Awareness-raising activities at Takadanobaba Station in Tokyo, which triggered the spread of Braille block days

March 18th is "Braille Block Day".

JR East is calling for understanding of efforts to protect the safety of the visually impaired at Takadanobaba Station in Tokyo, which triggered the spread of Braille blocks at stations nationwide during the JNR era.

Takadanobaba in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo is known as a city where large-scale Braille blocks were laid in 1970, about 50 years ago, so JR East is Takadanobaba Station on the Yamanote Line. I started enlightenment activities with posters.

The poster says, "May everyone have a natural safety at their feet," and you can read it by touching it in Braille.

At Takadanobaba Station, there was an accident in 1973 during the JNR era when a visually impaired person fell from his platform and died, which led to the spread of Braille blocks at stations nationwide.

From the photographs at that time, it can be seen that the Braille blocks were smaller than they are now and the shapes were not unified.

As the number of types increased with the spread, the shape was unified by JIS and Japanese Industrial Standards in 2001.

The country is demanding that all stations with more than 3,000 daily users be JIS standard by five years, and railroad operators are working on it.

Reichi Urushihara, the stationmaster of JR Takadanobaba Station, said, "We are strengthening the voice to the visually impaired, but general users also talk to the visually impaired when they see them at the platform. I want it. "