Japanese City where people with disabilities were stabbed and killed withdraws plan to host Paralympic torch at site of attack

By Barrier Free Japan & Kyodo

May 6 2021

SAGAMIHARA -Sagamihara City is withdrawing its plan to receive the Tokyo Paralympic torch at Tsukui Yamayurien, a facility for the intellectually disabled where 45 residents were killed and injured in July 2016, according to interviews with city officials. The city did not explain in advance to the families of the bereaved and the victims that the torch would be lit at the site of the incident, and some bereaved families and disabled people’s groups opposed the plan and called for its withdrawal. 　

According to city officials, the location of the torch is undecided. Mayor Kentaro Motomura will announce it at a press conference on the 7th.

On March 31st, the city officially announced that the facility would host the torch on August 15th, saying it “can put a pledge to realize a symbiotic society.”