Guest editors:
Maho Kasahara
Cultural Foundations of Education/Disability Studies
Syracuse University

Heike Boeltzig
Institute for Community Inclusion
University of Massachusetts-Boston

Osamu Nagase
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Tokyo

Deadline for 500-word proposals: August 31, 2005.

The guest editors of the Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ) International Section on Disability Studies in German-speaking countries have pointed to the existence of language barriers within international Disability Studies. The same holds true for Japan. We are joining our colleagues in their collaborative effort to encourage a more global dialogue on disability by dedicating the International Section of the Fall 2006 issue of DSQ to Disability Studies in Japan. The purpose of this issue is to inform the international public about the emergence of Disability Studies in Japan and recent developments in the field, and to highlight some of the underlying complexities and questions.

From 1999 to 2002, three books on Disability Studies were published in Japan (in Japanese only) as a series: Invitation to Disability Studies (1999), Conversations on Disability Studies (2000), and Critical Reexamination from Disability Studies Perspectives (2002). The book series captured the momentum among Japanese scholars and members of the disability rights community and led to the foundation of the Japan Society for Disability Studies (JSDS) in 2003, which marked the official beginning of disability studies as a legitimate field of academic inquiry.

In this issue, we intend to publish articles that trace the developments of Disability Studies in Japan, including discussions, critiques, and insights emerged or emerging, as well as applications of disability studies perspectives to research, policy, actions, theory, social life, and the like. We welcome abstracts that address one or more of the topics listed below.

Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following: