Disabled people seeking an accessible Nagoya Castle to be enjoyed by all called “selfish” as ‘history vs accessibility’ debate continues

From The Asahi with additional text from Barrier Free Japan

December 28 2023

NAGOYA – After more than 400 years, the iconic Nagoya Castle is under siege, this time by those wanting to make it more accessible to wheelchair-users and those who are determined to keep it as original as possible.

At a town hall meeting on the planned reconstruction of the castle here on June 3, a man scolded a wheelchair-user.

“Don’t confuse equality with your selfishness,” the man said. “How dare you be so selfish.”

The harsh remarks were hurled by a participant of the debate toward a 70-year-old man with a disability, who called for the installation of an elevator in the city’s iconic castle.

Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura has long harbored a passion for rebuilding the castle’s keep according to its original design using timber materials.

His persistent push for an “original” and “authentic” Nagoya Castle has made the reconstruction project an increasingly divisive issue in the country’s fourth-largest city.

PRESERVING A ‘NATIONAL TREASURE’

The keep, the highest and most famous building in the Nagoya Castle complex, was originally completed in 1612, featuring wooden columns and beams.

The current keep was built in 1959 with steel and concrete, after the original one was burnt to the ground in a U.S. air raid during World War II. This rebuilt keep features two internal elevators and a third connected to its side.

In May 2018, Kawamura announced plans to reconstruct the keep without an elevator, saying installing one would destroy the historical authenticity of the building.

The mayor’s plans met with immediate backlash from the city’s disability rights groups.

Around 600 protesters, including people with disabilities and their supporters, from across the country rallied in front of the city hall.

However, these protesters became the target of harassment, exposed to vicious emails and phone calls, some containing discriminatory language.

“Do you know how much taxpayers’ money will be used on an elevator?”

“We able-bodied taxpayers are too busy to enjoy a visit to the castle. Stop complaining and do something to help others.”

“You are totally spoiled, asserting every right of yours without offering a thing.”

Since they started campaigning for an elevator in the Nagoya Castle, the region’s disability rights groups have been subjected to such hateful messages.

“We’ve received at least hundreds of them,” said Naoya Tsuji, the chief of the Aichi Disability Forum, an association of local disability advocacy groups. “Our hearts would be broken if we read them all.”

Despite the protest, Kawamura has been seeking public support for his plans by stressing the project’s perceived cultural significance, saying the reconstructed keep will be a “national treasure in 100 years.”

However, many question whether a Nagoya Castle reconstructed in the 21st century could truly replicate the original one built in the Edo Period (1603-1867).

To make it a tourist attraction, the castle needs to meet modern earthquake and fire standards, which require technologies that were unavailable when the original castle was built in the 17th century.

In addition, with or without an elevator, the original designs of the castle will inevitably need to be altered to accommodate emergency exits and other regulatory requirements.

“It’s an illusion to believe that you can reconstruct a truly ‘authentic’ Nagoya Castle,” said Yoshihiro Senda, a professor of castle archeology at Nagoya City University.

Senda criticizes the mayor’s apparent double standard about what constitutes a historically “authentic” building.

“Why can modern technologies be used to make the castle tourist-friendly but not to make it accessible to all?” Senda said. 

The Cultural Affairs Agency said a reconstructed Nagoya Castle would be considered a replica rather than a cultural treasure, even if it is rebuilt exactly to the original design specifications. 

It will be classified as a public facility, like a history museum that serves the purpose of promoting culture and tourism, said the agency.

People with disabilities and their supporters want an elevator installed in the castle because a new keep, which will cost 50.5 billion yen ($344 million) of taxpayers’ money, should be a public property of the community.

“Not just people with disabilities but elderly people also need an elevator to explore the castle and enjoy the view from the building,” said Kenzo Saito, who co-heads a local group campaigning for a barrier-free Nagoya Castle.

“We want to remind people that the Nagoya Castle should be a public facility open to everyone,” Saito added.

Saito’s group is not alone in advocating for an accessible Nagoya Castle.

In 2018, Aichi Prefecture’s disability advisory council warned that Nagoya’s plans may violate the country’s Law for Eliminating Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities.

In October 2022, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations submitted a request to Kawamura, demanding the installation of an elevator up to the top floor of the Nagoya Castle keep.

The national organization of lawyers filed the request after receiving a human rights complaint from a disability rights group.

The group protested that the mayor’s plans to rebuild the castle without an elevator were unfair and discriminatory, violating the rights of people with disabilities to use public facilities just as everyone else.

In response to the criticism, municipal officials have proposed an alternate plan to install a smaller elevator connecting the basement and the first floor of the seven-story building.

If carefully designed, it is possible to install a small elevator to the top floor of the keep without making drastic changes to its original framework, according to municipal officials.

“But Mayor Kawamura doesn’t like the idea because he believes it compromises the castle’s authenticity,” said one municipal official.

The keep’s pyramid-shaped structure means an elevator shaft, even a small one, takes up a larger space as it ascends, standing out in the wooden interior of the building.

Kawamura remains convinced a wooden, “authentic” Nagoya Castle will attract more tourists and boost the regional economy.

CHOOSING ECONOMY OVER DISABLED PEOPLE

Nagoya residents are divided over how to balance the castle’s accessibility against its historical authenticity.

While 47.2 percent of 5,000 people polled in April and May said a small elevator should be installed up to the top floor, 23.4 percent said an elevator should not be installed at all.

The survey also found that 16.9 percent agreed with the city’s proposal to install a small elevator up to the first floor.

The wheelchair-user who was subjected to the derogatory comments at the town hall meeting feels that the municipal government is prioritizing the economy even if it means excluding people with disabilities.

“Who is this entire reconstruction project for in the first place?” the man asked. “It just seems to be meant to please the mayor’s supporters and a limited number of tourists.”

The debacle regarding the Nagoya Castle restoration and its possible adverse effects on accessibility for people with disabilities began in May 2018, when the Japan Branch of the NPO ‘Disabled People International’ objected to the proposed restoration plan stating on May 9th 2018:

“We are excluding people with disabilities under the name of being faithful to historical facts, it is a discriminatory act that violates the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

Nagoya Castle could be considered as already ‘barrier free’ since, as of 2018 at least, it had two elevators in the structure and one externally attached elevator. Of the approximately 1.92 million visitors in fiscal year 2016, the number of persons with disabilities is 49,401, and elderly people aged 65 and over who lived in the city and brought their Aged Personal Handbook amounted to 47,225 people.

In December 2022, the Nagoya municipal government announced that it was “considering installing small, specialized elevators in the planned wooden reconstruction of the tenshukaku main tower keep of Nagoya Castle to make the structure barrier-free.”