OSAKA--Kiho Nakakubo is a radiant new sales clerk at the Umeda outlet of Daimaru Department Store here.  

She is the first salesperson working out of a wheelchair at the store, and perhaps all department stores in the neighborhood. 

Nakakubo, 28, said she is confident about her ability to serve customers, none of whom have shown any negativity to being helped by a salesperson in a wheelchair.

“Disabled people’s entry into the workforce has been delayed as they and businesses were reluctant to try something unprecedented,” she said. “Japan should not be a society in which people are compelled to give up something even before they give it a try. I want to say to disabled people that it is OK to give it a shot.”

She works at a counter for Moond by LPC, which opened at the store in November to offer the latest lineup of sanitary shorts and related products for women.

“I have finally become accustomed to smoothly carrying on sales conversations,” she said with a big smile.

Nakakubo, a resident of Osaka, has difficulty walking due to the aftereffect of brain paralysis she suffered when she was very young.

But the disability did not discourage her from dreaming when she was in elementary school of doing all things high school girls do when they flock to Tokyo’s Shibuya district, a popular youth hangout.

In high school, Nakakubo frequented photo machines to make numerous tiny stickers capturing her with friends to her heart’s content, enjoying what a “Shibuya gal” does.

She said back then she was unaware that her disability would limit her options in the future.

Soon, however, she faced the reality that although she aspired to become a hair stylist or beauty consultant selling cosmetics, she could not find a professional school that would admit her. School officials said their facilities do not accommodate wheelchair users.

So, Nakakubo landed a desk job after graduating from high school and began living on her own.

She was determined to work as hard as her colleagues. She did not mind putting in extra hours even if she would not be paid overtime.

“I did not want to be slighted due to my disability,” she said.

But she developed a health problem when she was working at her third job.

One morning, Nakakubo, who was 23 at that time, found herself unable to drag herself out of bed. She was developing depression, which appeared to be brought on by workplace bullying.

She became the target of name-calling by her colleagues, who pounced on her minor errors.

“They initially thought that I am a pitiful person in a wheelchair,” she recalled. “But they came to dislike me because I am self-assured.”

Nakakubo was a far cry from the stereotype that people generally associate people with disability with. She enjoyed traveling by herself and did not hesitate to talk to any man she was interested in.

The bullying, however, made her become apprehensive of how others viewed her. She became unwilling to leave her residence. She lost her appetite and her weight dropped to less than 40 kilograms, making her extremely thin.

When she would shift to a manic state, Nakakubo would embark on a shopping spree, grabbing just about everything at department stores and maxing out her credit cards.

Before her mother finally took away her credit cards, she had indulged in a shopping binge for two years.

With no means to vent her frustration after her cards were gone, a desperate Nakakubo swallowed all the medicine she had on hand and ended up in a hospital for a month.

When her mental health and physical strength fully restored around summer in 2019, she began looking for a salesperson position. Nakakubo has always been interested in interacting with people.

Few jobs were available for wheelchair users, however.

She made an inquiry to an official at a large outlet of a fast fashion operator about a vacancy only to be turned down.

“We have already met the required statutory employment of people with disabilities,” the official said.

Some employers apparently did not have a work space large enough to accommodate a wheelchair user.

But a lack of action on their part to change the situation frustrated her.

“They jumped to the conclusion that they could not hire a wheelchair user without giving it much thought and moving to take steps to do something,” she said angrily.

One of her friends suggested applying for a position at Moond by LPC.

The company’s products have received strong support from wheelchair users and their helpers.

Minori Kitahara, an author who runs the company offering Moond by LPC, said she was caught off guard when she learned of Nakakubo’s lament over a lack of positions involving communication skills for people with disabilities.

“We have failed in offering an option to disabled people despite marketing universal products,” Kitahara said.

Nakakubo was officially hired as a sales clerk for Moond by LPC at Daimaru Department Store’s Umeda outlet after working a stint there for temporary store help. 

The counter she staffed was lowered by 10 centimeters and shortened to make it easier for her to move around.

The department store also made a special arrangement to allow her to use an entrance different from the one used by store staff due to the stairs leading to the latter entrance.

When staff leave at the end of their work day, she sometimes has to wait a long time to catch an elevator as it is too crowded for a wheelchair user to squeeze in.

A public relations official with the department store said, “We will create a work environment friendly to employees from the viewpoint of diversity.”