Why is inclusive education not progressing in Japan?

Abstract

　Lately, the percentage of children with disabilities enrolled in special schools

and special units has been increasing in Japan. Consequently, children with disabilities

and those without disabilities are increasingly being segregated. Accordingly,

the purpose of this study is to examine the notion that people do not

understand that access to inclusive education to be a right. First, Article 24 of

the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was compared to the

July 2012 report issued by Japan’s Central Council for Education. The report

does not explain that people with disabilities have the right to inclusive education.

Instead, the report highlights inclusive education as a philosophy instead

of a right. I argue that there is a need to create an inclusive society in which

persons with disabilities learn and live alongside persons without disabilities

while enjoying the same “rights” that the latter perceive as “their natural entitlement.”