Japan Press Weekly

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2015 November 4 - 10 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Visually impaired urges gov’t to ensure railway stations have sufficient number of staff

The National Counsel of Visual Disabled in Japan on November 9 petitioned the Transport Ministry to instruct railway companies to assign an adequate number of staff to stations in their service areas to ensure passengers’ safety, saying that safe railway service is the first step needed to promote visually impaired people’s active participation in society.

In a representation held at the Diet building, NCVDJ members pointed out that Kyushu Railway Company plans to start unmanned operations on one of the Shinkansen platforms and that at stations run by East Japan Railway Company, ticket gates have less and less staff.

The participants of the representation argued that all Shinkansen platforms should be adequately staffed, that railway companies should stop slashing the number of employees at station ticket gates, and that the law for the promotion of barrier-free designs should include guidelines for the number of station employees.

A transport ministry official in reply said that the issue of staffing is at the discretion of each train service operator.

Tanaka Akihiro, chief director of the NCVDJ, stressed that as the visually impaired have difficulty in reading information boards at stations, they need information and support provided by employees at ticket gates.

Yamashiro Kanji, an NCVDJ director, stated that improvement in facilities alone is not enough to secure safety at stations. He also said that the minimum number of station staff required should be incorporated in the barrier-free law.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Motomura Nobuko, who also took part in the representation, said that real face-to-face interaction at stations is a lifeline for people with impaired eyesight and demanded legislative measures to ensure that this is available.

Past related articles:
> JCP parliamentarian urges Kyushu railway company to eliminate unstaffed stations [ September 1, 2015]
> JR East's unmanned wicket project disregards the socially disadvantaged [September 4, 2015]
> Unstaffed train stations will not ensure passenger safety: JCP lawmaker [ March 12, 2015]