Japan to Increase Hotel Rooms for Wheelchair Users

July 16, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese land ministry plans to revise the standards on barrier-free rooms at hotels to increase the number of guest rooms accessible to wheelchair users ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, informed sources have said.

Currently, hotels with a total floor space of at least 2,000 square meters and at least 50 guest rooms are obliged to have one or more rooms fit for use by people in wheelchairs.

New standards being considered by the ministry would require that at least one pct of all guest rooms at such hotels be those usable by people in wheelchairs, the sources said. To make the change, the ministry will overhaul an ordinance for implementing the nation's barrier-free law.

Under the new rules, hotels with 201 to 300 guest rooms, for example, would have to have three or more rooms accessible to wheelchair users.

The International Paralympic Committee and organizations for people with disabilities have been calling for an increase in such rooms at hotels in Japan ahead of the 2020 games.

"We hope to accelerate efforts to help more hotels have barrier-free rooms, taking the opportunity of the Olympics and Paralympics," a ministry official said.

The new standards will be applied to newly built and refurbished hotels. Hotels with up to 49 rooms, which currently have no obligation to introduce rooms for wheelchair users, will be exempted from the planned new rules as well. Jiji Press