Governor Ishikawa made a presentation at the 9th IFA Conference!

Governor Yoshinobu Ishikawa presented on Shizuoka's Universal Design on November 6, 2008 at the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) 9th Global Conference on Ageing. The conference was held from November 4, 2008 to November 7, 2008 at Montreal, Canada.

Outline of Governor Ishikawa's Speech

Creating a People-Friendly Society with Universal Design

Good morning. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to Mrs. Irene Hoskins, IFA president, for having me here today. I am grateful for this opportunity to give a lecture on Shizuoka Universal Design at this 9th IFA Global Conference on Aging. Today, I would like to introduce Shizuoka Prefecture's concepts of Universal Design along with the outline of the prefecture. Japan, located in East Asia, is on the opposite side of the earth from Montreal, with a time difference of 13 hours.

Shizuoka is

Shizuoka Prefecture is located in the center of Japan, known for Mt. Fuji, a spiritual symbol for Japanese people. Statistics show that Shizuoka Prefecture performs at the nation's average in many fields including politics, economy, and culture. This is why Shizuoka is characterized as Japan's standard and is a popular place for test marketing of new products. It is said that by observing Shizuoka, a lot about Japan can be learned. Shizuoka has a very strong economical base with the Gross Prefectural Profit of 150 billion US dollars, equivalent to the GNP of Hungary. The population of 3.8 million people accounts for 3% of Japan's total and the per capita income of 30,000 US dollars is ranked 3rd out of the 47 prefectures in Japan. Many world famous companies are based in Shizuoka, such as Yamaha, Yamaha Motors, Kawai, Suzuki, and Tamiya. They are examples showing the entrepreneurial spirit in Shizuoka.

Population over 65 Years Old

The population of residents over 65 years old in Japan has the highest percentage of over 20% in 2005, although it was 10.3% in 1985, lower than percentages from western counties. It is expected that this percentage will exceed 30% in 2025, leading to Japan having an unprecedented super aging society.

Policies for Elderly Persons

Shizuoka Prefecture established an action plan to develop an active and lively aging society. We aim at creating a society where elderly persons can live a comfortable life of their own accord. We strive for a society where elderly persons and their families feel secure, maintain their good health, live a vibrant life, and receive satisfying services.

Shizuoka Universal Design

As we face an increasing aging society, Universal Design is becoming more and more critical. In 1999, Shizuoka Prefecture, for the first time in Japan, adopted the Universal Design as a primary concept of administrative operation. Shizuoka Prefecture adapted Dr. Ron Mace's concept of Universal Design to establish Shizuoka Universal Design. We regard Shizuoka Universal Design as a standard idea for government, industry and residents to develop user-friendly communities, goods, and environment.

Shizuoka Universal Design Promoting System

With me as the head and department directors as members, the Shizuoka Universal Design Headquarters encourage all departments of the administration to apply Universal Design in their operations. Also, the Universal Design Committee has been established with scholars and experts in the areas of urban transportation, architecture and industrial design to provide advice and suggestions to the prefecture.

"Shizuoka Universal Design 2010"

Currently, various measures have been implemented based on the second phase action plan, with a target year of 2010.
The action plan consists of the following:

• 1. Promotion of the Universal Design concept
• 2. Development of resident-friendly societies
• 3. Development of user-friendly goods
• 4. Providing services and information to satisfy everyone
• 5. Encouraging everyone to participate in a society

102 numerical targets are within the Universal Design action plan. The target oriented management system based on the new public management was adopted for the administration. By continuously reviewing the plan through a Plan-Do-Check-Action cycle, the Universal Design action plan is constantly improved. Also, each action is reviewed and evaluated through the assessment internally by the members of the Universal Design Headquarters and the externally by the Committee of Specialists.

Creating an Enabling Environment Shizuoka Universal Design Promoting System

Let me introduce some examples of actions based on the Shizuoka Universal Design action plan for creating an enabling environment with Universal Design. In order to promote the idea of Universal Design, lectures for municipal officials, the private sector, and pupils of elementary and junior high schools are held. Guidelines and manuals to adopt Universal Design are provided for various areas including architecture, printing, and events.

Envelope with Shizuoka Prefecture's Logo Printed

After the design was reviewed from a Universal Design point of view, the logo was embossed and notches at the sticking tab were introduced for easier recognition by everyone including elderly persons, foreigners as well as visually disabled people.

Printed Matter with Audio Code

The audio code printed on the brochures is recognized by a reading device and transformed into voice message for the people with visual disabilities.

Education

A training manual for school teachers is provided on the website. Universal Design has been mentioned in textbooks for elementary and junior high school students and schools are working together with municipalities and non-profit organizations to offer events and classes for children to experience the inconveniences that elderly persons and persons with disabilities face.

Shizuoka University of Art and Culture

In April 2000, the Shizuoka University of Art and Culture was opened. Established by Shizuoka Prefecture and operated by the private sector, the school's aims include developing creative and flexible human resources to meet the needs of the future. The university is equipped with audio signs and slopes as it incorporates the Universal Design as its basic philosophy of education. In November 2008, the university will host the Universal Design International Symposium in collaboration with Shizuoka Prefecture.

Accessible Sidewalks

We are working on a sidewalk that will satisfy the needs of various people including those with children, the elderly, women in high heels, wheelchair users, and people with visual disabilities. Several mock-ups were used for wheelchair users to inspect before implementation. As a result of a series of inspections using the mock-up, the tiles were placed closely to each other as to not make gaps for wheelchair users, and permeable tiles were used for better access on rainy days.

Public Toilets

Extra space is included for a wheelchair and an ostomate, while hand rails are equipped in this multi-purpose toilet for everyone's convenience, including people with disabilities. Moreover, to answer various needs, a booth with a toilet for children and a small cot for diaper changing are provided in both the men's room and women's room.

Shizuoka General Hospital

Signs at Shizuoka's General Hospital became obsolete after a remodeling of the building, and they were reviewed and improved from a Universal Design point of view. Signs that can be recognized by the five senses were installed. For example, a new flooring material that allows persons with visual disabilities to receive messages through his/her feet that the corridors are intersected was introduced. All of the clinic departments are numbered for foreigners to easily understand and larger characters in brighter colors are used for elderly persons to easily recognize.

Residents' Awareness and Companies' Adoption

It will be ten years since Universal Design was introduced in the Shizuoka Prefecture. We have been working both on the hardware and software along with the promotion of the concept. As a result, residents' awareness has increased from 31% to 70%, while the percentage of companies adopting Universal Design has increased from 25% to 38%. The importance and the adoption of Universal Design are expected to increase as resident-friendly communities and user-friendly goods and services become more necessary in an aging society with a decreasing birth rate.

Furniture Adopting Universal Design

People sit on tatami floors in a Japanese room, but people often find it difficult to bend their knees as they get older. The seat of the chair is twelve inches high from the standpoint of ergonomics. The table and chairs are designed not to make scratches on the tatami floor. This company's sales of furniture using Universal Design, including a power assisted chair to reduce the load to the knees while standing up, exceeded 1 billion yen, which is about 9.4 million US dollars.

Supermarkets

Universal Design was introduced in supermarkets so that everyone, including children, elderly persons, and people with disabilities could enjoy shopping. Textile blocks for visually disabled people, shopping baskets for children, parking spaces for disabled and elderly persons, wider aisles, pet cages, and multipurpose toilets were installed.

The 3 rd International Universal Design Conference

I would like to take this opportunity to make an announcement that the 3rd International Universal Design Conference will be held in Shizuoka Prefecture in the fall of 2010, with the goals of achieving an attractive universal society through communication and exchanges of information regardless of profession, language and culture. We are looking forward to meeting many people from around the world as 15,000 visitors are expected to be at this conference.