Japan aims to increase wheelchair accessible hotels before 2020

The government defines a wheelchair accessible guestroom as having an entrance at least 80 centimeters wide and a barrier-free bathroom.

Not enough. It's OK having wide doors and a barrier free loo, but if the room is small or the furniture badly placed you cannot manoeuvre a wheelchair. Also the bed, desk, wardrobe etc needs to be at heights suitable for wheelchair users.

50 or more rooms will be required... to have a minimum 1 percent of wheelchair friendly rooms

I gave up on Maths after they tried teaching me decimal points, but as far as I can tell, 1% of 50 is 0.5. So what does a hotel with 99 or fewer rooms do?

I wonder what will be left to do after 2020??

Not sure if these changes will be enough. It's fine and dandy if you're not planning on venturing out from these hotels because the rest of Japan is hardly wheelchair friendly

In 2015, the government announced that Tokyo would be the most barrier-free city in the world and that it wants to show the world how to accommodate everyone. Now it's 2018 and still not much changes have been made to meet this dream goal.

People here complain about the lack of facilities and accessibility for the handicapped, please do tell examples of what your country provides for the handicapped and how it is way better than Japan.

Surely all hotels should already be to get a license?

Aims, urges, suggests, recommends, all equal paper talk!

and how will they get to the hotel?

Before clicking on this story, I was blissfully unaware that most of the posters here come from wheelchair-accessible utopias.

Anyway, is the Olympics really expected to lead to a large increase in the number of wheelchair-bound visitors?

The Paralympians themselves will be staying at the Olympic village, which presumably, will be suitably built to accommodate their needs.

> DaDudeToday 09:56 am JST

People here complain about the lack of facilities and accessibility for the handicapped, please do tell examples of what your country provides for the handicapped and how it is way better than Japan.

It's been a work in progress for the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) given that most of the subway was built earlier, but since 1996 elevators have been installed in subways. Today more than half the system is considered accessible and conversions are always ongoing. Newer stations are already designed with accessibility in mind. They were also sued by the blind to get train and bus verbal indicators for the stops. Subways and buses have blue seats to denote a disability request beside most doors. Anyone able-bodied in a blue seat must move on request. On the subway, a wheelchair can use the area by the doors as chairs are already flipped up.  

GO Transit, a regional transit, has a section on buses that use a crane which is fun to see. Many buses drop down to help people also get the first step easier than before. GO Trains have a special middle section to lock in wheelchairs and for general accessibility. Usually used by people with a lot of luggage but its primary design is for accessibility. There are staff in the car. It's usually the person announcing the stations. 

Movie theatres were also sued into change. Now front row seating has a section where someone can roll up and be in the same horizontal plane as the rest of the row. Nice location

Stores widen their aisles to accommodate and you see that more and more.  

People denied service because they have a service dog often win their cases and receive settlements.  

Change happened thanks to the Ontarians with Disability Act 2001, and Ontarians putting it to the test.  

17 years and counting

Change happened thanks to the Ontarians with Disability Act 2001, and Ontarians putting it to the test.  

17 years and counting

Glad that's working for you. The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed by George HW Bush in 1990, yet some buildings built since then still don't follow the act. It isn't being enforced enough. And George Bush himself is wheelchair-bound now.

I would simply call it progress. It's certainly not perfect and many older buildings have the dreaded three steps to the front door. There are calls to get them ramped from time to time but it's hard to do with limited space in many cases. Washrooms, malls, libraries, movies, are pretty good. Some restaurants, stores, etc, but there are a lot of old stock buildings that can't change.

Japan actually I though was pretty accessible, as many of the JR line platforms are only a meter or two above the ground and have ramps. But I wonder about the subways and if there are enough elevators? Also of course the announcements of the next stop are commonplace long before we had that.

People here complain about the lack of facilities and accessibility for the handicapped, please do tell examples of what your country provides for the handicapped and how it is way better than Japan.

So you are saying that if other countries have a poor record for disability access, it doesn't matter if Japan has a poor record too. Such compassion.

For the record, I had a disabled relative and know all too well the problems they had getting anywhere, staying anywhere and, especially, being listened to by people who didn't think these problems were an issue. Fortunately, they had adaptations in their house to make a barrier free wet room, lifting equipment and a chair lift installed in their home - paid for by the local authority. They also had a Taxi card they gave them greatly subsidised travel around London in wheelchair accessible London Taxis (Uber have very little in the way of wheelchair accessibility, another reason I don't like them) and access to a free Dial-a-Ride bus service, also accessible. The wheelchair was free from the NHS. They stayed at hotels with wheelchair access. many of who had badly placed furniture, hence my original comment. It's not perfect, but access and facilities better than many places, Japan included.

https://www.interieurs-autrement.com/réalisations/espaces-professionnels/hotel-miramar-3-royan/

Get an insight in France for new hotels.

Compulsory at least one for 21 bedroom hotels or above. Outside some rather specific cases, compulsory from 1.

1 disabled set bedroom per 50 rooms (=2%).

Knowing the aging Japanese society, that is a total lack of compassion for our elders.

England has The Equality Act of 2010:

*The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to consolidate and strengthen all anti-discrimination legislation (including disability discrimination legislation). The Act builds on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) which gives disabled people rights of access to goods, facilities and services, which includes tourist accommodation, by specifically banning discrimination against people associated with disabled people (e.g. carers, friends and family) and people presumed to be disabled. These rights are enforceable by any individual through the Courts, if necessary.*

Every nation in the West already has 100% wheelchair access in every room in every hotel; Japan is aiming for 1%.. Until Japan hits 100%, they will be behind the civilized world

So, they have just under two years left and they are ‘aiming’ to solve this problem. There is no government legislation or standards for handicapped access to hotels. Just once I would like to see ‘are going to’ in the Japanese news with a plan and a deadline instead of all this lip service BS!

*Every ***nation in the West already has 100% wheelchair access in every room in every hotel; Japan is aiming for 1%.. Until Japan hits 100%, they will be behind the civilized world**

Dumb comment with the thumb as source...