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Paper short abstract

Set in a Japanese care facility, the "100-Hour Tour" uses a "tourist gaze" to strip guests' "social armor." We argue that this radical "irresponsibility" allows guests to inhabit "Crip Time," demonstrating that true coexistence is forged by accepting the raw, unmanaged reality of diversity.

Paper long abstract

In contemporary Japan, true social inclusion is often hindered by the rigid "social armor" (roles and personas) that individuals wear. In the context of disability, this armor manifests as the ethical pressure to be a "supporter," enforcing a taboo against objectifying people with disabilities. Consequently, "diversity" remains a sanitized concept where chaotic realities are hidden behind professional distance.

This paper examines a radical methodology that overturns this norm: the "Time Travel 100-Hour Tour" by Creative Support Let's in Hamamatsu. Operating at the intersection of critical disability studies and Socially Engaged Art (SEA), the tour invites guests to live with residents with severe disabilities for 100 hours. Crucially, the project explicitly encourages the "tourist gaze." Rather than asking guests to "understand" or "care for" the residents, it invites them to view the chaotic behaviors and "Crip Time" (a temporality of repetition and unpredictability) as cultural resources.

Methodologically, this study relies on participant observation and semi-structured interviews to analyze the guests' subjective experiences. The analysis reveals that legitimizing the "tourist gaze" functions as a powerful device to strip off the "social armor." By being permitted to be mere "tourists"—observers without the responsibility to care—guests are liberated from the moral obligation to be "productive supporters."

While interview data indicates that this "non-intervention" policy initially provokes anxiety or confusion due to the lack of societal scripts, the study argues that this friction is essential. This position of "irresponsibility" forces guests to confront the raw reality of diversity. The study concludes that this project successfully demonstrates a model of "Radical Diversity." By allowing guests to simply "be" in the realm of Crip Time, Let's proves that genuine coexistence is forged not through managed harmony, but by accepting the chaotic co-presence of naked existences.