how do we eradicate eugenics from this country? We should also investigate why such a law was created in the first place.
Prayers and wishes for humanity inscribed on the memorial
The key word I want you to remember from today's lecture is "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." By learning about this, you will be able to see the direction of how you should think about the present and future of people with disabilities, as if the fog had cleared.
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, this treaty builds on past experiences.
For example, the situation of disabled people during the Nazi era. Nazi Germany thoroughly carried out the Holocaust (the mass murder of Jews carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II), but in fact they massacred disabled people before the Jews. The known number of disabled people is said to be as high as 200,000.
The facility where the disabled were held and massacred was located in the Hadamer area of Frankfurt. The Nazis locked 50 people in rooms of only about seven tatami mats each, and continued to kill them day and night.
I have been to Hadamar before, and there is a memorial in the backyard of the facility with the words, "Man, respect man," inscribed on it. This memorial will remain there forever.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities does not like the idea of "better than..."
You will probably have many opportunities to meet people with disabilities in the future. When that happens, please be sure to listen to their voices and be there for them.
Many people with disabilities have difficulty expressing their feelings and thoughts. Even so, the most basic thing is to listen with your whole body to find out what they are trying to communicate.
The United Nations regularly reviews each country's implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Japan's first review was held in 2022, and the assessment was harsh, stating that "Japan is lagging behind."
As I mentioned briefly in the previous article, we thought that the increasing number of people with disabilities who are moving away from family dependency and living in assisted communal living (group homes for the disabled) was a "good thing." However, we were shocked when the UN's assessment of the situation stated, "Group homes are not normal places to live. Is it possible for five or six complete strangers to live together?"
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities does not like the idea of "better than ____." It constantly pursues how people's lives should be. I would like everyone to read it to think about the future of people with disabilities.
Policy comes first, awareness follows later
The first step is to look back on the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
The second is to take the perspective that policies come first and awareness comes later.
Before I became completely blind, I had weak eyesight. I couldn't see clearly, so I would often trip over abandoned bicycles and fall on my way to the office. One day, I thought, "Okay, I'll wait for the owner," so I waited there. For 20 minutes, 30 minutes. But the owner never showed up.
When I mentioned this to my British friend, he told me, "Fujii, that won't work. Even if the owner were to come and talk to you, it would end as a one-on-one interaction between you and that person. If you really want to eliminate abandoned bicycles, you need to make it a policy."
Are there enough bicycle parking spaces, are there security guards patrolling, are there signs prohibiting bicycle parking? "People only notice things once policies are in place. Then the awareness of many citizens will change," he told us.
The reason Europe has been successful in dealing with human rights issues is because they have not trivialized the issue in their minds, but have made it into policy, and by policy I mean laws and institutions.
I feel that Japan needs to have that kind of perspective. I'm not asking for special rights for people with disabilities, but I want laws and systems to be put in place so that they can live equally with people without disabilities. In particular, I think that breaking away from family dependency is an issue that can be resolved through policy.
What you can do to improve your awareness
I said "learning" in a word, but learning can be divided into "knowing" and "understanding." To know is to literally gain knowledge about a subject. I told you that the theme of today's lecture can be rephrased as "basic knowledge about issues with disabilities," and right now, you are all trying to learn about issues with disabilities.
And understanding means deepening your understanding by digging deeper after gaining knowledge, comparing it with similar fields, learning the history leading up to it, etc. Through the process of trying to understand, the knowledge becomes part of you.
I would like all of you to improve your ability to notice things, too. And on that basis, I hope that you will become a company that exudes deep humanism.
Tips to dispel the negative stigma of "disability"
The first word is "disability."
Originally, the character "碍" with the stone radical was used, but when this was removed from the list of common kanji, the character "害", which means to hinder, came to be used.
As an aside, the character 碍 is a pictograph that depicts a person tilting his head in confusion in front of a large stone, exactly as if he is faced with an obstacle.
Recently, it is common to write "harm" as "disability," but it cannot be denied that the sound "shougai" itself has a negative image attached to it. So, is there a word that can replace "disability"?
As a hint, personally, I would like to hear people say "people with many barriers." It would be nice if there was a word that could more easily express that image.
When I was a teacher at a special needs school, I once carelessly said to a student's mother, "Your disability must be severe and difficult." At that time, the mother told me, "I don't want you to use the word severe. I want you to say that he is someone with many needs."
People with severe disabilities are people with many needs. I feel that by viewing them this way, the way we think about policies and the way we put them into practice on the ground will change.
Is that activity really "support"?
Support itself is a neutral term and does not carry the negative connotation that disability does. However, I think it can be a troublesome term if used incorrectly.
For example, I think it would be fine to use the word "support" when referring to B-type workshops and life care facilities, because there are few words that can replace "support" when describing places and activities that support the lives of individuals and bring out their potential.
On the other hand, I think it is wrong to call reducing social barriers so that people with disabilities do not have difficulty in their daily lives support. This is because it is not support, but a natural activity for everyone to live equally.
Rather than lumping all activities related to people with disabilities together and calling them support, we need to look at individual support and activities to reduce social barriers separately. And I think it is important to move these two things forward together.
I heard that HERALBONY is particularly careful when using the word "support." I hope that you will remember what I have just said the next time you use the word "support" in your future activities.
Katsunori Fujii
Fujii Katsunori
Born in 1949. Graduated from the Aomori Prefectural School for the Blind, Advanced Course. Teacher at Kodaira Special Needs School, Tokyo, participated in the establishment of Asayake Workshop and the formation of the National Association of Cooperative Workshops (now Kyosaren). Currently, representative of the NPO Japan Council of Disabled People, vice representative of Japan Disability Forum, executive director of Kyosaren, director of the Japan Mental Hygiene Association, council member of Yamato Welfare Foundation, director of the Japan Disability Rehabilitation Association, Rikuzentakata City Normalization Ambassador, and chairman of Akashi City Inclusive Ordinance Review Committee. Mental health and welfare worker. Published works include "So that hope is not separated from our hearts," "Working with people with disabilities," and "Picture book: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."
