Japan to undergo first U.N. disabilities committee review in August

^{Photo by Roméo A. on Unsplash}

Japan will undergo a policy review by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in late August following a two-year delay due to the coronavirus pandemic, sources close to the matter said Monday.

The review, Japan’s first, will recommend nonlegally binding policy improvement measures to improve the lives and societal participation of people with disabilities. Japan ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2014.

Reviews of Japan’s policies will take place from Aug. 22 to 23 in Geneva after the coronavirus pandemic delayed the process from its original summer 2020 start. The recommendations are expected within a month of the checks.

In advance questions to the government, the committee is likely to have highlighted issues including treatment of people with disabilities in natural disasters, patients’ long-term stays in psychiatric hospitals and past forced sterilizations under the now-defunct eugenics protection law.

Between 1948 and 1996, the eugenics protection law was used to authorize sterilization of about 25,000 people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses or hereditary disorders. Around 16,500...