Nearly six years after the Sagamihara Stabbings, director of the facility for people with disabilities gives lecture to staff

From NHK

July 11 2022

The director of a facility for people with intellectual disabilities in Sagamihara City gave a lecture to city officials involved in welfare, ahead of the sixth anniversary this month of the murders of 19 people at a facility for the people with intellectual disabilites. The director of the facility gave a lecture to city officials involved in welfare, urging them to “respect the wishes of the people concerned and support them.”

On 26 July, it will be six years since 19 people were murdered at Tsukui Yamayuri En, a prefectural facility for the mentally disabled in Sagamihara City.

On July 11th, the newly appointed director of the centre, Seikou Nagai, gave a lecture on the theme of realising a symbiotic society to about 50 city employees involved in the welfare of the disabled and the elderly.

Director Nagai, who worked as an administrative staff member at the

time when Satoshi Uematsu started working at the facility, said of the incident: ‘As a colleague, I absolutely cannot tolerate discriminatory thoughts’.

The facility at the site was rebuilt and resumed accepting users last year, and the director Nagai said: ‘I want you to respect the wishes of the users and place importance on supporting them. It is also important to strengthen relations with the local community”.

A staff member who listened to the lecture said, “I would like to work as an administrator to protect the life of the person concerned by placing importance on the perspective of the person concerned”.

Director Nagai said, “My anger about the incident involving my colleague has not disappeared even after six years. We would like to work towards the realisation of a symbiotic society in cooperation with the local community”.