Quadriplegic Akihito Kawasaki had a long road to the Tokyo Paralympics. But when the curtain rose at the opening ceremony on Aug. 24, Kawasaki took center stage at the National Stadium, performing not as an athlete, but as a guitarist, alongside legendary rocker Tomoyasu Hotei. As the Paralympics come to a close on Sunday evening, the 53-year-old Nagano City resident looked back on the gig of a lifetime, with hopes that it would inspire others to set their sights on creating a more equal and harmonious society.
Kawasaki lost nearly all use of his arms and legs when he was about one year old, after suffering a bout of unexplained high fevers. Although he was curious about music growing up, he figured it would be impossible for someone with his disabilities to play an instrument. It wasn't until he was a freshman in high school, when he saw a musician born without arms playing guitar by foot on TV, that he decided to follow his dream. Encouraged by the performance, Kawasaki convinced his mother to buy him a guitar, and began figuring out how to play.
Laying the guitar flat across his wheelchair, Kawasaki devised a method of strumming with a pick held in the fingertips of his right hand. In 1989, he even won "best guitarist" in a contest sponsored by an instrument manufacturer. He formed a duo with an able-bodied vocalist and continued performing, as he felt that the only time people saw beyond his disability was when he had a guitar in his hands.
In his day job as a coordinator at the Nagano Council of Social Welfare, Kawasaki organizes lectures on social work and para sports events at schools and other venues within the prefecture -- at times, serving as the guest speaker, himself.
Late in 2019, Kawasaki heard about an open call being held for Paralympics opening ceremony performers. He knew he couldn't pass up the chance to fulfill his dream of one day playing at the National Stadium. After passing the audition process, he was named to the Paralympics band in April this year, and began making frequent trips to Tokyo from July to rehearse the two new songs -- "Hikari" and "Tsubasa" -- written by Hotei for the event.
Moments before the opening ceremony, Hotei turned to Kawasaki backstage to offer a last bit of advice, one musician to another: "Never forget that you're the coolest one onstage. But let's see if you can play better than me." Kawasaki said the encouragement from his idol helped him forget any nervousness and enjoy the experience to the fullest. Although the opening ceremony was conducted in front of empty bleachers, it was broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience.
"I hope that we inspired [viewers] to go out and tackle a new challenge," Kawasaki said.
Kawasaki said he hopes the Paralympics will be a catalyst for a society where the disabled are able to contribute on equal footing as able-bodied individuals.
Having witnessed how the 1998 Nagano Paralympics helped raise awareness of disabilities and improved accessibility as more stores starting installing ramps, Kawasaki is hopeful that the Paralympics' return to Japan will rekindle and spread that move toward a more inclusive society, "one where the disabled aren't treated differently from anyone else."
In the meantime, he will continue dreaming of the day when his job of organizing "interaction with the disabled" disappears entirely.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
