No One's Perfect by Hirotada "Oto" Ototake (Kodansha)

When HIrotada “Oto” Ototake was born, the doctors thought his mother might be given quite a shock if she were to see him. They decided it was best to keep things unsaid for the time being. It would be more than a month later when Oto’s mother finally sees her newborn son for the first time.

Why did the doctors keep Oto’s mother from seeing him? The year was 1976. In Japan, it was the days before the age of “informed consent”. People took what the doctors said at face value. Their word was final. The father said he was just following the doctor’s orders. You see, Oto was born with a very obvious congenital birth defect. He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome. To put it simply, Oto was born without any arms or legs! However, when Oto’s mother finally set sight on her little baby, she said, “He’s adorable.”

Oto’s story is very inspirational. He  writes his autobiography with a flair for humor such as telling us in kindergarten he made friends at once,  “Thanks to my arms and legs, or lack thereof.” Oto shares with us his life during his preschool and elementary years, followed by his middle school, high school, and cram school years and finally about his campus life at Waseda University. 

Oto’s parents decided to enroll him in a regular school but were faced with a grim reality. Back then, It was still taken for granted that disabled children would go to special schools but Oto’s parents were determined that Oto would get a mainstream school education. Fortunately, they found a school willing to take Oto on as a student. Here, Oto meets Takagi Sensei, a man who thinks about Oto’s future. He held the firm belief that, “We can coddle him all we like right now, but he’ll have to fend for himself one day.” 

As a senior in high school, Oto has to start thinking of where he wants to go for university. University entrance exams can be quite difficult so most students in their third year of high go to a juku or cram school. Oto comes face to face with the discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities as he is turned down from one cram school to the next. Most of the schools tell him, “the school doesn’t have full facilities for wheelchair users, such as elevators, and accessible toilets, and so it’s not possible for us to accept you.” or “We can’t be responsible if anything should happen.” 

This is the first time when Oto thinks to himself, “Gosh, being in a wheelchair is quite a problem.” but that does not deter him in any way. Oto does find a cram school that accepts him and passes the entrance exam for Waseda University. At Waseda, Oto meets another key person in his life who introduces him to the term “barrier free”. This sets Oto on a path to make the Waseda campus “an environment in which students with disabilities have free access to learning.”

This book was first published in Japanese under the title “Gotai Fumanzoku” meaning having the body and limbs (gotai) all satisfactorily there (manzoku). As Oto didn’t have any limbs to speak of, he made up and used the word fumanzoku.  He chose No One’s Perfect for the English edition because Oto wanted to send a loud and clear message. He says, “You don’t have to be born perfect to be happy.” 

Oto ends his book saying, “Some people are born able-bodied but go through life in dark despair. And some people, in spite of having no arms and legs, go through life without a care in the world. Disability has got nothing to do with it.” ~Ernie Hoyt