TOKYO – His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, Naruhito, will officially announce the opening of the Paralympic Games. The Imperial Family of Japan has a long history of support for the Paralympics: the current monarch’s parents, Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, adopted the 1964 Paralympics in Tokyo as one of their primary reasons when they became Crown Prince. And she was a princess. Tokyo is the first city to host the Paralympics twice.
Kenneth Jay Roof, a historian and expert on Imperial Japan at Portland State University, said the support of the then Crown Prince and Princess triggered a gradual change in attitudes towards people with disabilities in Japan.
“While it may be hard to believe now, there were sayings at the time that people with disabilities should essentially be kept out of sight or hidden,” Professor Roof said.
The royal family had a strong social influence at the time, Roof said, and the Crown Prince helped change public opinion through his idea that people with disabilities should “play sports for the same purpose that everyone else did, including First and foremost pleasure was involved and not just rehabilitation.”
After the 1964 Paralympics, the royal couple regularly visited hospitals and institutions where people with disabilities lived.
“The Emperor and Empress continued to attract the attention of people with disabilities through the media for decades,” Roof said.