Are you familiar with the term “quiet hour”?



It is time to adjust the sound and lighting of stores and facilities so that people with symptoms of hyperesthesia who are sensitive to sound and light can spend comfortably.



Currently, drugstores and leisure facilities are gradually expanding their efforts to create times that are easy for people with difficult situations to use.

1 hour a week at the drugstore

Some of the drugstores, Tsuruha Drug, turn off the background music or dim the lights for one hour from 9:00 a.m. every Saturday.

Starting from a store in Sapporo City in 2019, it is now held at a total of 23 stores in Miyagi and Niigata prefectures.



People who know about the initiative call the head office, and at the end of last year, they said, "My daughter, who is not good at sound and light, lives alone in Sendai City. I want to know the location of the store that is implementing it." It means that there was a phone call.

A “quiet zoo” that makes use of closed days

In addition, since 2020, the Toyohashi Zoological and Botanical Park in Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture has been making use of Mondays when the park is closed so that people with disabilities who are not comfortable with crowds can use the park.



It all started when a user asked, "It's difficult for family members with autism to enjoy themselves because they don't like crowds. Is there a better way?"

Thinking that on days when the park is closed, it would be possible to see animals in a quiet environment, we decided to make the park a registration system for users and open the park if there was an application.

In 2021, 53 people registered, and a total of 102 people used it.



It is said that the garden received comments such as "I was able to spend time with my family happily."

“Soundless Aquarium”

Twice last year, the Otaru Aquarium in Otaru City, Hokkaido, held an event called "Soundless Aquarium" where background music was not played inside the facility.



The dolphin show did not use a microphone, and the explanation of the performance was put up on a large board so that visitors could understand it.



We are planning to hold "Soundless Aquarium" on the 11th of this month as well.



Some shopping arcades are calling on each store to cooperate and hold a quiet hour about once a week.

Efforts to remove the anxiety of people who are not good at it and create time that is easy to use are spreading little by little.