Politics and Prosthetics: 150 Years of Disability in Japan

In my dissertation, Politics and Prosthetics: 150 Years of Disability in Japan, I argue that attempts by disability activists and policymakers to improve access to Japan’s built environment, education, employment, and entertainment systems over the last one hundred and fifty years have not always aided impaired individuals and frequently excluded as many people as they empowered. To identify which demographics have been privileged with access and why, I analyze government records, news reports, and documents from advocacy organizations using approaches from history, anthropology, sociology, political science, and media studies. My evidence suggests that economic pressures tied to macrosocial processes such as urbanization, globalization, and ageing have played a key role in shaping Japan’s landscape of accessibility, as they have led architects, engineers, and other stakeholders to emphasize the needs of people with diverse disabilities at different moments. 

My project shows that scholars of Japan must examine assistive technologies developed by and for disabled individuals to fully appreciate numerous aspects of the country’s culture, ranging from its military engagements and modes of governance to marketplace and material innovations. It also explains why academics interested in social justice issues in places like the United States and Europe must explore the history and politics of disability in Japan. Japan has the world’s third largest economy and fastest ageing population: its access-making activities have served, and likely will continue to serve, as models to emulate and cautionary tales of what to avoid for other nations.

For researchers of urban studies in particular, my project offers a number of contributions. By highlighting how blind elites harnessed innovations in transportation and communications like railways and braille magazines to build national advocacy networks and win privileges unavailable to individuals with hearing, mobility, and other kinds of impairments in prewar Japan, it illustrates how processes of urbanization and access-making often facilitate and reify hierarchies of disability. Similarly, by tracing how the proliferation of cars, factories, and other hallmarks of industry during Japan’s postwar reconstruction era promoted access to cities for some populations and restricted access for others by erecting barriers in the built environment and creating sources of impairment, it shows how efforts to make access have not only excluded, but also endangered, disabled people.

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