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Vol. 7 No. 3 & 4
Research Articles and Essays
Disability in the Far East: Japan's Social Transformation in Perceptions of People with Disabilities
Miho Iwakuma
Instructor, Kyoto University
Japan, culture, disability
The phenomenon of disability is socially constructed; therefore, it is not free from norms, rules, shared understandings or value systems—in short, culture. This paper examines the universal presence of disability in the Japanese context, which is affected by a myriad of ever-changing influences, including political, cultural, and social forces.
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Miho Iwakuma, Instructor, Kyoto University
Miho Iwakuma, Ph.D, received her degree in communication studies and has written extensively about interactions between culture and disability. She currently teaches medical communication at Kyoto University in Japan, where she researches the ways in which society communicates about medicine.
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The Review of Disability Studies (RDS) is a peer-reviewed academic journal that is targeted towards any person interested in disability studies. We have readers and authors from all over the world. We accept submissions in English of a scholarly nature covering a range of disciplines within disability studies as well as creative works expressing ideas in the area of disability.
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