22.05.2019The Disability Right Movement in Japan: Uncompromising Self-Assertion at the Risk of Isolation?

Lecturer

Dr. Anne-Lise Mithout (Université Paris Diderot)

Date and Time

May 22, 2019, 10:15 - 12:00 noon

Location

University of Zurich, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Room ZUB 416, Zürichbergstrasse 4, 8032 Zürich

Abstract

This presentation will present a chronological overview of the movements defending disabled people's rights in Japan, their strategies and relationships with the State and other social movements. It will analyze the shift from category-based movements (wounded soldiers, associations of the Blind or the Deaf, parents of children with intellectual disability) to a unified movement aiming at representin all "disabled people" in a broader sense. The association Aoi shiba no kai played a key role in this shift, yet its strategy was based on a radical denunciation of "eugenic" and an uncompromising assertion of disability as an identity, whicht at the same time contributed to isolating the Disability Right movement from potential allies such as feminist groups or parents associations. By examining how the movement asserted its specificity, we will discuss the path through which people with disabilities have fought for self-advocacy in contemporary Japan.

Organisation

Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Japanese Studies