While the vaccination program for elderly people aged 65 and over has started in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, a blind man living alone in the city received an envelope containing a vaccination ticket without Braille markings, and it was revealed that he was unable to check the contents for two weeks.
Fifty companies from Japan are participating, including Kao Corporation, Suntory Holdings Limited, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Limited and the Tokyo headquarters of the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Masakatsu Amami (71), a patient with cerebral palsy in Chiba City, said that it was unreasonable that the disability welfare benefits based on the Comprehensive Support Law for Persons with Disabilities were discontinued at the age of 65 and that the transition to long-term care insurance caused self-pay. On the 18th, the Chiba District Court dismissed the claim.
“When I think about the feelings of athletes, I want the games to be held, but I also see difficulties,” said Takaaki Aoki, a 58-year-old specially appointed associate professor at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of Gifu University School of Medicine.
A joint project team of Japan’s welfare and education ministries has drawn up measures to support young carers, or children under 18 who look after family members, including those in poor health. It will be the first time for the Japanese government to adopt support measures for young carers.
“…we need to bring back persons with disabilities to the center of the inclusion agenda. We want to change the behavior of society towards persons with disabilities at a global level,” he said. “We are very ambitious. We want the games to change the world.”
The Tokyo metropolitan government and others celebrated the 100-day countdown to the Aug. 24 opening of the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Sunday.
“We’ll make preparations to realize safe and secure games so that the event will be a light of hope,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said at a ceremony to mark the countdown.
Shigeyuki Miwa, 61, is a doctor at a hospital in the town of Tsuwano who administers vaccinations to local elderly people. His second daughter, Junko Hirose, a 30-year-old visually impaired judo athlete, is slated to represent Japan at the Tokyo Paralympics this summer. Miwa has inoculated some 2,400 people since late April, working even on the day before the relay.
According to the Kanagawa prefectural government, in February of this year, it was confirmed that twenty-two users of the Nakai Yamayurien facility for the disabled were physically restrained for more than eight hours, including being kept in locked rooms and tied to wheelchairs.
Speaking to AFP, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president said stringent virus countermeasures will keep athletes and the Japanese public safe.
Barrier Free Japan