This June 1, 2020, file photo shows the Saikyo Line platform at JR Shibuya Station in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. (Mainichi/Masahiro Ogawa)

       TOKYO -- Speakers on Shibuya Station's JR Saikyo Line platform that provide audio guidance for people with visual impairments have been facing an inappropriate direction and therefore present a fall risk, it has emerged from information a reader submitted to a Mainichi Shimbun online form.

       The JR Saikyo Line platform does not have screen doors. In a worst-case scenario, individuals with visually impairments could fall onto the tracks. The speakers' setup violates national guidelines, and the East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) told the Mainichi Shimbun: "Regarding the point in question, we will swiftly discuss ways to improve and carry them out as soon as they're ready."

       To ensure the safety of older people and individuals with disabilities, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's public transport movement facilitation standards based on Japan's barrier-free law make it mandatory for public facilities to take measures including installing yellow studded Braille blocks or offering audio guidance. Auditory guidance is a significant source of information for visually impaired people, which informs them where ticket barriers and stairs are. A ringing sound like that of a doorbell guides people at ticket gates as well as entrances from and exits to ground level. Sounds imitating bird chirps play at platform stairs.

       In October, a reader sent an anonymous message to the Mainichi Shimbun reading, "Audio guidance speakers on a Shibuya Station platform are pointed at the (opposite) platform, instead of toward the stairs. Isn't there a danger people with visual impairments will mistake the sound as coming from the ticket gates, and fall from the platform?"

       Based on this information, the Mainichi Shimbun asked a guide and Sumako Onuma, 76, chairperson of the Shibuya Ward welfare association for the visually impaired, who is also vision-impaired, to accompany them to Shibuya Station. There, it was found that while audio guidance speakers were set up overhead at three points near the Saikyo Line platform stairs, they all faced the tracks' direction.

       Onuma said, "The way they're installed now is dangerous. In a worst-case scenario, a person walking on the adjacent platform could fall onto the tracks after confusing the sound's source as the stairs' direction." It was also confirmed on the station's JR Yamanote Line platform that a speaker was not installed in one spot while another spot had one making no sound.

       According to the transport ministry, if the speakers face the tracks' direction, a visually impaired individual on the adjacent platform risks mistakenly walking toward the tracks. For this reason, the ministry says it is preferable that speakers are positioned parallel with the tracks.

       In response to inquiries with the JR East public relations department regarding whether there were problems with the current speaker installations, the department responded, "We will make improvements in response to what has been pointed out. Based on the conditions of the steel frame above the stairs and other factors, the speakers have been in their current state since June 2020." JR East also admitted that a speaker in one spot was broken, and another not placed on the Yamanote Line platform.

       Many stations in Japan have yet to start implementing audio guidance measures. Among the 172 stations Tokyo Metro Co. manages, 137 stations have audio guidance set up at exits and entrances, stairs, ticket gates, platforms and other spots. But less than 40% -- 628 stations -- of JR East's 1,619 stations have installed the measures on platforms.

       The Japan Federation of the Visually Impaired has requested that the transport ministry install audio guidance and other forms of assistance for individuals with visual impairments. Takashi Miyake, organization manager of the federation, commented, "We move around taking information from Braille blocks, audio guidance, and surrounding sounds like signs of people's presence. Audio guidance is also an important information source, and we'd like stations that haven't installed them to do so."

       (Japanese original by Hiroko Michishita, Digital News Center)

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