A young Japanese male participant in the MIUSA/Footloose Exchange Program wrote; "I had never dealt with people with disabilities until I was 20 years old. It was, of course, my fault that I had never even tried to get to know people with disabilities positively; however, at the same time it is our society’s problem that Japan has formed the atmosphere which gives fewer chances to the people who do not care about disability issues."

His words represent a common relationship (or no relationship) between people with and people without disabilities in Japan. Before this young man participated in this program, he had no idea how to deal with people with disabilities. During this program he felt very close to people with disabilities and the gap between people with disabilities and without disabilities disappeared.

One of the goals Footloose worked towards during this exchange program was to create a program in which people with disabilities meet people without disabilities, learn together, and discuss what they feel and think. People, as a result, create deep relationships and get to know each other personally. In other words, by meeting each other, people change their views and attitudes toward people with disabilities.

The comment mentioned above by the young man has similarities to other participants without disabilities. The participants with disabilities have realized the importance of stating their opinions by developing good communication skills. Some participants have not developed specific future plans yet will hopefully utilize their experiences during this program. Again, I borrow this young man’s words. "I hope the feeling of my little change could be a tiny step that might change individual awareness and change Japan as well."

Through this program, each delegate was able to learn about various influences that impact disabled people’s lives, for example the relationship between people with and without disabilities in laws, education, civil activities and disability movements. The delegates also learned generally about the lives and jobs of people with disabilities in the U.S. One thing that impressed me was the diverse approaches that were used to facilitate that learning during the different program activities. For example the rules of the rope challenge course included having the delegates with disabilities command the ones without disabilities. It reflected when people without disabilities get involved in the disability movement; people without disabilities feel that it is their role to support the disabled. I think this is an important process - that the disabled and the abled reach a level of relationship that is equal and cooperative. Additionally, Jane Falls shared during the IDEA presentation the diverse process that Americans pursue in seeking the most appropriate education for children with disabilities in an integrated setting. First they discuss issues from different points of view and then they put them into practice.

When I think what about Japan’s education law for children with disabilities, which is a basic disability law influenced by the ADA, I recognize that it was not established by the disabled people’s movement. And the Eugenic Protection Law, which was criticized for being too eugenic, was revised to The Mother’s Body Protection Law. Again, it was revised without any discussion of what was really wrong with it. Only the word "Eugenic" was eliminated. In Japan, there is no process to strive to reach to the same goal as in the US.

Our Footloose goal is to form an equal relationship between people with and without disabilities. Namely, all places, including in education, employment, and leisure, should not limit a person’s potential because of a disability. When people with disabilities study, work and play, it should be together with people without disabilities. The MIUSA program was excellent and successful in facilitating the development of equal relationships between the disabled and the abled, because each delegate reported the same point in his or her feedback. An exchange program like this should provide a place where delegates with and without disabilities can learn how to establish an equal relationship between the disabled and the non-disabled. Then, the delegates bring home what they learned and work towards recreating this processes of gaining ideas and implementing them in Japan.

By working together, Japan and the US can learn about difference situations among people. It is crucial to make it clear how different disability problems are in American culture and Japanese culture, and how we approach these problems to solve them. Then we can form the process for an equal, cooperative relationship recognizing that differences branch from the common basis that we all share living on this globe as a human being, and develop a scheme for common topics globally.