Japan and the Disabled

It seemed that Japan used to ignore the disabled. You hardly ever saw a developmentally delayed person in public, let alone the mobility challenged. They always supported the sight challenged though by giving them input through their feet, which is pretty ingenious. Nearly everywhere you go in Japan, a visually impaired person can easily go as well.

Here are some pictures of the train station. This is the edge of the platform. It has grey raised rubber nearest the edge to warn you to stay away. Before that is a yellow band with raised dots letting you know there is danger ahead and you should not go closer than this (also helpful for silly high school boys showing off and drunk salarymen).

As you travel, they line the path with long raised yellow bars. These often appear along sidewalks as well. The new block of dots, both to the left and right in this picture indicate that stairs are coming up.
Now days, you see many disabled people in public. What brought on this change in my opinion? Was it more insight to the plight of the disabled? No, it was the aging of Japan. You see there are many, many more elderly people than young people in Japan. The young people are not reproducing as fast as they should. They have careers now.

The elderly are economically powerful and cannot be ignored. So, since I last was here four years ago, nearly all train stations, even small outliers, have put in escalators (common in downtown Toyko but not elsewhere) and/or elevators (unheard of in a train station!). Now, it is easy for everyone to get around, work, and travel.