The Current Trend in Japan's Adaptive Fashion

text by Ai Kishino

Japan is widely thought of as a country with a strong public health-care system, where residents are less concerned about common illnesses and injuries than in other countries. Japan, however, has long lagged European countries and the United States in its awareness about services for disabilities. This awareness has been slowly improving over the past few years, thanks to the efforts of activists, the accomplishments of the athletes in the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, and popular TV shows that feature characters with disabilities played by well-known actors. Also drawing more attention to disabilities in Japan is adaptive fashion, which is seen more frequently on social media. We interviewed three people who have been studying the relationship between people with disabilities and fashion to find out what they’ve discovered by questioning how fashion should be.

The complete article can be found in Issue #282 of the Tokyo Journal.