Junji Kimijima
Executive director
Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities

The Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities was established in 1964, with the aim of promoting projects for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities on the basis of study and research and of international partnerships. We will reach our 60th anniversary next year. We are based in the National Welfare Center for Persons with Disabilities (Toyama Sunrise) in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

As the Japan liaison for Rehabilitation International (RI), which celebrates its centenary this year, and with the participation of a broad range of people, including rehabilitation professionals and people with disabilities themselves, we continue our activities which aim to promote rehabilitation and encourage the social participation of disabled people.

Cover of the e-book commemorating the centenary of RI

As one facet of our international collaboration work, we have served as the secretariat of JANNET, the Japan NGO Network on Disabilities, ever since it was set up. Professor Ryosuke Matsui, emeritus professor of Hosei University and one of JANNET’s founding members (former Chair of JANNET, and current Vice-President of our Society) and Ms. Etsuko Ueno (former Director of the JANNET Secretariat) have played central roles in inviting researchers and other overseas visitors to hold study groups and training sessions.

A scene from the opening ceremony of the 3rd Asia-Pacific CBR Congress (2015, Tokyo)

The 3rd Asia-Pacific CBR Congress, which we co-hosted with JANNET in Tokyo in 2015, was particularly memorable. Our Organisation’s royal patron His Imperial Highness Prince Hitachi, honoured us by attending. Last March, we also co-hosted with JANNET a reporting session by participants in the 5th Asia-Pacific CBR Congress, held in Cambodia.

The first Reha Kyo Café Symposium (August 2022)

Since COVID-19 made exchanges with visiting researchers from overseas impossible, we held online reporting sessions named Reha Kyo Café (“Rehabilitation Society Café”) every other month from 2020 onwards. In August and October last year, we co-hosted a symposium to mark two years of the Reha Kyo Café together with JANNET, donating money from the participant fees to support Ukraine.

As another example of international work, we are commissioned by the Duskin AINOWA Foundation to implement the “Duskin Asia Pacific Disabled Leader Training Project,” and welcome disabled vocational trainees each year.

Participants on the 22nd Duskin Asia Pacific Disabled Leader Training Project at the completion ceremony (December 2022)

In terms of information-gathering and provision, the activities of the Digital Book (DAISY) project, aimed at people with disabilities related to reading and writing, are attracting particular attention in the education field, where the GIGA School Plan (1) is underway. In FY 2014, it received the MEXT Minister’s Award for Individual and Other Contributors to Promotion of Informatization.

(1): The Giga School Plan is a national initiative advocated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The plan aims to bring about education suited to children’s individuality and creativity by distributing a learning device to each student in every school nationwide by the 2023 year, and putting in place a high-speed, high-volume network.

From FY 2008, as a research project commissioned by MEXT, We have been supplying digital textbooks in Multimedia DAISY format, which allows the original text and an audio recording of the text to be played simultaneously. These textbooks are aimed primarily at students with learning disabilities and others who find reading ordinary textbooks difficult. 90% of elementary, junior high, and senior high school textbooks have been converted into Multimedia DAISY format, and these are currently being used by more than 15,000 people.

We also produce and distribute children’s literature, including books recommended in the textbooks as additional reading and other general, non-textbook publications, as “DAISY Children’s Dream Library.”

In addition, we promote collaborative projects between disabled people’s organisations in our roles as the secretariat of the Japan Disability Forum (JDF), the Disabled People’s Broadcasting Council, and other groups.

At the same time as our secretariat activities preparing for the JANNET 30th anniversary events, with the collaboration of disabled people’s organisations and others, we hope to contribute to further international partnerships in the disability field, looking to the future 10 or 20 years from now, in line with the JANNET Medium-term Plan for 2021 to 2025, which was issued last year. Thank you for your ongoing support.