Abstract

Through the ratification and implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Japan’s policy towards people with disabilities and their rights has moved away from its traditional focus on economic and socio-cultural rights (known as “social rights”) to encompass civil and political rights (or “liberty rights”). Several factors have contributed to this development: firstly, the efforts of the Japanese disability rights movement, which benefited in 2009 from a favorable change of government when the coalition comprising the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Kōmeitō was defeated in the elections by the Democratic Party of Japan; and secondly, the judicial developments surrounding the Law on Election to Public Office, as well as the support given to the victims of the former Eugenic Protection Law. As the first findings of the 2022 survey of Japan by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities suggest, a better balance in the approach to social and liberty rights will be essential if Japan is to meet the main challenges posed by its disability policy.