Japan and Treatment of the Disabled

Japan and treatment of the disabled

There is a value that all Japanese business workers live by to ensure the success, and peaceful longevity of their business: Wa. “Wa”, means “harmony”. Work meetings in Japan are conducted and adjourned with little if any conflict at all. “Wa” is observed even in the relationships between bosses and their workers, which are almost always amicable. In Japan, “heads of companies often engage in joint rituals with ordinary workers such as going on group vacations….they are likely to stick with workers in hard economic times.” (Bell 49). This is a stark contrast to bosses in the United States, who are all but invisible to their workers, and most willing to lay off employees as soon as signs of business lag strikes.

However, one does not need to spend time in the office cubicles in Japan, to experience “Wa” firsthand. Visitors who’ve traveled to Japan, often tell of the openness, calamity and helpfulness of the Japanese, everywhere they go. Visitors are embraced by the Japanese, and is it any surprise given the importance they’ve placed on living in harmony? Doesn’t it mean that individuals of all forms would be accepted in Japan? Observations of how Japan’s disabled citizens are treated, suggest otherwise. The cultures of Japan and United States differ, yet there exists some similarities in the struggles that each country’s disabled citizens endure. However, by looking beneath the surface and observing the motives and causes of those struggles, it will become clear that Japan’s beloved value of harmony has worked against the favor of the disabled, excluding them and making them enemies of “Wa”. Japan’s disability laws, it’s language and attitudes, and the inaccessibility of normal life all work together to alienate the disabled.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), requires “state parties to forbid discrimination and make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities”(Nakagawa 73). The passing of this Convention calls for nations all over the world to make the inclusion and integration of individuals with disabilities easier, and at the least- possible. For some countries, the CRPD may call for further attention to following and implementing disability laws that may have already been set in place in certain areas. For other countries, such as Japan, this could mean making some significant readjustments to existing laws relating to aiding the disabled. One of the most studied and debated laws in connection to the disabled, concern employment. Unlike the United States, Japan does not have a specific law that forbids employment discrimination against individuals with disabilities. The antidiscrimination law for employment of disabled individuals in the United States is known as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA was passed and