BIG IN JAPAN
Hirotada Ototake
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Kodensha |
Japan is a country notorious
for its rough treatment of the disenfranchised. The physically and mentally handicapped
have endured decades of being ignored, personally and politically, but now, one young man
has turned that attitude completely around. Hirotada Ototake is a stylish, charming
23-year-old student at Waseda University, who enjoys baseball and American football. He is
also a bestselling author. What' more, he was born without arms or legs.
Ototake's biography, "Gotai Fumanzoku" (literally "My Unsatisfactory
Limbs," translated into English with the title of "Nobody's Perfect") was
released in mid-1998 and has been a phenomenal success, selling over 4.5 million copies to
date. It's a frank account of Otatake's childhood, schooldays and college life and has
succeeded mainly because of its author's unfailing optimism.
Ototake was born in 1976 with a condition known as "hereditary amelia," meaning
he was born with severely truncated stumps instead of limbs. His mother and architect
father refused to let their child be relegated to a life in "special"
institutions. Instead, they spent a small fortune on a highly advanced, electronic
wheelchair and sent him to an ordinary state primary school.
 In the book Ototake relates the reactions of the other children to his
appearance as being a mixture of surprise, nervousness and more than a little curiosity.
Instead of being shunned, however, Ototake found the other children rallying round him.
"Let's help Hiro-chan," was a call to find a way to incorporate him into the
usual schoolyard rough and tumble.
He studied hard for his entrance exams, writing by means of holding a pen between his
cheek and the stump of his left arm. At Waseda, he expanded his range of friends and
interests, assisting the American Football club by working out strategies on his adapted
PC.
Written in a droll, detached style, reminiscent of Soseki Natsume's "I am a
Cat," Ototake's book constantly reflects on the irony of his situation: the fact that
he has become a celebrity by stressing his normality. There should be no reason for him to
write this book, he says, because everyone should be treated equally. This is what he
calls bringing down the "Barriers of the Heart," and one way to start is through
familiarity-letting people interact with the disabled as a matter of course.
There are signs that this is happening. The most successful TV drama in recent years, TBS'
"Beautiful Life," featured a love affair between a young man (SMAP's Takuya
Kimura) and a disabled girl (Takako Tokiwa). Another popular drama, "Happy"
featured the trials of a young blind woman (Saki Takaoka). The TV-watching public's
collective memory is notoriously short-lived, but even so, perhaps this is the beginning
of a major shift of opinion.
"In Japan, everyone just assumes that the disabled are people you feel sorry
for," says Ototake, "but I'm not pitiful. I enjoy my life, and I want to tell
people that."
James Walker |
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