Shougai Yakusha

A while back, I was reading an English language blog on life in Japan. The post was about a government report that seven of ten Japanese people with disabilities have experienced discrimination. The first comment, from someone with disability: "And the other three were in a vegetative state and couldn't answer." All comments after that agreed that the first comment was correct, that discrimination is extremely wide-spread and the report was likely understating the problem.

So, it was with great interest that I read that Kotaro Yanagi, a member of the ikemen* acting troupe, D-BOYS, had published an autobiography of his life since sustaining a severe brain injury. Great interest, and despair, because my ability to read Japanese is pretty much limited to distinguishing the men's and women's toilets. But now one of his bilingual fans is taking it on herself to translate for all the people who have bought the book but can't read it. Seeing as I was hopelessly pondering how expensive it would be to find someone to do that very thing, I couldn't be more delighted.

She has just started and only has the prologue up, but if you are curious, you also might want to read Hicchan's Translations. And, like she says, buy Yanagi's book even if you can't read it.

At any rate, I am very eager to read how Kotaro has managed to continue as a performer. And also, I am delighted that he's still considered an ikemen actor. I wonder if the same thing would hold for a young American actor who faced similar difficulties.

*good-looking (only applied to men)