PORTRAITS OF JAPAN

Top: The Opening Ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Paralympic Games in which para athletes from 21 countries
participated. The Japanese team proceeded into the stadium by wheelchair.
Right: When he visited a hospital in England in 1960, NAKAMURA Yutaka learned how sports can be
integrated into rehabilitation. After he returned to Japan, he put this knowledge into practice. In this photo, heis with Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, who organized a sporting event for physically impaired athletes that became thepredecessor to the Paralympics.

EMBRACING
INCLUSIVITY:A SPIRIT ROOTED IN THE TOKYO 1964 PARALYMPICS
With the Paralympic Games opening on August 24, Tokyo is the first city in the world to host the Games twice. The
ideas of a Japanese physician, who spared no effort to organize the 1964 Paralympics, have lived on as a legacy ofinclusivity, aiming for a society where everyone can express their individuality and lead a full life.

Sustaining the excitement of the Tokyo 2020
Olympic Games, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
begin on August 24. This year the Games, hosted by
Tokyo for a second time, convey the spirit of “barrierfree.” They contribute toward bringing about aninclusive society in which everyone, regardless of age
or ability, can help one another and live in harmony.
Even as the compelling nature of sport captures ourattention, what moves us is the para athletes’ courageand tenacity.
One physician who helped make the first
Paralympic Games in Tokyo a reality in 1964
also laid the foundation for progress toward an
inclusive society in Japan. NAKAMURA Yutaka,
an orthopedic surgeon from Oita Prefecture inwestern Japan, traveled to England in 1960 to study
rehabilitation at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. There,
he witnessed spinal injury patients engaging in sport
as part of their therapy. After half a year, many ofthese patients had reintegrated into society. Morethan anything else, Nakamura found it refreshing to
see the enthusiastic smiles of the patients who hadregained their self-confidence through sport.
Nakamura decided to create an environment wherephysically impaired people in Japan could also receive
rehabilitation through sport. While there werecritics who said the patients should rest, Nakamura
convinced his peers to put sports therapy into practice.
In 1962, he took two wheelchair athletes to theInternational Stoke Mandeville Games in England, amulti-sport competition for athletes with disabilities.
Japanese para athletes had now participated in aninternational competition. Nakamura then recruited
supporters to help organize an international sporting
event for physically impaired athletes after the Tokyo
1964 Olympic Games, which led to the holding of
the International Stoke Mandeville Games outside ofEurope for the first time, in Tokyo. This international
sports event for disabled athletes, held in the same
year as the Olympics, was later recognized as thesecond-ever Paralympic Games, the first having takenplace in Rome in 1960.
Even after the Games were over, Nakamura didn’t
stop his endeavors. He devoted himself to helping thephysically impaired reintegrate into society, and in 1965
he established Japan Sun Industries, where disabled

people can work and become
members of their localcommunity. Enlisting aid The “Asuchalle” Challenge for Tomorrowis an educational program for children
from companies, Nakamura School
to experience sports with para athletes.
created many employment Awareness of diversity is the first step toward
opportunities for physically fostering a barrier-free spirit.
impaired people across Japan. Today’s parasports andthe accompanying progress toward an inclusive society
would not be possible without his conviction and effort.
Nakamura’s hope for a society that is inclusive ofphysically impaired people continues to have an
impact today and has inspired new ingenuity. Tactile
paving, or braille blocks, for the visually impaired
is one example. Laid on sidewalks, at train stations,in public facilities, and elsewhere, tactile paving
provides visually impaired people with an essential
tool for safe mobility. It was a Japanese inventor,
MIYAKE Seiichi, who came up with the idea, and in1967 the first tactile paving was laid at a crosswalk in
Okayama Prefecture.
Another example is the “Asuchalle” Challenge
for Tomorrow School. Sponsored by The Nippon
Foundation Paralympic Support Center, which
promotes parasports, it was started in 2016 and provides
para athletes as instructors for classes where children can
try out these sports. Through a simulated experience ofphysical impairment, children gain an understanding of
those conditions and learn to respect diversity. In thefive years since the classes began, over 1,000 schools haveparticipated. Children who have taken the classes haveoffered feedback that is suggestive of their broadening
mindsets: “A physical disability is not the impairment.
It is society and people who create the impairment.
We learned that people can take action to removeimpairments.” These changing attitudes lead to theunderstanding an inclusive society needs and cultivate abarrier-free spirit in people’s hearts.
The zeal of a single physician helped create the1964 Paralympic Games, whose legacy today is theprogress being made toward an inclusive society. The
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games carry us another stepfurther on the path toward social inclusion.
Tactile paving, or braille blocks, which
guides people with visual impairments
as they walk, was created by a Japanese
inventor. It can be found on sidewalks,
at train stations, in public facilities,
and elsewhere throughout the world.