Physical disabilities(Include Visually & Hearing) 317.7
Intellectual disabilities 41.3
Mental disabilities 204.1
The Total number 563.1 (thousand)
Ministry of Health, Labor and welfare.1999

The number of people with disabilities is equivalent to 5% of the population.

Ministry of Health, Labor and welfare.1999

In 2001, 2,800 Japanese students with disabilities took entrance examinations to higher education. 530 out of 2,800 students proceeded to college or universities and 84 out of 530 students went to national universities. 530 are approximately to 0.09% of total number of freshmen, which is 590,0001). It has been reported that 80% of whole the universities had experiences of being inquired about acceptance of students with disabilities or accepted examinees with disabilities but only 20% of Japanese universities have adequate facilities and equipments to accept disabled students. 10% has special school curriculums for students with disabilities and 70% has special programs for lectures, experiments, trainings, and physical educations. However, most of universities are offering supports only for part of lectures or taking ad hoc measures. Only four universities can accommodate students’ special needs in all the classes. As for university counseling systems for students with special needs, 30 % provides counseling services and 10% has special committees to help students with disabilities.

Case1. Efforts by Tsukuba College of Technology.

Tsukuba College of Technology (TCT) has advanced systems to assist sight and hearing impaired students. TCT is a three-year college and can accept up to 90 students. The above data doesn’t include information on TCT because three-year college was excluded from the data. Since TCT is a career school, study facilities are well equipped and it endeavors to achieve equality of information acquisition. However, students cannot obtain university degrees because it’s a career school. Also, alumni have limited career opportunities because TCT offers limited majors. I hope that TCT educates professionals with disabilities, reports research results on UD as the most advanced college that guarantee equality of information acquisition. Also, I hope that TCT will provide information on how to support students with disabilities to other Japanese universities.

Case2. Efforts at Hiroshima University.

Hiroshima University has been staffed with Information Coordinators to give advice to students with disabilities since 2000. This is the first effort in Japanese national universities to accommodate individuals’ special needs. The system attracted students and 26 students enrolled the university in 2002, which was large increase from 4 or 5 students per year. Also, the university spent nine million yen for accepting students with disabilities, which was milestone budget. It has been reported that introducing IT to achieve equality in information acquisition reduced burden on both the university and the students3).

Support systems for entrance examination preparation.

Over 70% of Japanese universities, which accept students with disabilities, offer preliminary consultation. However, some universities don’t accept students with disabilities by reasons that the university doesn't have sufficient support systems for them. Or even if the university accepts the students, the students can not get licences for doctors and so on from Japanese government because of disqualification clauses. But the situation in Japan is changing little by little. For example, University of Nagano is trying to support students with disabilities from entrance examination to graduate. They give enough time for examination and increase the enrollment by creating special reserves for students with disabilities.
http://www.nagano.ac.jp/cumpuslife/