We Are Tomodachi Spring 2018

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32Can disabled guests to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games expect to find Japan accessible? Josh Grisdale, creator of the website Accessible Japan and a 10-year resident of Japan answers a resounding “yes.”Canadian-born Grisdale, a quadriplegic, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was six months old. From the age of three, he used an electric wheelchair. Disability did not stop the ambitious boy from working hard and getting top grades in school. Taking Japanese in high school sparked in Grisdale the desire to see Japan firsthand. In 2000, he came to Tokyo with his father for one month as a high school graduation present. Accessibility in Japan exceeded his expectations and the spirit of omotenashi (hospitality) impressed him deeply. After visiting Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, he remembers looking for an elevator to take him to the subway platform. The elevator had yet to be built, but six station attendants carried him and his 130-kilogram wheelchair down the flights of stairs. This eagerness to serve the customer, along with Japan’s appealing mix of the traditional and modern planted in Grisdale the dream of one day making Japan his home.Significant for Grisdale and other disabled people, in this same year, 2000, Japan enacted the Transportation Accessibility Improvement Law, committing the society to becoming “barrier-free.” Grisdale returned to Japan in the years that followed, each time impressed by the accessibility improvement. He felt that everyone, not just the government, was working together for this goal. In 2007, Grisdale moved permanently to Tokyo. He has a full-time job managing social welfare institution websites. In addition, working in his spare time, he launched his own website, Accessible Japan, in 2015. “I started the website because of the limited information on accessibility in Japan in English. I don’t want people to give up their dream of visiting Japan because they think Grisdale in his barrier-free workplace. He calls barrier-free design an investment that benefits all, including the elderly as well as people with disabilities.Series: Friends of JapanMaking Japan Accessible to AllJosh GrisdaleBorn in Canada, and has lived in Tokyo since 2007. Manages the websites for a group that runs nursing homes, retirement homes, kindergartens, and nursery schools. In his spare time, he works on Accessible Japan, his website that provides accessibility information in English for disabled people visiting Japan. Josh has cerebral palsy, is quadriplegic, and has used a wheelchair since the age of three. He became a Japanese citizen in 2016.