Over the past few decades, media specialists like Azuma Hiroki, Ōtsuka Eiji, Ian Condry, Deborah Shamoon, Saitō Tamaki, and Mark McLelland have interrogated the contexts and motivations behind the production and consumption of anime, manga, and related goods in Japan. Their analyses have largely focused on the activities of a few key players, including but not limited to the otaku consumer, the animation studio, and the production company, who are often held responsible for the circulation of ideas about class, gender, and sexuality. While a nascent body of literature linking the actions of these players to media (re)presentations of disability exists, many questions remain to be asked (and answered).  For example:

1. How do persons with disabilities produce and consume media?

2. Do their modes of production and consumption differ from those of their abled and debilitated counterparts?

3. What coalitions are facilitated and foreclosed by their actions?

By addressing these sorts of questions, my research illustrates how constructions of disability and barrier-removal projects in Japan have influenced the production and consumption of various kinds of media on the global stage at different points in time.