July 2025
Prof. Mannan’s research is entitled ‘Disability rights in action: a comparison of the first government reports of Japan and Ireland’, and he will spend time at Aoyama Gakuin University to carry out the research this autumn.
The research will be hosted by Prof. Yuko Chiba at Aoyama Gakuin University, Shibuya, Tokyo. The purpose of inviting Prof. Hasheem Mannan (School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems) is threefold. The first objective is to excel our research project on disability rights and produce tangible output. Prof. Mannan and I are examining how human rights of disabled people are protected and respected in Japan and Ireland in a comparative manner by analysing documents related to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). His visit will allow for recurring in-person, in-depth discussions and will greatly accelerate our joint analysis and production. The second objective is the exchange of academic knowledge and skills between Prof. Mannan and the Japanese scholarly community. Prof. Mannan is well known as one of the inventors of a policy-analysis framework called ‘EquiFrame’ and is eager to share it with people in Japan who are interested in using the tool in their analyses. He is also willing to discuss international trends on disability issues and the inclusion/exclusion of the vulnerable people worldwide with Japanese experts. In addition, he is open to share his general research philosophy as well as his specific research- and teaching-related techniques with Japanese junior researchers seeking to become an international scholar. Thus, a fruitful academic exchange can be expected from Prof. Mannan’s visit to Tokyo. The third objective is to strengthen the Japan-Ireland network beyond academia. During his visit, Prof. Mannan will meet with Japanese disabled activists and practitioners from organisations such as the Japan Disability Forum (JDF), Disabled People’s International-Japan (DPIJapan) and several Centres for Independent Living (CILs, with an aim to bring an international perspective to their issues and create connections with Irish disability stakeholders.
Prof. Chiba at Aoyama Gakuin University holds a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast, and has been a research fellow at the UNESCO Centre, Ulster University and at the School of Law, Queen’s University. She and Prof. Mannan met at UCD in 2019, when the JSPS London seminar was held. Prof. Chiba and Assoc. Prof. Kodate have known each other for more than two decades and co-authored several chapters for the book entitled “70 chapters to understand Ireland” (Asahi Shoten).
Photo of Aoyama University, Shibuya Campus (courtesy of Prof. Yuko Chiba, 2024).