Category: Barrier Free

Barrier Free Disability Japan Relationships Technology

Japan’s free matching app for disabled, supporters marks 10,000 downloads

A free app for people with disabilities and supporters seeking friendship in Japan has achieved 10,000 downloads in two months since its launch in July.

As with other matching tools, users of the “Irodori” app register their own information, such as date of birth and gender, and it has a field to enter whether or not they have a disability. The app has communities where people with similar interests can communicate with each other, and a matching function for men and women. Users’ feedback included, “I have been able to casually talk with people who have similar characteristics to myself.”

Barrier Free Disability Japan Osaka Kansai Expo 2025

Osaka Kansai World Expo 2025 Venue to Follow Universal Design Guidelines, have ‘Unity in Diversity’ Theme

Barrier Free Japan contacted the organisers of the ‘Osaka Kansai World Expo 2025’ asking about plans to make the venue, which is in Yumeshima Osaka, accessible to people with disabilities and about possible themes of thew exhibits that might be about people with disabilities. This was the response from the ‘Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition’:

Barrier Free Deaflympics Disability Japan Podcast

Disability News Japan Podcast: Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics Emblem Unveiled & 90 Year-Old Wheelchair-User Summits Mt. Fuji

Alpinist Yuichiro Miura, 90, reached the summit of Mount Fuji with a group of friends and family on Thursday, having used a wheelchair for the three-day ascent.

With the theme of the “circle” that connects people through the tournament, the design features a hand used in sign language and cherry blossom petals as motifs, and will be widely used in PR for the tournament.

Barrier Free Disability Japan Nagoya

We need to talk about Accessibility in Nagoya…

I like Nagoya, I have been to Nagoya and as the adage goes, some of my best friends are from Nagoya. However, after reading recent news stories about Nagoya; it is difficult not to conclude that Nagoya ‘has issues’, as I believe the young folk like to say, when it comes to disabilities. As early as 2018 for example, there were concerns about Nagoya Castle possibly becoming inaccessible to people with disabilities. There are also more recent concerns about access to the subway.