2019 Volume 41 Pages 110-120
Under the period of economic growth, Japanese government took an institutionalization based psychiatric medical treatment policy. In 1970s, when Japanese society had a strong prejudice to mental disabilities, the small-scale workshop activities started, and the number of the small- scale workshop for mental disabilities reached to more than 1700 in early 2000s. The activity greatly contributed the localization of the people with mental disabilities. The study focus to the pioneer generation who started the small-scale workshop activities with no subsidy and supporting system by the government, and try to clarify the unique points of the activity by the interview with 20 pioneer generation people. The data was acquired by the semi-structured styled interviews and was analyzed using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach. The result shows that the pioneer generation were voluntarily immersed in the activity by the deep understandings and empathy to the psychiatric disabilities and the conflict between pioneer generations and local residents, which drove the recursive and continuous cycle of the activities.
