Welfare Reform on the Web (January 2002): Services for the Disabled - Overseas

THE DISABILITY RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN JAPAN: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

R. Hayashi and M. Okuhira

Disability and Society, vol. 16, 2001, p. 855-869

Paper outlines the history of the disability rights movement in Japan over the past 40 years. Traditionally disabled people in Japan were confined in their parents' homes or in institutions. This began to be challenged by a radical movement of people with cerebral palsy active from the 1960s to the 1980s. An independent living movement emerged in the 1980s. Authors finally present an overview of the current disability rights movement and its future challenges.