The sexual lives of disabled people in Japan are becoming more visible as activists and media makers seek to interrogate long-standing taboos around the subject. This chapter uses an intersectional feminist lens to examine representations of disability, gender and sexuality in Japanese visual media, demonstrating the ways in which such images both push and simultaneously reinforce the boundaries of acceptable discourse. Using an approach that combines theories from feminist film studies and disability studies, the chapter highlights the synergies between the two fields, suggesting the potential for future avenues of inquiry.

Introduction

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics (delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic until late summer 2021) brought renewed focus to the potentialities of people with disabilities on an international scale. The host nation was keen to present itself as a beacon of diversity and inclusion under the banner “know differences, show differences” (chigai o shiri, chigai o shimesu). Indeed, people with disabilities were not only shown, they were celebrated during the twoweek global event. However, this progressive-sounding slogan obscures the complex reality of attitudes towards disability, which, as Stevens (2013, 27) suggests, is embraced when it brings fortuitous circumstances and shunned when it is considered burdensome to society. Despite efforts to move from a medicalized view of disability to a model that sees it as a consequence of social restrictions to participation, disability continues to be stigmatized in Japan as something undesirable and to be avoided (Okuyama 2020; Stevens 2013). This is exemplified in the Japanese term most commonly used to refer to disability, shōgai, which combines the Chinese characters shō (interfere or hinder) and gai (harm) (Okuyama 2020, Kindle loc. 404).

Such attitudes come into sharp focus in discussions of the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities. The historical practice of forced sterilizations, legally enshrined in the Eugenic Protection Law (Yūsei hogo hō, 1948–1996) (Hovhannisyan 2021), as well as a lack of adequate sex education provision in special needs schools (Satō and Miyazaki 2014) are indicative of a reluctance to address issues of sexuality and desire among people with disabilities. Gender brings an additional dimension to this difficult terrain: although there now exist a range of sexual services aimed at the disabled community, most are designed to fulfil male needs, ignoring the sexual desires of disabled women.