Disability policies in Japan and Sweden: A comparative perspective

Abstract

The aim of this article was to compare disability policies in Japan and Sweden. Social protection in the two countries has taken different directions. Policy orientation in Japan is ‘productivist’, paternalistic, family-oriented, and firmly involves medical expertise in assessing eligibility to disability services. In practice, social services in Japan is the result of negotiations between social service staff at the local level, volunteer agencies and private contributors. In Sweden, social services, were established as social rights, financed by public money, and distributed by public sector agencies or out-sourced to private providers. Such support, assessed by social workers, were intended to facilitate daily life and achieve “good living conditions”. While Japan's disability services are characterized by the medical model and improving physical accessibility, practices in Sweden are based on a social relational model perspective of disability services combined with increasing ‘deservingness ethics’.