Hokkaido Quake Highlights Need for Help for Blind

November 6, 2018

Sapporo--The powerful earthquake that hit Hokkaido two months ago has highlighted the need for greater attention to visually impaired people, as many tend to be left isolated in times of disaster.

To many people with visual impairments, assistance from people around them is essential to rebuild their lives after a major disaster, such as the Sept. 6 temblor, which measured the maximum intensity of 7 on the Japanese seismic scale in southern Hokkaido.

Even if their homes are not damaged, visually impaired people find it difficult to clear up by themselves their homes in a mess, with furniture and household goods scattered across the floors.

Support groups for people with disabilities check on the safety of their members in the aftermath of a disaster.

But in recent years, many people choose not to join such groups or tell their neighbors about their disabilities. Therefore, the isolation of such people in times of disaster is becoming a serious problem.

When major disasters strike, the Japan Federation of the Blind and the National Committee of Welfare for the Blind in Japan set up task forces to provide support for visually impaired people. The teams collaborate with braille libraries and schools for the blind to confirm the safety of such people and determine the extent of damage.

However, it is not an easy task for disability organizations for the visually impaired to check up on the safety of people who are not members.

Each municipality has a list of people who require assistance during evacuation, including the disabled. But disability organizations cannot use such lists, because Japan's disaster countermeasure basic law limits access to the lists to a handful of entities including neighborhood associations.

Disability organizations are thus unable to obtain contact information of visually impaired nonmembers.

"It's difficult for support groups for the visually impaired to gather information alone," said Takafumi Wada, who heads the Hokkaido Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.

"The groups need to work together with neighborhood associations and municipal social welfare councils that have the lists," he said.

As of March, some 4,400 people held disability identification certificates for visual impairments in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, where the quake measured up to lower 6 and many homes suffered damage such as collapsed furniture.

The Sapporo welfare association for the visually impaired, of which around 10 pct of the city's visual disability certificate holders are members, made an all-out effort to confirm the safety of its members after the September temblor. But it has obtained little information about how nonmembers are doing.

"I wonder if they are all right," said Hisae Kondo, who chairs the welfare association. "They can't clear up by themselves."

Akemi Takahashi, who suffers from severely reduced vision and lives with her blind husband on the eighth floor of a condominium in Sapporo, strongly realized the importance of mutual assistance in the aftermath of the quake.

A chest of drawers overturned, dishes broke and their home was in a mess. But the condominium's caretaker and some other people came to help and cleared up for them.

Takahashi, 52, was deeply moved by her neighbor's actions.

"I couldn't ask for help because I knew everyone was in a difficult situation, but they helped us even though their own homes needed clearing up," she said.

"As a visually impaired person, I feel it's important to interact with neighbors regularly." Jiji Press