From awareness to inclusion: Creating bridges with the disability community through social media and civil society in Japan

The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the state of social networking sites (SNS) usage in Japan and the regulatory and social context for the disability community in Japan. Given disability benefi ts and issues related to inclusion are handled at the local government level in Japan (Stevens, 2013), the advantages of the Tsukuba civic activities cyber-square experiment to people with disabilities are particularly signifi cant. This chapter also provides a future outlook on the possibilities of social media usage in Japan for people with disabilities through participation of civil society organisations.