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Low-pitched slopes lead from the main gate to the school building at Daizawa Elementary School in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on Dec. 8. (Kazuyuki Ito)
More than 30 percent of public elementary and junior high schools in Japan lack a wheelchair-accessible toilet and over 70 percent do not have an elevator, according to a recent survey.
The education ministry released the preliminary figures of its first survey on accessibility in schools nationwide as of May 1.
Because many schools are designated to serve as an evacuation center during a disaster, the ministry has set a goal to make them more wheelchair accessible by fiscal 2025 and expand subsidies to local governments to make that happen.