The project I work on involves the following keywords: medical care, welfare, illness, and disability (health care). After collecting historical documents concerning people’s lives, health, and dignity, and building an archive of them, I will have interested parties and citizens participate to formulate guidelines for the archive and publish it online in order to innovatively improve the accessibility of related materials. Furthermore, by connecting this project to the new MLA (Museum/Library/Archive) concept listed in R2030 and publishing and sharing historical documents (archives), the project will comprehensively promote research using these materials. Through the archives, I want to convey a message oriented toward the construction of a symbiotic society that acknowledges that people have lived with, and will continue to live with, illness and disability.

Primary sources (health care archives) on medical care, welfare, illness, and disability are sources of information on people’s lives, health, and dignity. However, these documents are often discarded casually, and even when preserved, they are difficult to access; we often encounter scenarios in which they cannot be used for research. Historical documents that bear authentic evidence of the lived experiences of those affected, along with records on medical care and welfare policies, are materials that should be preserved for future generations. The main reason I chose this research topic is that I thought these documents had value for use and application.

By making historical documents on disability and illness held by the Institute of Ars Vivendi, along with those collected through my own work and collaborations with other researchers, publicly accessible online, I aim to facilitate their use in research, education, and by the general public. I also hope to raise awareness of these documents and communicate their significance to a wider audience.

As part of my future research roadmap, within the first 18 months of starting as a RARA associate fellow, I would like to create a catalog of information related to the primary sources held by the Institute of Ars Vivendi. At the same time, I will continually work over the course of four years to run a large-scale digitization covering all types of relevant materials that have been or will be collected. Furthermore, as usage guidelines will be essential for making these materials open to the public (including copyright issues and materials with sensitive information), I plan to collaborate with diverse stakeholders to formulate these guidelines and begin applying them first to the materials in the Institute of Ars Vivendi library.

Advancing this project should bring innovative improvements to the accessibility of large volumes of health care archives, even with certain limitations, as the collection of materials and systematization of digital data work moves forward for documents on medical care, welfare, illness, and disability, with Ritsumeikan University at the center. By formulating guidelines in collaboration with interested parties, I believe that removing the monopoly of experts in implementing rules for the use of materials, and promoting the participation of interested parties, will lead to the publication and usage of these materials. It will be possible to easily access documents related to health care that were previously difficult to view or whose existence was unknown, and interested researchers and concerned parties will be provided with high-quality information. Above all, I believe that people with illnesses or disabilities that are difficult to cure will come to feel the presence of others who think of their lives as important.

Partnerships:
For this project, I am actively seeking coordination with organizations, groups, agencies, and individuals who have health care archives related to medical care, welfare, illness, or disability. Even items that may seem insignificant to a third party who has become used to seeing them may be useful: if you approve of the objectives of this project, I would be very happy to hear from you. Those involved in the project will look over the items and listen to the owners’ desires to determine their potential for the collection. Owners will be notified about whether the documents will be collected and digitized, digitized and then returned, not collected for use, etc. Particularly in cases in which consent is given to digitize the documents and use the data, I would like for us to cover the costs as much as possible.

Contact: mgoto(a)fc.ritsumei.ac.jp
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Research collaborations:
This project is not intended to be limited to specific researchers; rather, anyone is welcome who is already collecting, or is interested in health care archives concerning medical care, welfare, illness, or disability, regardless of whether they are a researcher or not. We will consider whether to make the archives public or private based on the guidelines we plan to formulate, but I would like them to be used broadly by those with an awareness of the issues, such as researchers and students, as well as people with illnesses or disabilities, family members of people with illnesses or disabilities, media professionals, and education professionals.
The information will be highly diverse, so it is impossible to generalize. However, health care archives on medical care, welfare, illness, and disability will include information about people’s lives, health, and dignity, and will carry significant and serious meaning for those involved. I believe that it is important to have an approach of conducting objective research while maintaining respect.