Building Japanese research capacity around disability studies and sport to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities - 2020 and beyond

Lead Research Organisation: Coventry University
Department Name: Ctr for Business in Society

Abstract

The aim of this bid is to expand an already existing international collaboration and foster a long term sustainable multi-partner network in order to further develop our understanding in the field of disability studies and sport (DSS). This project will bring together a network of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (SSH) researchers across the UK and Japan, including ECRs, who will both strengthen and develop current relations. In 2020 Tokyo, Japan, will become the first city to host the Paralympic Games twice, having previously hosted them in 1964. This, therefore, provides an ideal opportunity to both meet the aims of this grant call, whilst at the same time improving our understanding of the field of DSS by furthering our cultural understandings of people with disabilities (PWD) using an interdisciplinary approach that adopts participative methodologies to foster co-creation of new knowledge in the field.

The researchers from the UK come from three universities: Coventry, West of Scotland and Worcester). The Japanese network members are drawn from three universities based in or around Tokyo: Juntendo, Tsukuba and Waseda, as well as one publicly-funded non-academic research body: the Nippon Foundation Paralympic Research Group. The Japanese group also includes the founding Director of the Co-Innovation Laboratory (COIL) who will act as a stakeholder representative and a direct conduit to groups of PWD in Tokyo with whom COIL work towards achieving an inclusive society. Both the UK and Japanese networks include experienced and early career researchers as the project is designed to make this area of research sustainable over the long term by involving and developing the capacity of young researchers who will lead the field in the years to come. The two groups of researchers will experience a programme of knowledge exchange and collaborative research planning (in both the UK and Japan), assisted by other key stakeholders including PWD and policy makers in Japan, to which various members of the overall network already have access. This will culminate in a planned longitudinal programme of collaborative research to take place before, during and up to four years after the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games that will form the basis for a larger funding application to be written as the final part of the proposed project.

As a baseline, the planned research programme for the larger bid will be aimed at investigating many of the claims made by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) that are often repeated by Paralympic host city organising committees, regarding the potential social impact of sport and the Paralympic Games themselves upon the lives of PWD in the host country. These include: improved health, greater inclusion, better transport and infrastructure, environmental accessibility, enhanced support services and improved attitudes towards PWD amongst the non-disabled population (Brittain, 2018). This would be underpinned by a narrative analysis of the role of prejudice and normative values within Japanese society using ableism as a lens to see how disability is currently constructed and the impact hosting the Paralympic Games has on this narrative.

Planned Impact

Alongside the academic beneficiaries detailed in the preceding sections, this project will also foreground the involvement of non-academic stakeholders to ensure that its outputs and outcomes reach beyond the Academy. This impact will be achieved through three main interventions;

i, in order to address our objective around involving people with disabilities (PWD) more meaningfully in this research, we will invite PWD and organisations that represent them to participate in both the UK and Japan exchange visit activities. In the UK, Disabled Person's Organisations and representatives from disability sport institutions (e.g. Activity Alliance) will join the planned meetings on the second day in Coventry in order to add to the practical and theoretical knowledge exchange (travel expenses included in costings). The first day in Coventry will be an opportunity for the network members to get to know each other and share their own knowledge and experiences. In Japan, other key individuals will be invited to participate in the policy forum including PWD and their advocates, representatives from disability sport clubs and representatives from the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), including Assembly member Yoshihiro Hayasaka who is part of a team of TMA and local government officials who have been visiting different host countries gathering information on Games legacy. This group, led by the former Vice Governor of Tokyo, Prof Yasushi Aoyama, visited Dr Brittain in Coventry in August to find out more about the impact of the Paralympic Games. Another key individual to be invited will be Shinji Nakamae, Paralympic Games Integration Director for Tokyo 2020, who presented at Dr Brittain's international disability sport conference held in Coventry in September 2018. Other academics such as Prof Chihiro Kanayama (Ritsumeikan University) who was unable to participate in the bid due to having recently been made Head of Department, will also be invited. Their input will also be captured in the briefing paper and policy report published after the policy forum. PWD representative organisations will also be invited to produce a blog post on their experiences;

ii, we will seek to generate reach and significance for this project through utilising our project website and social media platforms strategically. Throughout the 12 month project we will publish guest blog posts from individuals such as those named above (Hayasaka; Aoyama; Nakamae) as well as PWD in Japan and the UK, updates on Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games planning, and seek to disseminate these widely through academic/non-academic networks via the project website and other social media. Co-I Prof McGillivray has extensive experience of designing and delivering participatory digital research projects that contribute to the impact agenda. To enhance accessibility to audiences outside of academia, the project website will include a blogging space and integrated social media platforms. This website will be crucial in communication and dialogue across academic, industry, policy and community actors engaged in the project and will be available in both languages to maximise reach. A short film will also be produced from the UK and Japan exchange visits and this will be used to promote the wider network and its focus on securing positive benefits from hosting the Paralympic Games;

iii, the academic partners will liaise with non-academic stakeholders to produce a short guide to undertaking research with PWD, informed by the experiences of both Japanese and UK researchers. This guide will be made available in open access form and address the objective to develop more participatory methodologies, especially focused on the involvement of PWD in research. As Parent (2016) has suggested, it is important that the voices and experiences of PWD are heard and it is important "not to go beyond disability, as is too frequently proposed, but to go-along with disability and disabled people"(p.530)
 
Description The main objectives of the projects and the outcome of each are listed below:

• A strong and sustainable interdisciplinary network of SSH researchers from both the UK and Japan focused on DSS as well as a growing and sustainable interest in the field amongst Japanese SSH researchers. This will be evidenced by participation in the field visits and contributions to the virtual network.

There was only really one major issue encountered during this project, but it was quite a major one and took up a lot of my time to sort it out. It may well be linked to why there are so few Japanese academics working in the area of Paralympic and disability sport or it might just be that we were unlucky, but Japanese sports academics that we involved in this project turned out to be somewhat 'flakey' and unreliable. I first encountered this when we were awarded this project and the Japanese sports academic who had signed up to be the international co-ordinating partner informed me they were no longer interested in being part of the project. The second instance came from someone who initially showed great enthusiasm for being part of the project. However, once we had purchased their (non-refundable/ non-changeable) air ticket to the UK pulled out claiming they had to have an operation the week they were due to come to the UK. I was later informed by another participant that they felt that they had pulled out because their English wasn't very good and that the individual was actually afraid because we had asked for a presentation (even though I had made it very clear that they could be assisted by other members of the Japanese group) The other participant also wasn't aware of any operation taking place. Finally, after agreeing in February that all members would keep a specific week in March and June clear for the project (and having attended the UK phase) I was informed by a third Japanese sports academic a week before we were due to fly to Tokyo that they 'might be able to spare us a couple of hours on the Thursday afternoon'! In the end we never saw them.
However, in the end I think this issue turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it forced me to seek alternative collaborators for the larger grant application, which I think is far stronger as a result. Using my contacts in Japan I was able to contact four academics who specialise in disability studies in Japan, all of whom speak excellent English. I have since returned to Japan on three occasions and met with all of them on each occasion to discuss the larger bid preparation, as well as being in regular email contact with them. They include three full professors and an Associate Professor at highly regarded Japanese Universities (Rikkyo, Sophia, Toyo and Tokyo) who together make up a very interdisciplinary team that will bring great strength to the larger project.

• Greater inclusion of PWD in the project from the outset. This will include their involvement in the formulation of the briefing paper and participation in the policy forum in Japan, and contributions to knowledge sharing in the UK.

We had one person with a disability who was actually part of the Japanese delegation. She is a gold medal winning winter Paralympian and a member of the IPC Education Committee. She was part of the team that visited the UK and part of the Japanese team when we visited Tokyo. In addition, a number of PWD were part of the Open Symposium we held at the House of Councillors (Japanese equivalent of the House of Lords) in Tokyo where we presented our research plans for a larger bid, which everyone present was able to discuss and comment upon. Some of these individuals will also form part of our research liaison group should the larger bid be successful)

• A guide to undertaking research with PWD and DSS. This guide will be available open access and published on the project website in both languages.

The guide is complete with input from both UK and Japanese participants. The Japanese version is currently being assembled after which both the English and Japanese versions will be freely available for download.

• A short film documenting the knowledge exchange activities undertaken over the twelve-month period. Uploaded to the project website and shared via social media.

The film is almost finished. It is just undergoing final edits.

• A virtual network, represented by a project website (available in both languages) with contributions from all academic beneficiaries and non-academic stakeholders (in the form of guest blog posts).

The website is up and running with blogs and other materials, but we have been unable to produce a Japanese version due to both costs and technical difficulties.

• Submission of a co-authored academic publication reflecting on the social impact of the Paralympic Games across different cultural contexts.

We were unable to collect sufficient data during the visits to produce such a journal article, but we did produce a Policy Report in both English and Japanese based upon a Policy Forum held at the House of Councillors in Tokyo. This was by invitation only and was attended by nineteen participants including the former Vice Governor of Tokyo(and University Professor), a Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman, the Chairmen of Disabled Persons International - Japan, the Paralympic Games Integration Director for Tokyo 2020, as well as representatives of the Japan Sports Council and the Sasakawa Sports Foundation. The group discussed five key questions pertaining to sport for disabled people in Japan as well as the situation in general of disabled people in Japan.The English version of this report is already complete and the Japanese version is almost complete. It includes a synopsis of the discussions around each of the five questions as well as key recommendations and conclusions. It will be freely available via the project website as well as being distributed via our contacts in Japan including those who attended.•

A collaboratively written (by both UK and Japanese partners with input from other key stakeholders) large interdisciplinary and longitudinal funding application to allow for the implementation of the collaboratively composed research plans to be carried out in the lead up to, during and after the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

This is under construction and due for submission by the end of March 2020.

In addition to the above myself and Sakis Pappous from Kent have produced a Media Guide for Journalists reporting upon the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games: Following discussions in Japan myself and one of the Co-Investigators (Dr Pappous) were able to persuade the Presidents of the International (Andrew Parsons) and the Japanese (Junichi Kawai) Paralympic Committees to write forewords for an updated version of a media guide Dr Pappous produced for Rio 2016. The Japanese Paralympic Committee also provided a large number of photographs for the guide which gives practical advice on how to most positively portray Paralympians at Tokyo 2020 in both text and image. Again this is being produced in both English and Japanese and will be freely available. Representation of disabled people is one of the four key areas of research that form our larger grant application, so this is an important output in terms of showing what the team can achieve.
Exploitation Route The policy report, research and media guides will all be distributed in both English and Japanese to all who attended the policy forum and open symposium. They will also be freely available on the project website. It is hoped that at the very least the policy report will form the basis for further discussion on the issue of disability in Japan, the research guide will assist Japanese researchers to better include PWD in the research process and that the media guide will assist journalists to portray athletes and PWD in a more positive light.
Sectors Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice
URL http://paralegacy2020.net