Tomoo Koga
Deputy Branch Manager, Kyosaren Fukuoka Branch

１.A Small-scale Workshop – My Starting Point in the Movement

I have been involved in the disability movement in Fukuoka for more than 40 years. Particularly, the small-scale workshop movement that I have been involved in since my thirties is the starting point of my career in the movement.

Small-scale workshops began in the 1960s, spread throughout the country in the 70s, and exploded in the 80s and 90s. At its peak, there were more than 6,000 workshops, and it was said they grew like a wildfire, forming a grassroots disability movement that covered the entire Japan.

When I was in my thirties, as I was working as a staff member of a small-scale workshop in Fukuoka City, I endeavored to organize and expand the circle of small-scale workshops throughout Fukuoka Prefecture.

The workshop I was working for was established in 1977 by persons with disabilities themselves. It started with persons of various circumstances and hopes, such as a person who escaped from a managed life in an institution, those who had nowhere to go such as persons with severe disabilities and mental disabilities, persons who were unable to continue working due to the progression of their disabilities. It began with a community with no social resources, no funds and very few supporters. We rented a room in an apartment. To earn money to pay for the rent, we collected waste in the community, which was a valuable financial resource. Persons with disabilities and a few volunteers pulled carts, visited houses one by one, handed out flyers, and directly appealed to the residents for their understanding and cooperation about the workshop. We told them about why we wanted to work, about our desire to live in the community just like everybody else, the difficulty of operating a completely self-run workshop, and breaking through the formidable administrative barriers. The accumulation of these steady efforts certainly expanded the circle of cooperation for the workshop in the community.

Immediately after setting up the workshop, we appealed to the government justifying its necessity and the difficulty of the current situation, and thus requested for a subsidy. The government’s response was, “You are doing it because you like to do it, right?” and it took a long time before they took us seriously. What broke through that wall was the spread of empathy and cooperation for the workshop in the community. The government recognized the spread, and five years later, in 1982, a subsidy system was finally established in Fukuoka City. However, the level of the subsidy was the lowest among all the government ordinance cities, which was less than 1/10. In 1987, the national government began a subsidy system targeting three types of disabilities, but Fukuoka City made a policy of offsetting the originally low subsidy of Fukuoka City by the national subsidy at the same amount. Naturally, with the feeling of anger rising, a protest arose from people with disabilities, their families, and other people concerned. This matter was also taken up widely by mass media. Consequently, Fukuoka City promised to increase the subsidies as city’s responsibility. However, it took another five years for the subsidy system to reach the level of the national average. At that time, I strongly felt the deep roots of regional disparities.

Furthermore, I learned later that Kyushu Region and Fukuoka Prefecture were among the same block of local governments giving the lowest level of subsidy in Japan.

While the number of beds and number of in-patient facilities in psychiatric hospitals stood out compared with other prefectures in Japan, home help services were lagging behind, and social resources to support community life were extremely limited.

Expectations for small-scale workshops were potentially growing here, but the barriers were too thick to make the hope real. While half of the municipalities in Japan had set up small-scale workshops, in Kyushu Region only 20% to 30% of the municipalities in many prefectures had established such workshops, which made me feel the regional disparities in the establishment of small-scale workshops between Kyushu and the other regions of the country.

In the small towns of the prefecture, there were many cases in which one or a few parents rented old buildings and set up workshops for their children. People with no experience in this kind of movement and establishments were working to create places of work and meetings in their towns by themselves without any public funds. I visited workshops one by one in various parts of the prefecture, and while exchanging serious concerns, I called for the need to join hands and create a movement. In addition, we often held seminars and meetings in various places where people wanted to start creating workshops. In 1986, the liaison committee was finally formed. I remember that the members of many workshops that could close down any time gathered together and exchanged daily concerns and encouraged each other. From here, the workshop movement was led to new developments.

I learned three important things from the small-scale workshop movement:

The first one is to always keep citizens and communities in mind in the movement. The workshop itself could not have been maintained and developed without the support of local people, and the expansion of this circle of support has become powerful enough to move the government. It has also helped to create a community that includes persons with disabilities and their workshops.

Secondly, while respecting the differences among the parties concerned, we should find the points to agree on. When doing so, the important thing is sitting at the same table and connecting with one another, no matter whether workshops are big or small, and whether they are in a city or a small town.

Thirdly, we should pay attention to the hardest things to cope with. I think that if we keep that in mind, we would not make a big mistake in our choices on which way we should go in our movement.

２.A Human Rights Issue that had a Huge Impact - Questioning the Weight of a Young Man’s Life

On September 25, 2007, there was a tragic incident in Saga City in which Mr. Kenta Yasunaga, who had an intellectual disability, lost his life after being held down by five police officers on his way home from a day care facility. For Kenta, it was an incident that occurred when he was going about his daily routine at the usual time – he was being held down by a sudden powerful police force and driven into a state of panic. The support activities for the lawsuit that challenged the responsibility of the police were unfortunately limited to an individual voluntary group in the local community, which was difficult as the lawsuit was against the police organization and done at a local court. I was then involved as a secretariat from the beginning.

The case was dismissed. However, the absurdity of being arbitrarily deprived of his human dignity and his life as a young man with a disability was clear to everyone. Thus, 110,000 signatures of citizens calling for a trial were gathered in Saga Prefecture. Prompted by that call, the trial began; but partly because of the difficulty of the court system, the truth was not revealed in the trial, which took 10 years.

The fact that the police and judicial institutions, which should be the closest supporters of those who are so-called socially vulnerable so that they can feel secure in this community, turned towards excluding people with disabilities from society due to their lack of understanding of disabilities – was deeply engraved in my heart through 10 years of support activities.

I myself have based my advocacy within the framework of the welfare of persons with disabilities. However, in order for people with disabilities to be guaranteed a normal life in this society, I have gradually come to realize that there is a need for a movement that firmly confronts the social barriers concerning “human rights” and “human dignity.” In particular, the world of judicial affairs, which seems to be far from daily life, is actually a fortress that protects lives and human rights, and I learned that it is necessary for the disability movement to confront it more.

３.Our Responsibility for Future Generations

Currently, I am involved in legal support activities concerning the unconstitutionality of the former Eugenic Protection Act. This Eugenic Protection Act was Japan’s first law in the field of disability after the war, and it defined persons with disabilities as “inferior” people in the Purpose of the Act. It was a law that created the direction of systems and measures that deprived people with disabilities of their human rights in post-war Japan, and promoted the creation of a nation and communities that exclude people with disabilities. It is said that its influence is present even now. Despite the fact that I have been involved in the disability movement for a long time, I have been a bystander, watching this issue from afar. Furthermore, I did not learn the essence of this law, and I was in a world of indifference and ignorance. Now I have a feeling of regret.

I have come to think that, in the midst of our generation’s disability movement, it would be difficult to pass on important things to the next generation unless we resist the spread of exclusion of people with disabilities from society, as influenced by the Eugenic Protection Act. In various parts of Fukuoka, I hope that we can discuss this problem with a wide range of people, especially young people regardless of their positions, and work together with them to support people in lawsuits and expand the movement towards the resolution of the issues caused by the former Eugenic Protection Act.