Natsuko Izena – Columnist
Natsuko was born in 1982 in Okinawa, Japan.
She currently lives in Kanagawa. She has column in The Tokyo Shimbun, The
Chunichi Shimbun, The Ryukyu Shimpo and HuffPost Japan.
She has a disability called Osteogenesis
Imperfecta which makes her bones fragile. She is an electric wheelchair user.
She is only 100cm and 20kg. She has lost her hearing on her right side of her
ear. After high risk pregnancies, she now has seven year old son and five year
old daughter. She is raising the children with the support from her ten care
workers, volunteers, family support, friends, and neighbors.
She has undergraduate from Waseda
University and Master’s degree from Kanagawa University. During her university
years, she has studied abroad in Denmark and the US. After being an English
teacher at a primary school in Naha city, Okinawa, she got married in 2010. She
keeps her own family name “Izena” and do not marry with her partner in law in
Japan.
She travels around Japan to deliver a
message that “people with disabilities are not the recipients of help, but we
can all support each other”. She is also actress, part of a theatre and a fashion show. She
has published a book “Tiny 100cm Mom" (HuffPost Books).
Her favorite things are panda, things that
are good for health and the environment, and sexual education.
Column in HuffPost Japan:
Tiny mum’spregnancy, delivery and child-raring
Column in Ryukyu Shimpo paper:
The World from 100cm view
Blog: http://blog.livedoor.jp/natirou/
Book: Tiny 100cm Mom
