Daihatsu Motor Co. put a new electric wheelchair for the elderly on sale on Monday.
The e-Sneaker has already been used on a trial basis at the ongoing World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka. The wheelchair runs at a maximum speed of 6 kilometers per hour and travels 12 kilometers on a single charge. No driver’s license is required to operate the vehicle.
It has come to light through interviews with the organization operating a disability employment support facility in Aki City that the former executive director was certified by a regional union as having committed abuse, such as kicking a chair used by a facility user. The organization in question is Kochi Kizuna Farm, a general incorporated association that operates employment support facilities for people with disabilities in Aki City and Ino Town. According to the organization, the regional union conducted interviews with staff and others after receiving information that abuse was taking place at the facility in Aki City. The investigation confirmed that the former executive director, a man in his 50s, had kicked a user’s chair and that a life support worker at the facility had also kicked a user.
Japanese medical equipment maker Terumo Corp. said Monday that it will fully acquire OrganOx Ltd., a British maker of equipment to preserve organs for transplantation, for 1.5 billion dollars. The acquisition will allow Terumo to make a full-fledged entry into the organ transplantation market, which is forecast to grow. Set up in 2008 as a spinoff from the University of Oxford, OrganOx developed medical equipment using normothermic machine perfusion, a technology to preserve organs by circulating fluids containing oxygen and nutrients through organs at near-body temperature.
The Ministry of Education announced plans to review how tsūkyū shidō—a system that allows students with developmental disabilities to take some lessons in separate rooms while remaining in regular classes—can be better implemented in high schools. While more than 200,000 students nationwide now use tsūkyū shidō, the highest number on record, participation among high school students remains limited. Starting next year, the ministry will designate model schools to study effective teaching methods, expand support with a focus on employment after graduation, and promote awareness of the system. It will also research ways to share information between schools and disability support facilities using ICT, and improve teachers’ understanding of severe behavioral disorders.
Hideko Miura, 73 was found bleeding and collapsed near the entrance to Tsutsuji, a group home for the intellectually disabled in Uesugi, Kitaakita City, around 11:00 PM on the 31st of July. Based on injuries to her head and face, it was suggested that she had been attacked by a bear. Miura was reportedly unconscious when transported to the hospital, but never regained consciousness and passed away on the morning of August 20th.
The 8-billion-yen expansion was completed on Aug. 12, the Japanese company said. The expanded facility is expected to go into operation by the end of fiscal 2025. The production and warehouse areas of the factory were connected to improve logistics efficiency.
The number of people diagnosed with severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, or SFTS, a tick-borne viral disease, in Japan this year totaled 135 as of Aug. 10, marking a record high, according to data from the Japan Institute for Health Security. The previous record high was 134 cases in 2023. If infected, the disease can cause symptoms, including fever and abdominal pain, after an incubation period of six to 14 days.
A 73-year-old woman living in a group home for people with intellectual disabilities in Akita has died from injuries sustained in a bear attack, marking the prefecture’s first such fatality this year. Her death follows a series of incidents across Japan in July in which an 81-year-old woman was killed in Iwate and two other elderly women were injured in separate attacks in Aomori and Nara, underscoring how recent bear encounters have disproportionately affected elderly and disabled residents.
Japan’s Environment Ministry plans to boost support to secure and train local government employees dealing with bear incidents, following the recent string of bear sightings and bear-inflicted injuries. The ministry will seek 3.7 billion yen in its fiscal 2026 budget request to cover costs for measures to handle wildlife species designated for control, including bears.
Sanitary items are provided for free in some women’s restrooms in the 2025 World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka through a project led by the University of Osaka. Faculty and students from the university have installed self-developed cardboard dispensers to provide menstrual products, supplied by sponsoring companies, at nine restrooms at the Expo venue, including pavilion areas. The team aims to foster a society with restrooms where sanitary items for women are easily accessible. When they first installed a dispenser in a campus restroom in 2021, they received many positive opinions. One user said, “I felt like someone sympathized with the pain I feel during menstruation.”
Barrier Free Japan