Updated information on “Yokohama hotels demanding payment for accessibility to UK Paralympic team”

2019-07-18 Accessibility

The media reported in April that hotels in Yokohama demanded British Paralympic team payment for making barrier-free rooms as well as converting the rooms back afterwards ( Ingle, The Guardian,24th April 2019）

Receiving a lot of request to respond to the discriminatory case, DPI Japan got the answer to our inquiry from the Cabinet Secretariat on 11th July. They said that the issue was cleared as bellow:

– Initially, the British Paralympic Association (BPA) asked a hotel to make 10 rooms accessible for the team of wheelchair users to stay together.

– However, the hotel were concerned if they could financially maintain the rooms after the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and Olympics.

– The hotel and concerned agencies discussed the measures to cope with the trouble by making about 15 new accessible rooms in several hotels and letting athletes separately stay at different hotels.

– In January 2019, the financial issue was also solved by Yokohama City deciding to provide a subsidy for the costs of accessible renovation.

– In March, BPA has visited Yokohama and agreed to put up at separate hotels.