The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition is tackling transportation challenges after a service suspension on Osaka Metro Co.’s Chuo Line stranded visitors at the site last week. On Monday, the association admitted that information sharing about the incident was insufficient, vowing to improve its handling of such cases.
An electric mobility scooter was demonstrated at the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo in Osaka on Tuesday 29th July. The Waku Mobi is about 1.7 meters long and about 60 centimeters wide and has a top speed of 20 kph. Reporters were shown the vehicle being remotely controlled in a designated outdoor space at the Expo. It moved slowly for about 50 meters, then navigated an uneven surface and made a smooth turn using its automated control function. The demonstration was part of an exhibition themed on a future in which robots and humans coexist. The vehicle was developed by glafit inc., a startup based in Wakayama.
The organizer of the World Exposition in Osaka said Monday that it will make an electric bus available at the Expo site for visitors to rest in from early June. The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition hopes that visitors will use the bus to avoid heatstroke in the summer heat.
As Golden Week approaches with Showa Day on April 29th, ‘Barrier Free Japan’ & ‘Disability News Japan’ has been busy! Here is a digest of recent news stories about disability issues in Japan.
Elderly visitors are struggling to look for pavilions on digital maps and make reservations online at the ongoing World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka. This has drawn complaints such as “I don’t know how to make reservations for pavilions,” and “I can’t get to places I want to go.”
The torches for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Paralympics next year were unveiled Monday at the Italian pavilion of the 2025 World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka. The Olympic and Paralympic torches, each weighing 1,060 grams and measuring 89 centimeters in length, differ in color and are designed in the image of a flame. They will be displayed at the pavilion until the Expo’s final day on Oct. 13. Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said at a ceremony that the torches will carry a message of peace.
Chieko Asakawa, IBM Fellow and director of the Miraikan (Tokyo) National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, who develops technology to support the visually impaired, gave a lecture at Kyoto Lighthouse in Kita-ku, Kyoto City. She touched on her latest projects, such as the “AI suitcase” that will be tested at next year’s Osaka-Kansai Expo.
By Barrier Free Japan September 8 2023 OSAKA – Osaka in the Kansai Region of Japan will hold the ‘WorldContinue Reading
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’:
“According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, this is approach is following the example set by Tokyo, which is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The policy is to make more detailed regulations that affect the city, such as making public facilities barrier-free.”
Barrier Free Japan