In this article, I undertake a qualitative, comparative content analysis of 14 news stories from 6 online English-language news sources from Japan during September 2018–2019. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 1995, Rethinking methods in psychology, SAGE Publications, pp. 27–65; Charmaz, 2000, Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.), SAGE Publications, pp. 509–535; Charmaz, 2015, International Encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (2nd ed.), ScienceDirect, pp. 6396–6399) in which I simultaneously collected and analysed the news stories, I identify three themes or ‘frames’ of disability present in Japanese media about disabled people and their capacity for societal integration through employment. My analysis is theoretically significant in showing how news media in Japan frames stories about disabled people in both traditionally ableist and progressive ways. My findings indicate that some news stories construct disability as tantamount to unproductivity, while others perceive disabled workers as valuable contributors to the country’s labour force. This article will be of theoretical interest to media disability scholars seeking to understand how Clogston’s (1990, Disability coverage in 16 newspapers, The Advocado Press) and Haller’s (1995) models of disability can be applied to the Japanese context. This article will also be of general interest to communication scholars conscious of framing theory, which contends that mass media determines what is salient or ‘newsworthy’ about a story based on how visuals, information and images are selected and presented to audiences.

在本文中，我对2018年9月至2019年日本6个在线英语新闻来源的14个新闻故事进行了定性，比较性内容分析。使用建构主义扎根的理论方法（Charmaz，1995年，《心理学的反思方法》，SAGE出版物，第27-65页； Charmaz，2000年，定性研究手册（第2版），SAGE出版物，第509-535页； Charmaz， 2015年，国际社会与行为科学百科全书（第2版，ScienceDirect，第6396–6399页）中，我同时收集和分析了新闻报道，确定了日本媒体中有关残疾人及其通过就业实现社会融合的能力的三个主题或“框架” 。我的分析在理论上显示日本新闻媒体如何以传统的能力主义和进步的方式来组织有关残疾人的故事具有重要的理论意义。我的发现表明，一些新闻报道将残疾视为无生产力，而另一些新闻报道则将残疾工人视为该国劳动力的重要贡献者。这篇文章将对寻求了解Clogston's（1990，残疾报道在16家报纸上的报道）的媒体残疾学者具有理论意义。，Advocado出版社和Haller（1995）的残疾模型可以应用到日本语境中。意识到框架理论的传播学者也将对本文感兴趣，该理论认为大众媒体根据视觉，信息和图像的选择和呈现方式来决定故事的显着性或“新闻价值”。