In a trendy Tokyo neighborhood, customers browse the wares at Majerca, a shop stocked with handmade items from scarves to glassware, all produced by people with disabilities.
The shop, and the workshops where the items were produced, are part of a small, but burgeoning movement in Japan aiming to promote work by people with impairments.
Despite being the only country to host the Paralympics twice, and the government’s public commitment to integrate people with disabilities, advocates and experts say workplaces in Japan are rarely accessible to them.
Photo: AFP
Public subsidies for those with disabilities have generally been understood to mean recipients will simply stay at home and advocates say there is little support for those seeking active employment.
That is a huge loss for society, said Miho Hattori, who works with some of the producers at a workshop that supplies Majerca.
“Some workers here have a career of more than 30 years, and they are so experienced that we should refer to them as artisans,” Hattori told reporters.
About two dozen employees with various intellectual impairments work at the site.
In one area, men filter pulp and press paper to make cards, while elsewhere a woman spins yarn from raw wool and others manage a wooden weaver unfurling beautiful fabric.
“I am making the fabric for stoles, using wool for the woof and cotton for the warp,” Ayame Kawasaki, a 28-year-old with Down syndrome, told reporters. “I like weaving.”
The workshop sells bags and stoles to shops and galleries, with items priced at several thousand yen. After costs, each worker can expect to bring in about ¥15,000 (US$130) a month, an amount Hattori describes as “heartbreaking.”
It is not the main source of income for the workers, who are entitled to government support, and the figure is about the national average for people with intellectual disabilities, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
“Their labor and their products are so valuable, but they remain invisible,” said Mitsuhiro Fujimoto, founder of Majerca, which is operated by five employees without disabilities.
Fujimoto was inspired to launch the store after buying wooden toys he later discovered were made by workers with intellectual disabilities.
Majerca passes about 60 to 70 percent of product revenue back to producers, and Fujimoto says he encourages artisans to value their work and demand fair pay, not just charity.
“At times, I’ve raised the price by more than five times on something that was apologetically priced at just ¥500,” he told reporters.
Fashion house Heralbony, which produces high-end items working with about 150 designers with intellectual disabilities, also prices its products at a level it says reflects the work of its employees.
Despite the obstacles for workers, Heralbony, which was founded three years ago, is profitable.
The firm plans to expand into interior and furniture items this year.
Fujimoto believes showcasing products by workers with disabilities would help challenge stereotypes about working with an impairment.
“By visiting Majerca, I hope people will see what they do, and what they can do, and start thinking about whether they are being treated fairly,” he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not