Abstract:
How do people with physical disabilities experience ‘sexuality’ in contemporary Japan? What kind of needs do people with physical disabilities in Japan have regarding sexuality and how are those needs supported or restricted by their care environment? In order to answer these questions, I recruited both people with physical disabilities and their carers, and explored their experiences regarding sexuality by employing feminist disability theory and a Japanese cultural framework called de-familialization, along with critical feminist inquiry and bricolage for the methodology. Bricolage allowed me to use multiple methods in order to make the research process inclusive and accessible for people who have various kinds of disabilities, and therefore better able to respond to different accommodation needs. This qualitative research project therefore offered multiple research approaches: (1) photo-elicitation, (2) poetry with interview, (3) semi-structured interview and (4) open-ended on-line questionnaire; and also multiple interaction methods: (1) face-to-face, (2) via video-call, and (3) via email. By collecting the views of 27 people with physical disabilities and 53 usable responses from carers, differences and similarities in perspective between these groups are highlighted. In doing so, the findings shed light on how societal discourses on dis/ability and gender intersect and affect the lives and well-being of people with physical disabilities as well as the support they can receive from their carers. Furthermore, the findings revealed how the sexual lives of people with disabilities are often disregarded, simplified, and misunderstood due to able-ism, paternalism, seniority, sex-ism, and heteronormativity, which are all reinforced by the Japanese cultural trait of solidarity. Specifically, the analysis addresses the following topics: the taboo nature of discussing the sexuality of people with disabilities in contemporary Japan, that people with disabilities are considered ‘poor beings’ and expected to act according to this image; the influences the care environment has on the ability of a person with physical disabilities to access information and resources and to maintain their sexual dignity and sexual rights, the influence of eugenics perspectives as observed in society and in the minds of people with physical disabilities, and the complex power dynamics between people with physical disabilities and their carers.