I loved the fact that train staff wait for the disabled passenger at their arrival station. I am going to dig deeper into these japanese protocols to promote them in Argentina.
Holy ...! Here I am, watching a few videos on japan, start watching Life Where I'm from, switch to your second channel, watch this video - and see my old school mate Josh, who I've met in '97, in Mr Johnstone's Japanese-class, that I took while in Canada as an exchange student from Germany. oO Wow. Even the Internet is a small place!
Wow. What a stark difference between the public transportation system in Japan vs New York. You practically have to memorize which stations are wheelchair friendly and make sure the elevator works. Many times the elevator is out of order. In those cases it is impossible to get out the stations due to the stairs. Great point about the bathrooms here vs Japan. That makes a huge difference.
Yuriko's english was so great! I'm so glad to see people not being afraid to speak English so everyone who don't speak japanese can know what they're saying. :D
Beautifully made video. Josh and Yuriko seem like such sweet people, thanks to them for letting us have a peek into their lives. But most importantly, thanks to the Japanese government/ municipalities for making Japan so barrier-free. Truly a model for other nations to emulate.
This is a great video. My family and I have worked with people with disabilities for almost my entire life and it's great to see that Japan is as accessible as it is. I always thought the U.S was the leader in accessibility but you have proven me wrong. I love it. Thank you and please keep these amazing videos coming!
This is a great video to know Japan is such a country that have so much of facilities for disable persons. I am 72 and a disable person. I am very happy for those disable persons in Japan. I hope one day Malaysia will have such facilities. Very good indeed.
Great documentary about disability in Japan. I am nurse & work with disable people in France. To see this doc was very interesting. Thanks for the work done. がんばって to everyone
love this video! i work for an agency that has programs to assist physically disabled people as well ss for aging cause they have similar needs. I love it when I see physically disabled people strive to go after their dreams instead of using it as an excuse to not do anything. ie victim mentality. i can understand some people literally can't go after their dreams but those that do and can and try more power to you! Because even trying is rewarded.
Wow "Dad"! I really liked this. My wife is from Japan and I never knew how hospitable Japan was towards the disabled. And I'm still amazed about how awesome the bathrooms are compared to the US. Yuriko and Josh did a great job explaining everything. I never knew what Tenji blocks were until now and we could use something like that here too. Although I've never understood having Braille on a drive-in ATM...
Thank you so much for this. I'm still tackling accessibility problems in my own home town so my dream of visiting Japan seemed impossible. This gives me both hope and a head start on the research I'll need to do before I plan my trip.
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the mini-doc. I'm really eager to tackle more of these social documentaries. If you have more questions about what's it's like to have a physical disability in Japan, Josh and Yuriko may find themselves in the comments section. They also have their own social stuff, which you can find in the description. It's night time now in Japan, so they may not answer questions right away. Josh said he has a busy weekend, but if you wan to get a reply sooner than later, you can try him at www.accessible-japan.com/contact/ or Twitter @AccessibleJapan
This is a great video I've been watching your channels since LWIF started and I am so happy to see that this is the direction this channel is going. As a person with two disabilities (epilepsy, fibromyalgia) who almost died from having a seizure on a subway platform i was so happy to see all the wonderful accessibilities that are in place like those tenji blocks and those for my brothers and sisters that have to use wheelchairs. Not to mention those bathrooms, with the colostamy bag cleaning stations and Emergency cords (i've had seizures in bathrooms too). Not to mention your video comes at a great time after the heartbreaking loss of so many disabled people in Japan. Thank you so much for what you are doing and I look forward to the next part and more of your videos especially the one on homelessness.
Loved this video! I am looking forward to part 2 and hope that you are including the school system for those with disabilities. Yuriko and Josh are doing a great service for accessibility. Here in the US I often see what are called family bathrooms that are wheelchair accessible and available for those who need that extra help. I seriously had a tear when I saw them putting the ramps on the train. That is so nice! I worked with disabled adults and also special needs children and I have seen the struggle many have had for accessibility and acceptance.
It's very well done. There should be more of the format of documentary for accessibility for cities around the world. Great work. Would love to see more of your documentaries.
I've watched all of your videos from the start, and I've thought they were all great. But this was the best one so far, in my opinion! The interviews were really well-done, and the camera work and editing were really wonderful, too. I want to thank you, as I am disabled. I have always wanted to visit Japan, and for many reasons, I figured it would be impossible. This video gives me a lot of hope! Thanks to Yuriko and Josh for telling us about their experiences, and thanks to you for the great video! :-)
I haven’t been to Japan for 10 years, and that was only central Tokyo, but at that time things didn’t seem as barrier free as the video shows. At that time, we were desperately looking for things like elevators in train stations, due to my Japanese mother-in-law’s difficulty walking and standing (she didn’t yet have a wheelchair). Nor did we ever encounter one of those bathrooms, which would have been wonderful for her. After a single trip to the kabuki theatre, leaving from Higashi Nakano, we returned home early with her in tears and resolved never to try anything like that again. I lived in Kobe eons ago, in 1979-1981, and in two years I don’t think I saw a single person using a wheelchair. 😳 Same thing over the years as I visited my in-laws in Chiba City and central Tokyo. I hope this video means that things have improved wonderfully!
Videos like this one are what I love most about TH-cam. You put focus on something that the mainstream media might not even care to talk about. I work with people with disabilities and its refreshing to see such a well made and informative video on people with disabilities showing others how they go about their lives without making them out to be another story about a "brave" or "inspiring" person overcoming obstacles against great odds. Thank you to you, Yuriko and Josh for putting this together. I'm definitely going to be showing this video to a couple of my clients!
I wish I could like this video more than once! I currently reside in South Korea and things are not as accessible or disability-friendly. I'm lucky to be able bodied but I know people back home that are not and I'm always conscious of how inaccessible things would be for them here. Hearing not only about Japan but with the voices of those with disabilities living in Japan has brought me great joy. Absolutely great video!
Hi Juen, i just admire your empathy for the physically challenged when u are able-bodied yourself. Please continue to spread awareness for the physically challenged. Thank u. i do Hope that South Korea will also be accessible n barrier free.
Brilliant work yet again. Your videos are always very good, but this one is probably your best (LWIFX) one yet. Your humble/modest manner of speech totally hid the very real skills you have in video making/editing/all that jazz, but they're more visible than ever with your more focused videos recently. This video also sort of sold me on Japan - a country which is that attentive to all sorts of needs has gotta be amazing. Now I'll have to think carefully about which country trip to save up for, Korea or Japan..
I have seen this first hand in Osaka, where disabled people getting themselves around the train station. And you are right, their disabilities doesn’t stop them from using public transportation (even the blind). I’m amazed on the provisions made by the government and private sectors to ensure that facilities and public areas are safe and convenient for people with disabilities. Another great video 👍
I have a million words of appreciation I wanna convey to you for making this video and for introducing me to Josh and Yuriko. However, all I can piece together in my head right now is thank you. Thank you so much. I'm eagerly awaiting the living with a disability in Japan video as that is my dream. Thanks again man really.
Awesome doc! Love things like this, keep it up, I'm excited for part 2! I first saw the Tenji blocks when I was in Aomori Japan years ago and jokingly asked my friend if they were for self-guided robots. I now see them popping up here in Canada when there are street upgrades, including even now here in Halifax!
Thank you so much for this mini series! As a wheelchair user from Australia who loves Japan and hopes to live there one day, this has been invaluably reassuring. :)
This is extremely helpful for me! I'm disabled, myself, though not to the point of needing a wheelchair at all times, just yet. I have mobile issues because of chronic health problems and conditions. My left leg and knee can give out at random, and my whole left side has permanent nerve damage. I'm also a klutz on land. XD I'm glad you're going to turn this into a series, and give insight for people like me! Thank you!
Last year I went through Japan - just the airport - on vacation. On my way back, I walked with a cane (stupid accident). And the level of help I got in Thailand and Japan made me realize that we really need to up our game in Canada (especially after waiting in line for an hour at the gate when I got back, leaning on my cane, and no chair in sight, and no one came to offer any kind of help, be it pass in front of the line).
this is a great production on an interesting subject! the content, filming quality, and pacing made it easy to understand and relate to, excellent work! Josh and Yuriko seem like great people who are doing their best to help others, that's some good karma right there!
This is the type of videos that I love, and we need more people doing this amazing content. This is another proof that the world needs to pay more attention to disabilities. I wish we all can make a difference, i'll sure try :)
What a great job you did on this, Greg. I think what you showcased most with this video, was to show what admirable people Yuriko and Josh really are. But not only them, I think this could be said about all of the people who have to deal with these obstacles on a daily basis, requiring much more courage and optimism than we could imagine. We all need to admire and recognize them for this. Plus, it's great to hear from them in their own words and I thank you for so skillfully presenting them to us.
Very well done! I have a new job as a tour guide/ chauffeur in the wine country in the Napa valley. We have purchased new buses that have wheelchair lifts in them. I really enjoy being able to let everybody experience this beautiful part of our country.
wow I didn't know what tenji blocks were for! we have them outside of our new grocery store and on some sidewalk corners (at least the yellow bumpy ones). I thought they were to help people from slipping. Also, I live in North California and have been taking the bus for several months. we have "kneeling" busses. the front lowers closer to the ground when they arrive at a bus stop. if you are in a wheelchair or cannot walk the steps onto the bus, the driver pushes a button, and a ramp unfolds and goes out the door to the sidewalk. once you're on, they push the button again and the ramp folds back up into the bus. I love it so much! 💗 And the first rows of seats on both sides fold up to make room for wheelchairs on all the busses here.
They had those in Canada, where I'm originally from, as well - I wish they had them here too. It is nice that the driver helps you, but it is a lot slower...
I've been waiting for a video like this for a long time. I have always been told that accessibility in several Asian countries, including Japan, is terrible and this has discouraged me from wanting to go there, even though it is a country I have always had a desire to experience. Now I know that Japan is very accessible, even more so than my country of Canada, and hope to be seeing Japan soon.
What a great documentary it was. It really sums up what I was seeing in my daily commutes: yellow stripes everywhere (almost in every single road or pavement), kind and very respectful train station employees that are so dedicated to bring disabled people to their destination safely. I think I have never seen a most disabled people-friendly country than Japan. And it reminds me of how much my own country has to improve for them. Alas, it costs a lot of momey when it has not been planned before building all the public places that would need it.
It does cost money, but it needs to be thought of as an investment - a few years down the road everyone becomes a senior citizen and can benefit from the adaptations!
This will be very helpful for me. I am a Filipino, I will be coming to Tokyo on July 24, 2019. I move with wheelchair and can walk short distances with crutches. Thank you very much!
Also, i invite u to join the Accessible Japan website n the Accessible Travel Forum (ATF). It would be great if u could share your thoughts n insights.
Thank you to the Japanese people! Me and my son stayed in Shinjuku. We managed to take the JRS train from Narita to Shinjuku Station. I really appreciate the kind assistance of the train station staffs up to the airport staffs. We have a great time and we will come back! Big thanks!
@@danilodomingo5322 Please join me in the Accessible Japan and Accessible Travel Forum and share your own travel experiences, so we could help promote accessibility and barrier free travel in Japan and elsewhere. Also, in our very own Philippines, which is still miles away in terms of accessibility.
That helped a lot! A friend who is a helper for a disabled person here in Germany plans a trip to Japan with her client. This video makes planing easier and really motivates to go to Japan even in a wheelchair! Thank you guys so much!
Thank you thank you thank you for creating this video! I am a wheelchair user and this video has given me so many tips and resources for planing a trip to Japan with my family!
First I have to thank you for making such a great video with a lot great information. I am a disabled, a spinal cord injury, and I have good friends the live in Japan and I'd love to visit them on day but I didn't have a lot information about how to move around Japan with a disability. Now because this great video I have better information and a better understanding on how things work for people with disabilities in Japan. Thank you again!
This was absolutely fantastic! I found the interview with Josh insightful and informative. He is very well spoken and easy to listen to. Look forward to more mini documentaries in the future :)
I was really thankful that you produced this video. Very professional - the quality of any documentary I have seen on PBS etc... I am a Disabled Veteran, I can still walk, but I use a cane and have good and bad days. It was helpful to know that Japan's cities have these facilities. Hopefully, this will influence rural areas, as well. I have served as Pastor at a few churches in the US, and they had no bathroom facilities for the disabled. We have to take care of our brothers and sisters in our communities, when they need a little extra consideration to live life beside us, in all of life's facets.
You have no idea how much this video means to me. I love traveling but have a lot of anxiety when it comes to visiting new places because I have no idea what the accessibility level will be like. Josh was absolutely right, there is far too little information about Japan out there. I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to visit Japan because I had not been able to find information about disability accomodations but you video has really made me feel much more comfortable.
Nice videos. I look forward to more like that (hopefully on topics I enjoy more). Just two remarks. The music, especially at the end, felt a bit intrusive. Maybe it's just a bit too loud. And the intro with only text didn't do it for me, as I often mostly listen to videos. I think a voice-over with only the key numbers as text would have been better.
Thanks for the feedback. Audio is always a tricky one for me. I try to listen with different headphones and with speakers, but the longer the content, the longer it takes to try and balance everything. Because when you review a one or two minute chunk, it may sound good, but when you listen to the video as a whole, it sometimes doesn't work. Just for this vid, I was trying to take my voice out as much as possible, so that's why the more silent intro :-)
Very excellent video. I have at least one host family who will benefit greatly from this. They host Japanese students and have wanted to visit their students in Japan. Well done!
Can relate to Josh's comments around the 18:30 mark. I'm under 4 ft (2m) tall and use a cane. When I visited Japan for work back in 1998, being a foreigner was much more noticeable than being disabled, and actually people were very polite and laid back about being accommodating.
Hey, just found your channel & love it! I'm curious, what's the healthcare system like there? Is it like Canada & Europe, free but with high taxes & long wait times/shortage of providers compared to the US? (not defending our insane system at all, btw... private pay/for-profit health insurance = very short wait times to see a provider but astronomical costs, ugh.) Do they have private insurance there for the wealthier class vs govt-paid, lower-quality insurance & care for the poor, like the US? Sorry for the long question, thanks!
Good questions, I'll try to answer in my upcoming doc. Short answer though, is that you pay a base monthly amount, and then a % of everything, with monthly caps. If you're really poor, young, elderly, or disabled, it can be free or fairly close to it. Can the wealthy get better treatment, that I don't know.
aw shes so cute.. this is very helpful since the Olympics are coming. who knows Greg maybe your video will become bigger if picked up by a Japanese news station or something since it is very helpful and can bring a lot of positive ideas to Japan.
Who in the world would give this a thumbs down? Great video! So informative and helpful. Really appreciate the work you're putting in to making these for the new & old viewers.
I really like how Josh has such a great sense of humor and a great attitude about life. Even Yuriko did really well, would have been nice to see her husband's opinion about life with disability in Japan too.
This is a wonderful video. Many Japan vloggers are never sure how to answer the accessibility question they may get for their Q & A videos. It's very eye opening. Thanks for putting all the effort into this!
Thank you for making this! It's extremely interesting to me as I have an uncle in his late 50s, with Cerebral Palsy, living in Tokyo. I was born and raised in the States, but heard all all kinds of stories about my grandmother fighting for the rights of the disabled living in Japan, and fighting for things like wheelchair accessibility. It was interesting to me, as a visiting child, to see what the attitudes of the Japanese were concerning disability, shaped in large part by Buddhist beliefs. It has been great to see Japan becoming so much more accessible over the decades. Today, I believe Tokyo is more accessible than most US, if not all, US cities.
I was blind to the world of wheelchair users in Japan till I went to university in Tokyo. My friend is wheelchair user and I found it interesting how she navigates Tokyo by herself. I was surprised the first time I went with her on the and learning about the slope and everything. Now I am much more observant to accessibility in places. Japan has a lot to develop still like making train entrances more accessible as they are sometimes hard to find or hidden in some random corner and is a more of a travel away from the most used entrance used by able people.
Very nice documentaries. Minneapolis and St Paul (Minnesota, US) are really accommodating for people with disabilities. The buses and trains are all accessible. The buses have built in ramps so it's very quick. Theres a ton of transportation options for the disabled here. Japan looks like an amazing country! I wish Latin America was more accessible.
I really appreciate this because I have a physical disability meaning I use a rolator Walker and walking stick. My brother is going to be working in Japan next year and I have always wanted to visit Japan but was concerned about travelling around. Thank you !
This is really amazing! My cousin was in a wheelchair and he lived in New York and it was hard on him. Especially my uncle and his wife. This just shows how different some countries are to other people!
Such an interesting work; I loved it! Japan really has a lot to offer for people with physical disabilities; I once saw a man get on the bus with a wheelchair and the driver took out a ramp and everything went super fast! In Germany that usually takes quite some time. Looking forward to the next videos! Also Yuriko-san's English is super cute! I love how she speaks it so well, since most Japanese find it embarassing to actually speak English. (I'm sure mine's sounding weird as well, but who cares ;)
I was actually quite surprised, because she insisted on speaking English. I had brought a friend to help translate, but she did more work carrying items than actually translating :-) But yeah, Yuriko was very determined to communicate in English and I think she did an excellent job.
I found this video very helpful and efforts required to put to make buildings and transport system accessible universally....hope to use them in my near future
Thank you for this video. I recently travelled to Japan (I have a disability) and it was more accessible than I thought it would be (at least in Tokyo). By far, it is more accessible than the United States, where I live.
Thanks for the video. I commend you for coming to Japan in a wheelchair. I am an American living in Japan. I don't use a wheelchair and I don't look like I have a disability, but I have a bad leg and which means I have to use a cane or crutches sometimes. Where I live and work now is fine, but I have had lots of trouble getting around Japan because of my disability. It has improved a lot since I first came to Japan 19 years ago, but many places still don't have elevators and some people sit in the handicapped seats on the train, so it's still sometimes hard to get around.
Thank you for making this video. I am a fairly new wheelchair user after receiving a SCI from deployment to OEF. I have really wanted to visit Japan once and also Korea again but being disabled makes life even in USA difficult.
This is a beautiful video. I hope that many people will have the opportunity to visit Japan because of the efforts of Josh, Yuriko and everyone else. Thank you for making life more accessible. Japan is such a wonderful country. I had the honour of meeting Josh this May and he is truly an inspiration... and a really nice guy!
Thank you for posting this. I've been wanting to travel in Japan for a long time, but I was concerned about how accessible it was for someone with a disability. I'm not in a wheelchair, but I would have difficulty with going up and down stairs or traveling on foot, or even gaps at train stations. I don't see many people covering this topic and I'm looking forward to seeing what you post about living in Japan with a disability.
This was absolutely phenomenal, so informative & well done that it felt like a mini documentary movie!! Thank you for sharing, I can't wait for part 2. 😊💖✌
this video is awesome. i have book my disable holiday in japan i am going on 21 dec for two weeks so this is great insight and i have also been in contact with josh from accessible japan (only email thow) he has help me organise some thing i needed for my holiday he has been great help ( u should check out his website ) so its cool to see the face behind the emails. so again thank for awesome video all who made it
We use those dots and lines in the Uk as well mainly for drop curbs by roads and I beaver knew what they were for I find them a problem sometimes as my crutches can slip on the dots especially when it is wet but I love these mini documentaries that you have done I am hoping to go to Japan and I'm glad to know that their is facilities for disabled people.
![[Re:all TREASURE] EP.6 in 방콕ㅣ🚩 쩡캠의 방콕 투어 빵 마이 와이 👍](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uyFw-nItA_s/mqdefault.jpg)
![เกิดใหม่ทั้งทีก็เป็นสไลม์ไปซะแล้ว ซีซั่น 3 - ตอนที่ 69 [ซับไทย]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QuodflInQT8/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you so much! I'm so glad to hear those comments from all over the world!!!
Yuriko Oda
I you merid me I like you I'm handicapped so call me my contact number,00919927602844
@@surjeetsingh3151 I'm not sure if it's safe to put your number on the internet.
I am from India and I want to talk to you. I like you very much.
What I have sent you is my WhatsApp number. You can contact me on WhatsApp and give me your WhatsApp number 00919927602844 in india
@@surjeetsingh3151 Stop creeping on her it's not cool dude!
I loved the fact that train staff wait for the disabled passenger at their arrival station. I am going to dig deeper into these japanese protocols to promote them in Argentina.
Try promoting air conditioning on the Subte also
Holy ...! Here I am, watching a few videos on japan, start watching Life Where I'm from, switch to your second channel, watch this video - and see my old school mate Josh, who I've met in '97, in Mr Johnstone's Japanese-class, that I took while in Canada as an exchange student from Germany. oO Wow. Even the Internet is a small place!
Vortagh that’s really cool :)
god damn that's amazing
Echt jetzt? Das ist ja witzig :D :D :D
Wow. What a stark difference between the public transportation system in Japan vs New York. You practically have to memorize which stations are wheelchair friendly and make sure the elevator works. Many times the elevator is out of order. In those cases it is impossible to get out the stations due to the stairs. Great point about the bathrooms here vs Japan. That makes a huge difference.
The bathrooms are the best here!
Yuriko's english was so great! I'm so glad to see people not being afraid to speak English so everyone who don't speak japanese can know what they're saying. :D
Thank you so much!! You encourage me!!
I didn't know you had an account! I'm learning Japanese at the moment, and I want to be as brave as you, but it's scary!
よろしくおねがいします！(=^・^=)
Yuriko Oda 💜💜💜💜💜
Beautifully made video. Josh and Yuriko seem like such sweet people, thanks to them for letting us have a peek into their lives.
But most importantly, thanks to the Japanese government/ municipalities for making Japan so barrier-free. Truly a model for other nations to emulate.
I'd say most importantly thanks to the many disabled right activists who fought for these accommodations. Nothing would happen without them.
When people design with the disabled in mind we all benefit. ;)
Yaaasss I would love for people to realise this.
This is a great video. My family and I have worked with people with disabilities for almost my entire life and it's great to see that Japan is as accessible as it is. I always thought the U.S was the leader in accessibility but you have proven me wrong. I love it. Thank you and please keep these amazing videos coming!
03244-423006
This is a great video to know Japan is such a country that have so much of facilities for disable persons. I am 72 and a disable person. I am very happy for those disable persons in Japan. I hope one day Malaysia will have such facilities. Very good indeed.
Finally!! Someone has made a video from our perspective!! Thank you, thank you so much
🤣 I agree 😄
Great documentary about disability in Japan.
I am nurse & work with disable people in France. To see this doc was very interesting. Thanks for the work done.
がんばって to everyone
How is the accessibility in France? I'd love to go there.
love this video! i work for an agency that has programs to assist physically disabled people as well ss for aging cause they have similar needs. I love it when I see physically disabled people strive to go after their dreams instead of using it as an excuse to not do anything. ie victim mentality. i can understand some people literally can't go after their dreams but those that do and can and try more power to you! Because even trying is rewarded.
My parents raised me to follow my dreams. They didn't think it would take me so far from hope though!
Wow "Dad"! I really liked this. My wife is from Japan and I never knew how hospitable Japan was towards the disabled. And I'm still amazed about how awesome the bathrooms are compared to the US. Yuriko and Josh did a great job explaining everything. I never knew what Tenji blocks were until now and we could use something like that here too. Although I've never understood having Braille on a drive-in ATM...
many people use drive thru ATMs as walk-up ATMs after hours. 😉
Thank you so much for this. I'm still tackling accessibility problems in my own home town so my dream of visiting Japan seemed impossible. This gives me both hope and a head start on the research I'll need to do before I plan my trip.
I like you as a documentarian
Thank you so much for this video! As a wheelchair user who dreams of going to Japan, this mini-doc is amazing!
Hope this encourages you take the plunge and come to Japan!
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the mini-doc. I'm really eager to tackle more of these social documentaries. If you have more questions about what's it's like to have a physical disability in Japan, Josh and Yuriko may find themselves in the comments section. They also have their own social stuff, which you can find in the description. It's night time now in Japan, so they may not answer questions right away. Josh said he has a busy weekend, but if you wan to get a reply sooner than later, you can try him at www.accessible-japan.com/contact/ or Twitter @AccessibleJapan
very informative as usual and very cool
This is a great video I've been watching your channels since LWIF started and I am so happy to see that this is the direction this channel is going. As a person with two disabilities (epilepsy, fibromyalgia) who almost died from having a seizure on a subway platform i was so happy to see all the wonderful accessibilities that are in place like those tenji blocks and those for my brothers and sisters that have to use wheelchairs. Not to mention those bathrooms, with the colostamy bag cleaning stations and Emergency cords (i've had seizures in bathrooms too). Not to mention your video comes at a great time after the heartbreaking loss of so many disabled people in Japan. Thank you so much for what you are doing and I look forward to the next part and more of your videos especially the one on homelessness.
Really interesting. I'll never make it to Japan but it's good to know I'd be able to get around 🎈
Loved this video! I am looking forward to part 2 and hope that you are including the school system for those with disabilities. Yuriko and Josh are doing a great service for accessibility. Here in the US I often see what are called family bathrooms that are wheelchair accessible and available for those who need that extra help. I seriously had a tear when I saw them putting the ramps on the train. That is so nice! I worked with disabled adults and also special needs children and I have seen the struggle many have had for accessibility and acceptance.
It's very well done. There should be more of the format of documentary for accessibility for cities around the world.
Great work. Would love to see more of your documentaries.
I've watched all of your videos from the start, and I've thought they were all great. But this was the best one so far, in my opinion! The interviews were really well-done, and the camera work and editing were really wonderful, too. I want to thank you, as I am disabled. I have always wanted to visit Japan, and for many reasons, I figured it would be impossible. This video gives me a lot of hope! Thanks to Yuriko and Josh for telling us about their experiences, and thanks to you for the great video! :-)
Come on over - its easier than you think, and with the Olympics coming, its getting better every day!
I haven’t been to Japan for 10 years, and that was only central Tokyo, but at that time things didn’t seem as barrier free as the video shows. At that time, we were desperately looking for things like elevators in train stations, due to my Japanese mother-in-law’s difficulty walking and standing (she didn’t yet have a wheelchair). Nor did we ever encounter one of those bathrooms, which would have been wonderful for her. After a single trip to the kabuki theatre, leaving from Higashi Nakano, we returned home early with her in tears and resolved never to try anything like that again. I lived in Kobe eons ago, in 1979-1981, and in two years I don’t think I saw a single person using a wheelchair. 😳 Same thing over the years as I visited my in-laws in Chiba City and central Tokyo. I hope this video means that things have improved wonderfully!
Videos like this one are what I love most about TH-cam. You put focus on something that the mainstream media might not even care to talk about. I work with people with disabilities and its refreshing to see such a well made and informative video on people with disabilities showing others how they go about their lives without making them out to be another story about a "brave" or "inspiring" person overcoming obstacles against great odds. Thank you to you, Yuriko and Josh for putting this together. I'm definitely going to be showing this video to a couple of my clients!
man~you should have your own TV show~kudos to you for making this informative video~
I wish I could like this video more than once! I currently reside in South Korea and things are not as accessible or disability-friendly. I'm lucky to be able bodied but I know people back home that are not and I'm always conscious of how inaccessible things would be for them here.
Hearing not only about Japan but with the voices of those with disabilities living in Japan has brought me great joy. Absolutely great video!
Hi Juen, i just admire your empathy for the physically challenged when u are able-bodied yourself. Please continue to spread awareness for the physically challenged. Thank u. i do Hope that South Korea will also be accessible n barrier free.
Brilliant work yet again. Your videos are always very good, but this one is probably your best (LWIFX) one yet. Your humble/modest manner of speech totally hid the very real skills you have in video making/editing/all that jazz, but they're more visible than ever with your more focused videos recently.
This video also sort of sold me on Japan - a country which is that attentive to all sorts of needs has gotta be amazing. Now I'll have to think carefully about which country trip to save up for, Korea or Japan..
Oh, stop it! If you're going for a visit, you could always see both!
I have seen this first hand in Osaka, where disabled people getting themselves around the train station. And you are right, their disabilities doesn’t stop them from using public transportation (even the blind). I’m amazed on the provisions made by the government and private sectors to ensure that facilities and public areas are safe and convenient for people with disabilities. Another great video 👍
This is some really amazing stuff!
I have a million words of appreciation I wanna convey to you for making this video and for introducing me to Josh and Yuriko. However, all I can piece together in my head right now is thank you. Thank you so much. I'm eagerly awaiting the living with a disability in Japan video as that is my dream. Thanks again man really.
Thank you!
Certainly hope you come to Japan some day!
Awesome doc! Love things like this, keep it up, I'm excited for part 2! I first saw the Tenji blocks when I was in Aomori Japan years ago and jokingly asked my friend if they were for self-guided robots.
I now see them popping up here in Canada when there are street upgrades, including even now here in Halifax!
Ah, I didn't know they were in Canada as well.
I see them in Britain too
Thank you so much for this mini series!
As a wheelchair user from Australia who loves Japan and hopes to live there one day, this has been invaluably reassuring. :)
This is extremely helpful for me! I'm disabled, myself, though not to the point of needing a wheelchair at all times, just yet. I have mobile issues because of chronic health problems and conditions. My left leg and knee can give out at random, and my whole left side has permanent nerve damage. I'm also a klutz on land. XD I'm glad you're going to turn this into a series, and give insight for people like me! Thank you!
Last year I went through Japan - just the airport - on vacation. On my way back, I walked with a cane (stupid accident). And the level of help I got in Thailand and Japan made me realize that we really need to up our game in Canada (especially after waiting in line for an hour at the gate when I got back, leaning on my cane, and no chair in sight, and no one came to offer any kind of help, be it pass in front of the line).
Japan has awesome hospitality, "omotenashi"
this is a great production on an interesting subject! the content, filming quality, and pacing made it easy to understand and relate to, excellent work! Josh and Yuriko seem like great people who are doing their best to help others, that's some good karma right there!
Newer know if someday one of us will need wheelchair.
Congratulations from Brazil. Thanks!
This is the type of videos that I love, and we need more people doing this amazing content. This is another proof that the world needs to pay more attention to disabilities. I wish we all can make a difference, i'll sure try :)
What a great job you did on this, Greg. I think what you showcased most with this video, was to show what admirable people Yuriko and Josh really are. But not only them, I think this could be said about all of the people who have to deal with these obstacles on a daily basis, requiring much more courage and optimism than we could imagine. We all need to admire and recognize them for this. Plus, it's great to hear from them in their own words and I thank you for so skillfully presenting them to us.
Yes, they are definitely positive people!
Very well done! I have a new job as a tour guide/ chauffeur in the wine country in the Napa valley. We have purchased new buses that have wheelchair lifts in them. I really enjoy being able to let everybody experience this beautiful part of our country.
Thanks to both Yuriko and Josh for sharing their experiences.
wow I didn't know what tenji blocks were for! we have them outside of our new grocery store and on some sidewalk corners (at least the yellow bumpy ones). I thought they were to help people from slipping.
Also, I live in North California and have been taking the bus for several months. we have "kneeling" busses. the front lowers closer to the ground when they arrive at a bus stop. if you are in a wheelchair or cannot walk the steps onto the bus, the driver pushes a button, and a ramp unfolds and goes out the door to the sidewalk. once you're on, they push the button again and the ramp folds back up into the bus. I love it so much! 💗 And the first rows of seats on both sides fold up to make room for wheelchairs on all the busses here.
They had those in Canada, where I'm originally from, as well - I wish they had them here too. It is nice that the driver helps you, but it is a lot slower...
I've been waiting for a video like this for a long time. I have always been told that accessibility in several Asian countries, including Japan, is terrible and this has discouraged me from wanting to go there, even though it is a country I have always had a desire to experience. Now I know that Japan is very accessible, even more so than my country of Canada, and hope to be seeing Japan soon.
Thank you very much for making this video!!! ❤❤ finally someone made an awesome video for the PWD.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
What a great documentary it was. It really sums up what I was seeing in my daily commutes: yellow stripes everywhere (almost in every single road or pavement), kind and very respectful train station employees that are so dedicated to bring disabled people to their destination safely. I think I have never seen a most disabled people-friendly country than Japan. And it reminds me of how much my own country has to improve for them. Alas, it costs a lot of momey when it has not been planned before building all the public places that would need it.
It does cost money, but it needs to be thought of as an investment - a few years down the road everyone becomes a senior citizen and can benefit from the adaptations!
I have mild cp Josh can move to Japan and live happy I can too
You certainly can!
Go for it! Michael Peckitt (look him up on TH-cam) also has CP and lives here!
Thank you for this great video.
This is wonderful! Thank you!
The toilet situation is the same in the UK. 85% of the time the disabled toilet is unisex and separate from the other toilets.
THE most useful video on accessibility in Japan that I have found in the last month! ❤
This will be very helpful for me. I am a Filipino, I will be coming to Tokyo on July 24, 2019. I move with wheelchair and can walk short distances with crutches. Thank you very much!
Also, i invite u to join the Accessible Japan website n the Accessible Travel Forum (ATF). It would be great if u could share your thoughts n insights.
Thank you to the Japanese people! Me and my son stayed in Shinjuku. We managed to take the JRS train from Narita to Shinjuku Station. I really appreciate the kind assistance of the train station staffs up to the airport staffs. We have a great time and we will come back! Big thanks!
@@danilodomingo5322 Please join me in the Accessible Japan and Accessible Travel Forum and share your own travel experiences, so we could help promote accessibility and barrier free travel in Japan and elsewhere. Also, in our very own Philippines, which is still miles away in terms of accessibility.
That helped a lot! A friend who is a helper for a disabled person here in Germany plans a trip to Japan with her client. This video makes planing easier and really motivates to go to Japan even in a wheelchair!
Thank you guys so much!
Thank you thank you thank you for creating this video! I am a wheelchair user and this video has given me so many tips and resources for planing a trip to Japan with my family!
I never took the time to think about transportation from a disabled person's perspective. Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Thanks for making the video for this subject. I need this.
First I have to thank you for making such a great video with a lot great information. I am a disabled, a spinal cord injury, and I have good friends the live in Japan and I'd love to visit them on day but I didn't have a lot information about how to move around Japan with a disability. Now because this great video I have better information and a better understanding on how things work for people with disabilities in Japan. Thank you again!
Hope this encourages you to come visit!
This was absolutely fantastic! I found the interview with Josh insightful and informative. He is very well spoken and easy to listen to. Look forward to more mini documentaries in the future :)
Thank you very much!
I found this really interesting. I don't have a disability but like to be aware of what other people go through for day to day life.
This is great, looking forward to part 2!
Very good video for ppl with disabilities or moms with strollers. Please continue to make videos very informative and clear. Thank you
I was really thankful that you produced this video. Very professional - the quality of any documentary I have seen on PBS etc... I am a Disabled Veteran, I can still walk, but I use a cane and have good and bad days. It was helpful to know that Japan's cities have these facilities. Hopefully, this will influence rural areas, as well. I have served as Pastor at a few churches in the US, and they had no bathroom facilities for the disabled. We have to take care of our brothers and sisters in our communities, when they need a little extra consideration to live life beside us, in all of life's facets.
Very true!
This was a really nice documentary.
Thank you !
Whoa, the whiplash in japan's trains must be incredible! (20:58)
Cool video. Thanks!
Great documentary! Keep it coming!
You have no idea how much this video means to me. I love traveling but have a lot of anxiety when it comes to visiting new places because I have no idea what the accessibility level will be like. Josh was absolutely right, there is far too little information about Japan out there. I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to visit Japan because I had not been able to find information about disability accomodations but you video has really made me feel much more comfortable.
Nice videos. I look forward to more like that (hopefully on topics I enjoy more).
Just two remarks. The music, especially at the end, felt a bit intrusive. Maybe it's just a bit too loud. And the intro with only text didn't do it for me, as I often mostly listen to videos. I think a voice-over with only the key numbers as text would have been better.
Thanks for the feedback. Audio is always a tricky one for me. I try to listen with different headphones and with speakers, but the longer the content, the longer it takes to try and balance everything. Because when you review a one or two minute chunk, it may sound good, but when you listen to the video as a whole, it sometimes doesn't work. Just for this vid, I was trying to take my voice out as much as possible, so that's why the more silent intro :-)
Thanks to all the participants of this video. You guys did a great job! Learned a lot.
Very excellent video. I have at least one host family who will benefit greatly from this. They host Japanese students and have wanted to visit their students in Japan. Well done!
That's good to hear!
This was wonderful. Keep up the great work.
Can relate to Josh's comments around the 18:30 mark. I'm under 4 ft (2m) tall and use a cane. When I visited Japan for work back in 1998, being a foreigner was much more noticeable than being disabled, and actually people were very polite and laid back about being accommodating.
How do you not have so many more subs?! This channel is amazing .
Hey, just found your channel & love it!
I'm curious, what's the healthcare system like there? Is it like Canada & Europe, free but with high taxes & long wait times/shortage of providers compared to the US? (not defending our insane system at all, btw... private pay/for-profit health insurance = very short wait times to see a provider but astronomical costs, ugh.)
Do they have private insurance there for the wealthier class vs govt-paid, lower-quality insurance & care for the poor, like the US? Sorry for the long question, thanks!
Good questions, I'll try to answer in my upcoming doc. Short answer though, is that you pay a base monthly amount, and then a % of everything, with monthly caps. If you're really poor, young, elderly, or disabled, it can be free or fairly close to it. Can the wealthy get better treatment, that I don't know.
Very well done and edited in a way that kept me interested. Another informative glimpse into Japanese ingenuity!
aw shes so cute.. this is very helpful since the Olympics are coming. who knows Greg maybe your video will become bigger if picked up by a Japanese news station or something since it is very helpful and can bring a lot of positive ideas to Japan.
Who in the world would give this a thumbs down? Great video! So informative and helpful. Really appreciate the work you're putting in to making these for the new & old viewers.
So informative. Great job!
I really like how Josh has such a great sense of humor and a great attitude about life. Even Yuriko did really well, would have been nice to see her husband's opinion about life with disability in Japan too.
This is a wonderful video. Many Japan vloggers are never sure how to answer the accessibility question they may get for their Q & A videos. It's very eye opening. Thanks for putting all the effort into this!
The ramps in our buses are integrated into the floor. Very easy and less time consuming.
Thank you for making this! It's extremely interesting to me as I have an uncle in his late 50s, with Cerebral Palsy, living in Tokyo. I was born and raised in the States, but heard all all kinds of stories about my grandmother fighting for the rights of the disabled living in Japan, and fighting for things like wheelchair accessibility. It was interesting to me, as a visiting child, to see what the attitudes of the Japanese were concerning disability, shaped in large part by Buddhist beliefs. It has been great to see Japan becoming so much more accessible over the decades. Today, I believe Tokyo is more accessible than most US, if not all, US cities.
I was blind to the world of wheelchair users in Japan till I went to university in Tokyo. My friend is wheelchair user and I found it interesting how she navigates Tokyo by herself. I was surprised the first time I went with her on the and learning about the slope and everything. Now I am much more observant to accessibility in places. Japan has a lot to develop still like making train entrances more accessible as they are sometimes hard to find or hidden in some random corner and is a more of a travel away from the most used entrance used by able people.
Very nice documentaries. Minneapolis and St Paul (Minnesota, US) are really accommodating for people with disabilities. The buses and trains are all accessible. The buses have built in ramps so it's very quick. Theres a ton of transportation options for the disabled here. Japan looks like an amazing country! I wish Latin America was more accessible.
I really wish to go back to Japan, but since becomming disabled, I didn't know if it was possible. This video helped alot, thank you!!!❤
I really appreciate this because I have a physical disability meaning I use a rolator Walker and walking stick. My brother is going to be working in Japan next year and I have always wanted to visit Japan but was concerned about travelling around. Thank you !
Loved this, can't wait to see more!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
you have answered so many questions for me about being a disabled tourist in Japan
This is your best film yet. Very relevant information that most people wouldn't even think to put out there.
This is really amazing! My cousin was in a wheelchair and he lived in New York and it was hard on him. Especially my uncle and his wife. This just shows how different some countries are to other people!
Such an interesting work; I loved it! Japan really has a lot to offer for people with physical disabilities; I once saw a man get on the bus with a wheelchair and the driver took out a ramp and everything went super fast! In Germany that usually takes quite some time.
Looking forward to the next videos!
Also Yuriko-san's English is super cute! I love how she speaks it so well, since most Japanese find it embarassing to actually speak English. (I'm sure mine's sounding weird as well, but who cares ;)
I was actually quite surprised, because she insisted on speaking English. I had brought a friend to help translate, but she did more work carrying items than actually translating :-) But yeah, Yuriko was very determined to communicate in English and I think she did an excellent job.
I found this video very helpful and efforts required to put to make buildings and transport system accessible universally....hope to use them in my near future
Thank you for this video. I recently travelled to Japan (I have a disability) and it was more accessible than I thought it would be (at least in Tokyo). By far, it is more accessible than the United States, where I live.
I'm a from Africa - Ghana more love for this Fantastic video
Thanks for the video. I commend you for coming to Japan in a wheelchair. I am an American living in Japan. I don't use a wheelchair and I don't look like I have a disability, but I have a bad leg and which means I have to use a cane or crutches sometimes. Where I live and work now is fine, but I have had lots of trouble getting around Japan because of my disability. It has improved a lot since I first came to Japan 19 years ago, but many places still don't have elevators and some people sit in the handicapped seats on the train, so it's still sometimes hard to get around.
Thank you for making this video. I am a fairly new wheelchair user after receiving a SCI from deployment to OEF. I have really wanted to visit Japan once and also Korea again but being disabled makes life even in USA difficult.
This is a beautiful video. I hope that many people will have the opportunity to visit Japan because of the efforts of Josh, Yuriko and everyone else. Thank you for making life more accessible. Japan is such a wonderful country. I had the honour of meeting Josh this May and he is truly an inspiration... and a really nice guy!
Thank you for posting this. I've been wanting to travel in Japan for a long time, but I was concerned about how accessible it was for someone with a disability. I'm not in a wheelchair, but I would have difficulty with going up and down stairs or traveling on foot, or even gaps at train stations. I don't see many people covering this topic and I'm looking forward to seeing what you post about living in Japan with a disability.
This was absolutely phenomenal, so informative & well done that it felt like a mini documentary movie!! Thank you for sharing, I can't wait for part 2. 😊💖✌
this video is awesome. i have book my disable holiday in japan i am going on 21 dec for two weeks so this is great insight
and i have also been in contact with josh from accessible japan (only email thow) he has help me organise some thing i needed for my holiday he has been great help ( u should check out his website ) so its cool to see the face behind the emails.
so again thank for awesome video all who made it
I just arrived in Japan and had to use the train by myself. The 'follow the Tenji blocks' tip really helped me out, thanks!
What a lovely bunch, no further words would be needed here.
I think this is the best LWIFX video you've done so far! Yuriko and Josh, thank you for sharing and letting us peak into your lives a bit.
My pleasure!
We use those dots and lines in the Uk as well mainly for drop curbs by roads and I beaver knew what they were for I find them a problem sometimes as my crutches can slip on the dots especially when it is wet but I love these mini documentaries that you have done I am hoping to go to Japan and I'm glad to know that their is facilities for disabled people.
Another beautifully made mini-documentary, Thank you. Your videos are an inspiration to many people. There's so much humanity to your videos.