Category: Japan

A ryokan at the Ikaho Onsen hot springs resort in Gunma Prefecture has a solid history of caring about guests with disabilities.

Back in the 1990s, a guest at the traditional Japanese-style inn started complaining vociferously in the hotel’s bathhouse after finding it soiled by disabled guests.

Tomoko Matsumoto, now 80, was the inn’s proprietress at the time. She apologized profusely to the irate guest, bowing over and over.
But the guest could not be appeased, and even started suggesting the disabled guests should have been refused admittance to the ryokan in the first place.

That was the last straw for Matsumoto. She told the guest: “I want you to move to another ryokan. But these (disabled) people have nowhere else to go. This is the only ryokan they can stay at.”

Back then, few inns were wheelchair-accessible and able to openly welcome patrons with disabilities.