Of the world’s 7.4 billion people, some 15 per cent – or one billion – are said to have some form of disability.

Jun Ishikawa is one of them. An international relations professor at the University of Shizuoka in Japan, he lost his eyesight at the age of 16.  Yet, he has become a visionary on the issue of disability in his country, leading the Commission on Policy for Persons with Disabilities, a watchdog for disability policy implementation, since 2012. Mr. Ishikawa has gone on to become the first Japanese independent expert to be elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a role he will formally take up 1 January 2017.

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