{"id":8537,"date":"2016-02-07T02:09:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-07T07:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/?p=8537"},"modified":"2016-03-29T01:52:19","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T05:52:19","slug":"three-blocks-slowing-down-independent-livings-of-people-with-disabilities-independent-living-resource-center-san-francisco-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/2016\/02\/07\/three-blocks-slowing-down-independent-livings-of-people-with-disabilities-independent-living-resource-center-san-francisco-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Blocks Slowing Down Independent Livings of People with Disabilities ~Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco Part 2~"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6351\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6351\" style=\"width: 367px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6351 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/DSC00841-e1453151395114.jpg\" alt=\"Fiona and Mizuki\" width=\"367\" height=\"231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/DSC00841-e1453151395114.jpg 367w, https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/DSC00841-e1453151395114-300x189.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 367px) 100vw, 367px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6351\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fiona and Mizuki<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Like Fiona mentioned in <a href=\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/2016\/02\/05\/independent-living-resource-center-san-francisco\/#English\" target=\"_blank\">part 1<\/a>,\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">I think Japan has those 3 issues in a different situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Japan adopted a quota system and requires employers, to hire a certain amount of people with disabilities to meet their requirements. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In companies with more than 50 employees, 2% of those employees must<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>be people with disabilities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The latest statistics, updated in November 2015 by The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, show that only 47.2% of targeted companies have met the quota. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The number is increasing slightly every year, but still more than half of the companies don\u2019t hire people with disabilities, even though a law is in place.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Architectural accessibility is lacking, even in Tokyo. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Most of the old buildings are not accessible, which makes it harder for people with disabilities to find a place to work and to go out for social activities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the countryside, the situation is even worse. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Surprisingly, sometimes I even find a new building which is built without consideration of accessibility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">According to the data produced in September 2015 by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication of Japan, 26.7% of the population is over 65 years old. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Making buildings more accessible means more people, not just people with disabilities, can access them, which includes the elderly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Until I started my research, I had not heard the English word, \u201cstigma\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Since my interviewees used this word so often, I now know the word and its meaning\u2026that means many advocates for disability rights see a lot of stigma for people with disabilities.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In Japan, I see people with and without disabilities having stigma, too. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Not only historical background, but also media, which has a strong power in Japan, emphasizes those stigmas. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Most of<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>the TV programs featuring people with disabilities, only focus on how their lives are difficult. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I am not saying their lives are not difficult. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What I am saying is that the difficult side of the stories of people with disabilities does not make the whole story. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There are still many people with disabilities who have a happy life with their family and friends, are doing what they love to do, and are enjoying everyday living.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6539\" src=\"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/office-1121869_640-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"office-1121869_640\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To be able to live independently, we\u2019ve got a lot of challenges in Japan that require attention. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Looking back at the history of disability rights, as well as human rights, we have improved greatly, and do have good culture and resources to work with, including our hospitality, teamwork, economic power, technological skill, and so forth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> We need to keep moving forward and make our society even better. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Fortunately, we have the honor of hosting one of the most exciting international events, Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Many people with or without disabilities <b>will<\/b> come to Japan from all around the world, and will actually experience Japan in person. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I bet their expectations are very high. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We, each of us in Japan, think about this and should take action. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We can make Japan much better.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Continued report of  Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco. Japan has same issues regarding people with disabilities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,129,135],"tags":[102,95,120,98],"class_list":["post-8537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessibility","category-advocate","category-research","tag-ability-development","tag-employment-of-people-with-disabilities","tag-issues","tag-wheelchair"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8538,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8537\/revisions\/8538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}