[Josh Grisdale]

Hi,

I have a disability and moved to Japan 17 years ago.

If you are a resident (ie not a tourist but have a residence in Japan), you are entitled to the same services including healthcare and disability services. As was mentioned by Mark you only pay a portion of the medical cost. I would say most doctors can speak better English than the average person, but I agree that a bigger hospitals that may have translators on staff is the best bet, though you may need to get referred by a local clinic to get in the door. Some cities have volunteer translators that may be able to help as well.

There are schools for people with disabilities (though there is a growing push for integration into standard schools), however, to be a teacher at the school you would need a Japanese teaching certificate (I had a friend who was interested in that as well and when he was here we went to a school for kids with disabilities and he was told that). The easier option would be to be an English teacher that may get to go to the school during your rounds, or teach at an international school full time (which would allow foreign teaching certificate holders to teach) and maybe volunteer to teach English at the school to get your foot in the door. Or maybe offer lessons to the students and family members etc.

We had someone share about being an English teacher on Accessible Japan a number of hears back:

https://www.accessible-japan.com/special-needs-schools-the-highlight-of-my-week/

Hope it helps!