Since the adoption in 2015 by the United Nations of the international agenda comprising 17 goals to be achieved by 2030, Sustainable Development Goal 10—“Reduce inequality within and among countries”—it feels as though events that people with disabilities can participate in have increased considerably.
Now that events that everyone can enjoy, regardless of disability, have become commonplace, it is also important to pause and consider “what purpose” an event serves and “how can we make the lives, work, and leisure activities of people with disabilities richer?”
With this in mind, Kurashiki Shien LABO, which plans events that anyone can enjoy regardless of disability, holds an event every two years that brings together the year’s work supporting people with disabilities.
The hugely popular “Shien LABO Festival” held in 2023 is becoming an even more academic event, bringing excitement to Kurashiki in fall 2025.
We spoke with the organizers about the event and what it means to them.
The information presented was current when this article was published in October 2025. Please note that it may differ from current information.
What is Kurashiki Shien LABO?
Kurashiki Shien LABO works to create opportunities for people with disabilities to lead fulfilling lives in their local communities.
Public social welfare programs make it possible to live at a basic minimum, but existing systems cannot provide the additional choices in daily life that enable people with disabilities to engage with their local communities.
To change this situation, Kurashiki Shien LABO holds events open to everyone, regardless of disability, including matchmaking seminars, music events at cafe-bars, and flower-arranging performance events.
What is the Kurashiki Shien LABO Research Gathering?
Disability support is provided separately by each organization, and there are few opportunities in Kurashiki City to share what they are doing. Events open to everyone, regardless of disability, have also become more common, but each organization runs them independently. Connections that allow them to share their goals and know-how are needed, too.
That is why the “Kurashiki Shien LABO Research Gathering” was planned.
Anyone interested in the realities of disability welfare can attend, including people who work in disability support every day, people with disabilities and their families, and students and businesses hoping to get involved in disability support.
A chance to hear firsthand about disability welfare services in Nagoya, Osaka, and Kyushu
The “Kurashiki Shien LABO Research Gathering” will be held on Sunday, November 9, 2025, at Kurashiki Civic Hall.
Details and how to register are as follows.
The event will feature eight breakout sessions on the theme “Toward realizing a fulfilling life for people with disabilities living in the community.”
Please see the image below for the day’s schedule.
The breakout sessions will feature presentations not only from welfare professionals in Kurashiki, but also from support workers involved in disability support outside Kurashiki City, including Nagoya, Osaka, and Kyushu.
This is an opportunity to discuss from multiple perspectives how organizations in the city approach their daily support work and what practices are being carried out in other regions.
Tickets with a bento lunch are recommended
Admission is 1,900 yen per person, and tickets that include a bento lunch are also available.
There are eight bento options:
- Yakiniku Shokudo Burisuke, “Pork Kalbi and Chicken Bowl”: 2,750 yen
- Yakiniku Bento Burisuke, “Beef Kalbi and Chicken Bowl”: 2,800 yen
- Shoku no Otetsudai Yummy, “Dashimaki Tamago Noriben”: 3,000 yen
- Shoku no Otetsudai Yummy, “Chef’s Choice Bento”: 2,900 yen
- Karaage Zen-chan, “Today’s Fried Chicken Bento”: 2,750 yen
- Karaage Zen-chan, “Fried Chicken and Kashiwa Rice”: 2,650 yen
- Sakamoto Keiran, “One Pack of Boiled Egg Sandwiches”: 2,420 yen
- Sakamoto Keiran, “Two Packs of Boiled Egg Sandwiches”: 2,840 yen
All prices include tax.
As the bento shops need advance notice, it’s best to purchase your ticket at least one week before the event.
Tickets with a bento lunch must also be paid for in advance through Peatix.
Free admission to the sales area featuring organizations that support Kurashiki Shien LABO’s work
The keynote address and breakout sessions will be held on the second and third floors of Kurashiki Civic Hall, while the sales area on the first floor is free to enter.
Items to take home as souvenirs from the gathering will be on sale, including sweets made at welfare facilities in Kurashiki City and handmade goods from Parent Support Step, a certified nonprofit organization run by members of Kurashiki Shien LABO.
If browsing the sales area makes you want to join a breakout session, you can also pay the admission fee at the reception desk on the day and take part.
Interview with the organizer
We spoke with Ando Kiyoko of Kurashiki Shien LABO, one of the people who initiated the Kurashiki Shien LABO Research Gathering, about what the event means to her.
Could you tell us what led to the “Shien LABO Research Gathering” being held?
Ando (honorific omitted)
When Kurashiki Shien LABO held the “Shien LABO Festival” in 2023, we were carrying out our work with a grant from the Toyota Foundation, so we held the event as a way to review and wrap up that work.
Taking time to reflect on our two years of activities was very meaningful to us, so we talked about wanting to make time for this kind of reflection every two years going forward.
Two years have passed since then.
Kurashiki Shien LABO has held a variety of events through our own efforts. The result is this year’s “Kurashiki Shien LABO Research Gathering.”
The theme, “Toward realizing a fulfilling life for people with disabilities living in the community,” was also decided after members of Kurashiki Shien LABO met for a retreat and discussed it in spring this year (2025).
What do you mean by “a fulfilling life”?
Ando
I think there are many different dimensions to “a fulfilling life.”
Financial well-being is certainly one aspect, but having even one more choice available to people with disabilities may also contribute to a fulfilling life.
We believe that people with disabilities should have a wider range of choices in their lives, including taking part in events and having romantic relationships.
There are many areas that government support programs alone cannot adequately cover. We have continued our work because we want Kurashiki Shien LABO to support people in areas that government programs do not fully address.
This research gathering is an event where people from a variety of backgrounds come together, including welfare professionals involved in disability support, people with disabilities and their families, local residents, and businesses.
At the gathering, we don’t intend to discuss directly “how to realize a fulfilling life.”
Before that, I think it’s important to bring together and carefully consider the contradictions we currently face around what makes life fulfilling and the challenges we encounter in the gaps between systems.
By clarifying the challenges, this gathering offers a chance to pause and think together about what activities will be needed over the next two years.
In 2023 it was called the “Shien LABO Festival,” but this time the name has changed to the “Shien LABO Research Gathering.”
Ando
Last time, there was an entertainment aspect, with many vendors setting up shop, but this time we wanted to create an academic setting, so we changed the name.
The program also includes a “keynote address” and “breakout sessions,” like those at a research meeting or academic conference.
“Research gathering” may sound a little formal, but we want to create a place where everyone involved in disability support can sit down together and consider the challenges facing disability support services today.
There are many challenges, and individual support workers are doing their best to provide support in their own settings, using their ingenuity. Bringing these experiences together could help raise the standard of disability welfare services in Kurashiki.
We also hope that learning about different practices at the gathering and meeting others who are working just as hard will inspire support workers, and that even more people will work in disability support with a sense of purpose and enjoyment.
Also, in Kurashiki City, there are few opportunities for people involved in disability welfare to share practical examples across organizational and support-area boundaries. I hope that hearing a variety of presentations will inspire people to leave with a goal like, “I want to present my own work at this gathering in two years!” and to keep striving in their respective workplaces.
The more lively the discussions among support workers, the more people with disabilities and their families will feel encouraged, thinking, “There are so many people who care about us.”
This is the second event to review Kurashiki Shien LABO’s work, but it’s the first step toward an academic gathering for people involved in disability support in Kurashiki.
Ando
Yes.
Every market and event is meant to attract people as a way of achieving some goal, but it’s not uncommon for attracting people to become the goal itself before long.
That’s why, with this research gathering, we want to take time to pause and think about what kind of society we want to work toward through our future activities.
It may be a somewhat serious event, but I think it’s necessary for building a community of supporters—businesses and local residents who say they want to help—by putting our goals into words.
Who would you like to see attend?
Ando
Anyone who has even a little interest in the term “disability welfare” is very welcome.
Of course, we’d love people who work in disability welfare to attend, but we also want people with disabilities and their families to join us and share their firsthand experiences. We’d also love for you to come and see the passionate support workers.
We hope all kinds of people will attend, including students who aren’t currently involved in disability welfare but want to be, and businesses and local residents who want to get involved in disability support through employment of people with disabilities or other means.
It seems some of the presenters are from outside Kurashiki City, too.
Ando
Yes.
We’ll welcome presenters from Osaka for “The Divide Between Childhood and Adulthood,” “AI and Welfare,” and “Disability and Sexuality”; from Nagoya for “The Future of Employment Support”; and from Kyoto and Kyushu for “The Financial Sustainability of Consultation Support.”
Learning about initiatives outside Kurashiki City will give people new insights, and we also hope they’ll come to appreciate what makes disability welfare in Kurashiki unique.
How can people enjoy the event?
Ando
The presenters in the breakout sessions are there to introduce topics, so please feel free to join the discussions. We hope presenters and participants alike will contribute to the sessions as equals.
You can also leave partway through, so feel free to visit the breakout sessions that interest you or enjoy shopping in the gallery space on the first floor.
The gallery space on the first floor will feature works by users of disability welfare facilities in Kurashiki City, handmade goods made by parents of children with disabilities, and shops run by others who support the aims of our work.
We hope people from Kurashiki City, as well as visitors from outside the city, will enjoy shopping for Kurashiki souvenirs.
For lunch, we’ve selected only bento boxes that we’ve tried ourselves and enjoyed, so please consider getting a ticket that includes a bento. You can eat at the breakout session venue, so you can enjoy your meal without interrupting the discussion.
If you work in disability welfare, I hope you’ll use this as a chance to connect with others who are working hard every day in disability support, and take some time to pause and think about the kinds of practices you’d like to build on in preparation for the research conference two years from now.
Do you have a message for our readers?
Ando
You don’t need to have a lofty sense of purpose.
If you feel interested or curious, we’d love for anyone to join us.
From the Writer
As someone with a hearing disability, before I can take part in an event, I first have to check whether sign language or text interpretation will be available. If not, I need to request an interpreter myself from the organizer or local government. This takes a lot of effort for something I’m only “a little interested in,” and as a result, I end up staying away from events and the like.
However, with events organized by Kurashiki Shien LABO, I feel reassured that the supporters will think together with me about “how we can enjoy the event together,” so I joined the LINE open chat.
The open chat sends invitations to events about once a week, covering a wide range of themes, including snack bars, bonfires, and matchmaking. I used to think that people with disabilities could only attend events with support, but a feature of events organized by Kurashiki Shien LABO is that they all have support, and there is also a wide range of options.
I realized that one reason for this is that the organizers plan events with “enriching the lives of people with disabilities” as their theme, and it made sense to me.
Why not learn about what supporters think—what kinds of accommodations they make during events and what support they feel will be needed in the future—and spend some time thinking together with the community about a future where everyone can live more easily and enjoy a sense of “enrichment”?
Support LABO Research Gathering Information
| Name | Support LABO Research Gathering |
|---|---|
| Date | November 9, 2025 (Sunday) |
| Location | 17-1 Honmachi, Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Admission (tax included) | 1,900 yen |
| Website | Kurashiki Shien LABO (Gachinko) Research Gathering Official Facebook Page |
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