Japan’s Disability Shame

With the Tokyo Paralympics under way in Japan, the country’s most talented disabled athletes have their chance to shine on the international stage.

But what fans in the stadiums will not see is Japan’s troubled history of caring for people with disabilities. They won’t see the thousands of people forcibly sterilised because they were considered inferior, who are now suing the government. They won’t see the victims of an attack on a disabled facility that was one of the worst mass killings in Japan since World War II.

101 East meets the people paying the price for Japan’s pursuit of perfection.