10,000 people with disabilities hold rally to demand abolition of ‘self-support’ law

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

10,000 people with disabilities hold rally to demand abolition of ‘self-support’ law

About 10,000 disabled persons, their families, and care workers on October 30 held a rally in Tokyo under the slogan, “Good-bye to the ‘self-support assistance’ law! Establish a new law meeting our demands!”

The rally was organized by the Japan Council on Disability and the Japanese Federation of the Deaf.

Participants adopted an appeal demanding that the present law to promote “self-support” of disabled persons be repealed and that a new law be enacted with disabled persons’ involvement in the legislative decision-making process.

Welfare Minister Nagatsuma Akira in his speech to the rally said, “I decided to abolish the ‘self-support’ law. I want to replace the ‘beneficiary-pay’ principle with the principle of ‘according to the ability to pay’ while the Democratic Party of Japan is in power within the next four years.”

Speaking at a symposium held as part of the rally, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko proposed the immediate removal of the provision in the current law requiring service users to pay 10 percent of the cost for care and treatment, and emphasized the need to get a new law enacted to comprehensively promote welfare services for disabled persons in line with the Japanese Constitution and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

- Akahata, October 31, 2009