(Update) Wheelchair User Denied Accessible Space at Tokyo Cinema, Aeon Cinema Company Apologizes and Social Media Responds

By Barrier Free Japan

March 22 2024

As ‘reasonable accommodations’ for people with disabilities will become compulsory from April, a post on social media in which a woman in a wheelchair who visited a cinema in Tokyo claimed that she had been refused admission to a branch of the cinema chain is causing controversy.

An incident took place at an Aeon cinema in Tokyo, which is regularly used by Ryoko Nakajima, a wheelchair-using woman. TBS reported that: “The woman watched the movie not from the wheelchair-only space, but from a reclining seat with four steps.”

Nakajima paid an additional fee and watched the movie in a reclining seat, rather than in the wheelchair-only space.

According to Nakajima, a staff member who appeared to be the manager came to her and told her this: “As you can see, this theater is dangerous because of the steps, and the staff who can help you don’t have that much time.”

When the Nakajima posted about this incident on social media, in which she said she would be refused admission to the cinema next time, it went viral.

The next day, Aeon Entertainment, which operates the cinema chain, issued an apology:

“It has come to our attention that an Aeon Entertainment employee made an inappropriate comment to a customer while assisting the customer to move to another location after the customer had finished watching a movie. We regret the incident and believe that it was caused by a lack of guidance to our employees.”

There were various opinions floating around on social media with some making statements like:

“Everyone wants to choose their favorite seat.”

“Is it normal to request assistance outside of work?”