A Quest for Autonomy: Work and Personal Fulfilment in the Japanese Film 37 Seconds

In Japan, the employment rate for disabled women is significantly lower than that of disabled men and of non-disabled women. Disabled women suffer from double discrimination in the labour market, due to both their gender and their disability. However, following recent policies aimed at improving access to employment for disabled people, a growing number of media representations are picturing disabled people, including women, at work. The film 37 seconds (2019) was part of that movement. Work is not its core subject. Indeed, it deals primarily with the main character’s quest for self through love and sexuality. Yet, the character Yuma, a young woman living with cerebral palsy, does work, as a self-employed mangaka. Her work appears to be a passion, a part of her personality and quest for happiness, and, at the same time, a source of precarity. Work and sexuality are closely intertwined, as her editor advises her to lose her virginity to write better stories. This chapter analyses representations of disabled women’s work in this film. By comparing these representations with recent fieldwork data on disabled women’s experiences of employment, it highlights how the film constructs a discourse that is both dramatised and realistic.