Paralympics paving way to participation but long path ahead

A big part of the reason for this is that only when Paralympics come around do articles or issues like this get any air time! After they are over, the public will go back to ignoring and acting like there are no disabled people in Japan.

I wonder just how many Japanese, while watching the games on TV now, actually feel, when they see physically and mentally disabled people competing against each other. I'll bet many see the disability and not the athlete!

acting like there are no disabled people in Japan.

I do not think so.

Of course, if there isn’t any disabled person around, that’s the feeling they or you might have

For a long time, Japan has built facilities to provide an easy access to disabled people. Well in advance of many other countries. Many of the main world cities can not even provide an access to the subway for wheelchairs

many see the disability and not not the athlete

personally, I see both and see real athletes

To add

As the Paralympics are widely broadcast here, I am quite sure awareness is on the rise

I was watching goalball, which is played by those with vision impairments, whilst wearing eye masks. This is one of the few para sports that anyone can play on equal terms, using the eye masks. You just need a court, two large nets, a ball with bells in it and someone to do the scoring/fetch the ball. Would it help to have goal ball courts for 'mixed' sport or would disabled people feel that their sport was being pinched from them?

The wheelchair rugby may also lend itself to mixed playing on equal terms. Again, would the added popularity and more players help with funding or would disabled people not want the able bodied playing the sport with them?

Perhaps not entirely equal terms, as able-bodied people would have to learn how to move the wheelchairs and fine tune their hearing for the ball.

It really depends upon whether those involved are interested in it.

The pandemic response has damaged physical activity just as it has had a negative effect on home-schooling kids. In the UK, gyms and schools have now reopened. Keep vaccinating, Japan.

Wheelchair basketball, not rugby. Apologies.

It’s not just a disabled, it’s the elderly as well. They’re everywhere and the infrastructure in Japan is just not adapted to suit people of advancing age.