Japan Press Weekly

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2011 February 2 - 8 [WELFARE]

The visually challenged call for safer train platforms

Visually-impaired people on February 1 made representations to East Japan Railway Company (JR EAST) in Tokyo urging it to install safety barriers and improve Braille navigation tiles on train platforms in order to prevent falls onto tracks.

This action has been annually carried out since 2000 by the All Japan Association of Persons with Visual Impairment (Zenshikyo) in memory of Ueno Takashi, a blind man who fell onto the tracks and was killed at Takadanobaba Station on the JR Yamanote Line on February 1, 1973. Similar activities took place throughout the nation on the same day.

The participants in the Tokyo action later visited Mejiro Station on the Yamanote Line and offered flowers in remembrance of the death of a blind man, Takei Miyoshi, who fell onto the tracks and was hit by a train on January 16.

After this accident, JR East announced on January 28 that it will replace the old-type Braille tiles with new ones along the edge of the platform at Mejiro Station. Zenshikyo Chair Tanaka Shoji described the decision as “a step forward.”

“However, the platform of the station is still too narrow and dangerous. JR East plans to install safety barriers with automatic-sliding doors on the platforms of all stations on the Yamanote Line by 2017. It should do this right away,” said Tanaka.

On the same day, Japanese Communist Party members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly demanded that the metropolitan office instruct train companies in Tokyo to take measures to prevent falls from platforms.