Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has issued administrative guidance to Kyushu Railway Co. (JR Kyushu) over an inability to provide assistance to a wheelchair user in Nagasaki Prefecture when the station had no personnel present, sometimes referred to as an ‘unmanned station.’
West Japan Railway Co said Wednesday that it has developed an automatic ramp system designed to help wheelchair users get on and off trains. The system automatically extends a stainless ramp when a train arrives at a station platform.
“Sports venues are places where people with and without disabilities can come together and enjoy [an event],” Yukishita said. “I want the Games to be the catalyst to bring about change, so people with disabilities will feel more comfortable going out more often.”
The new Tokaido Shinkansen, which will run from the 20th, will have four more seats for wheelchairs, for a total of six seats.
The voluntary organization “Minami Shinshu Outing Team” With “” created by the Achi Hirugami Tourist Bureau in Chisato Achi Village and “Kafune Nursing” in the north of Iida City rents and assists wheelchairs equipped with the towing assistance device “JINRIKI”.
The major automaker and leading housing equipment manufacturer developed the trailer — 5.3 meters in length, 2.5 meters in width and 2.9 meters in height — by taking into account the views of wheelchair users, welfare engineering experts and para athletes.
The new guidelines will call on bullet train operators to secure a spacious area in each train where several people in wheelchairs could stay side by side.
While the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare argues local authority child guidance centers should, as a default, use foster care, they are under no obligation to do so, according to Michael Rivera-King, who has a doctorate from the University of Oxford and will publish a book on foster care in Japan this year.
“[A]mong the 120 cases surveyed, there were 32, or 27 percent, in which wheelchair users were refused taxi rides.”
“The government and manufacturers are promoting electric wheelchairs as a means of transportation to replace automobiles at a time when elderly people are increasingly returning their driver’s licenses.”
Barrier Free Japan