“This room may look a bit different than the classrooms that you are used to,” says headmaster Kenichi Umetsu, giving a tour of the new board members of Nemunoki Gakuen in the city of Kakegawa, about two hours of the capital Tokyo. This setting here is a dedication options for people here. Umetsu. In a large room, students sit on the ground and at tables of different heights, or run from one side of the room to the other looking for glitter, paint and pencils. They are all busy with their own art projects. The teachers watch with a smile while moving through the room at a leisurely pace. “So the children are free to go wherever they want.”
Exactly twenty years ago, Japan introduced the law on support for people with disabilities. He marked a break with decades of policy in which exclusion and institutionalization were the norm. Children with a disability often ended up in remote institutions, far beyond the inhabited world, or were kept indoors out of shame by their families. Due to the law, local authorities were obliged to offer individual support, ranging from education to access to work, for anyone with a recognized disability. For example, it was recorded that people with disabilities are also entitled to participate in society.
Through the classroom of Nemunoki Gakuen, a young woman drives into an electric wheelchair along her classmates. Two other students slide low desks and seat cushions over the floor, after which they install themselves with paint, brushes and paper. “We learn to express our feelings here by drawing and painting,” says Tsutomu Homme. He does not want to tell his age but has been living in the facility for decades. “Mother Mariko told us that it is important to discover ourselves in a creative way.”
Tsutomu Homme has been living in the facility for decades.
In the middle of an archive photo in the space of Nemunoki you can see a young Tsutomu Homme.
Photos Ko Sasaki
The village
Nemunoki Gakuen was founded in 1968 by the popular actress and singer Mariko Miyagi. She also wanted children with disabilities to have access to education. Her approach was special for Japan, says headmaster Umetsu, one of her direct successors. “From the beginning she dreamed of a village. A place where people with a disability could live independently, with appropriate support,” he says. “That was unprecedented here. But not impossible. We had already seen in the Netherlands that it was possible. The current Nemunoki was immediately inspired by the village.”
The village In Arnhem, founded in 1962, was the first community in the Netherlands where people with a physical disability could live independently. It was a breakthrough in the emancipation of people with disabilities. With own homes, adapted facilities and a village square, the village offered an alternative to the institutional care that was the norm in both the Netherlands and Japan at the time.
Head of headmaster Kenichi Umetsu believes that Japan is “on the right track” in terms of the position of people with disabilities.
A photo of Mariko Miyagi in the Nemunoki Children’s Museum for Art. The founder of Nemunoki Gakuen devoted her life to art education for children with disabilities.
Photos Ko Sasaki
“It has become a special place here,” says Mikio Kumagai proudly. He is director of the care institution that is part of Nemunoki Gakuen. “At a time when children with a physical disability were not yet entitled to education, Mariko Miyagi managed to set up the very first attitude of his kind in Japan.”
At the time, Miyagi managed to collect enough support to set up Nemunoki Gakuen. She wanted to offer more than just education, her emphasis was on art and culture as a form of self -development. Music, painting and dance are still an integral part of the curriculum. “When I started, I didn’t know what the use was. But painting requires a lot of concentration and precision. And with dancing I got to know my own body. That helped a lot with my independence,” says resident Homme.
Multiple museums
Since 1974, founder Miyagi has visited the village several times to learn from the experiences there, and she regularly took employees and students in tow. “I did not understand when I was little as well what mother Mariko meant when she talked about building her own village,” says Homme, who went to the Netherlands at a young age. “But when I saw it with my own eyes, I finally understood what she was dreaming about. I saw people with disabilities riding freely in wheelchairs, together with people who could normally walk. I had never seen that,” he continues, still with astonishment in his voice. “It struck me.”
The visit to the village inspired Miyagi to further expand the institution. It now consists of more than eighty hectares of facilities. The audience was not entirely positive. By the outside world, she was accused of using the initiative as a publicity for her career as a singer and actress. The criticism reflected the then deeply rooted social views on people with disabilities.
The Eugenica Act, which was in force from 1948 to 1996, was characteristic of this stigma. 25,000 people with a physical or intellectual disability were forced on the basis of this. In the vast majority of cases, the victims were not aware of the procedures they underwent, while interventions were often performed under forced and in an unsafe manner.
The law, modeled by Nazi-German example, illustrated that people with disabilities were seen as a burden for society-a vision that decided government policy for decades. Although Nemunoki Gakuen was already recognized as a welfare institution in 1968, it would take eleven years before Miyagi was able to set up a private school that matched her vision of inclusive education. Only in 2024 did the victims of the sterilization law apologize from the government.
Paint materials and orthopedic shoes show the balance between artistic expression and practical care on the Nemunoki Gakuen.
Photos Ko Sasaki
Japan has visibly changed since the beginning of this century, he sees headmaster Kenichi Umetsu. “The idea that people with disabilities can participate in social life on their own strength is more accepted. The physical environment in particular has improved: buildings, roads, facilities. Everything has become more accessible.”
According to him, the attitude of people is also changing slowly. “If someone is in a wheelchair or walks with a walking stick, it is seen less and less as special.”
Head chief Umetsu listens carefully. “In the past, people with disabilities were often kept out of sight, but that changes,” he adds. “Here they get the space to show themselves through films, concerts and art projects.” According to Umetsu, Japan is on the right track, although he thinks the progress can be a bit faster. “People with disabilities are still seen a lot as recipients of care, but through art they can give something back: emotion, meaning,” he continues. “And with that they can show that they are human, just like everyone else.”
The slow crumbling of the stigma is also visible in government policy. In 2016, the law to prevent discrimination of people with a disability was introduced. With this, Japan took a clear step towards an more inclusive society. The law not only prohibits direct discrimination, but also obliges local authorities to make reasonable adjustments to make full social participation possible. Since April 2024, the same rules have been applied to companies
Paralympic Games in Tokyo
“The attention for people with disabilities has clearly increased,” says director Kumagai. “For example, think of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo a few years ago. Suddenly people on television or in the newspaper see athletes without poor people swimming, or visually impaired people who run marathons. This kind of images have changed the consciousness of the Japanese.”
Along the wooded mountain slopes, a site extends with school buildings, group homes, a library, various museums and a guesthouse, connected by winding roads.
Photo Ko Sasaki
In the meantime, Nemunoki Gakuen has grown into a whole village. Among the wooded mountains, the roads swing along a vast terrain with school buildings, group homes, a library, several museums and a guesthouse. In 2024, the complex had 67 residents, of whom 27 were also connected to the school as a student. About 86 employees are daily involved in healthcare and education. These facilities are embedded between the houses of regular residents and surrounded by lush nature.
Where there was still a distance with the surroundings in the early years, Nemunoki Gakuen is now closely intertwined with the community. Local residents are actively involved in the activities, and visitors from outside the village are encouraged to come and take a look.
The students’ paintings are therefore prominently in the corridors and rooms of each building. Also those of Tsutomu Homme. “It is five years since mother Mariko died, but I finally understand what she fought so hard for,” he says with tears in his eyes. Homme strokes his own lap while trying to find the calmness. He looks carefully at the photo of Miyagi hanging on the wall, with a small memorial plaque for the founder underneath. “Mother always said that a limitation is nothing to be ashamed of. God has given you because you can handle it, she said. So don’t hide.”
Students leave the room after a painting lesson on Nemunoki Gakuen. The Japanese school offers education to people with disabilities, with emphasis on artistic expression.
Photo Ko Sasaki