Tokyo Olympic games is a large barrier to library access

    Yesterday the Tokyo metropolitan reported 714 new daily coronavirus cases. When the state of emergency since April was ended on June 20, Tokyo had 376 new cases. In about 10 days, it has grown about twice.

    I am living in the Tokyo suburb area, and I am a freelance journalist who covering science, technology, and social issues. Since 2011, the year of the Great East Japan Earthquakes, I have been well known as a journalist who has specialized in poverty issues. In addition, I started my doctoral study on social welfare policy making in Japan in 2014. Now I am writing the dissertation, and planning to finish it in this September.

    Also, I have disabilities. I use a wheelchair every time I will go out. When I get on buses or trains, drivers or station staffs help me. It means I have opportunities to contact other persons without enough social distances. In about these 5 years, station staffs have been reduced and support for persons with needs have been outsourced for security companies. But the workers from those companies are not employed and trained to work in stations and help people with disabilities. I should brace for discriminations and inadequate treat against me. Of course, I can raise my voice to change those situations, but no one is responsible for these situations. 

    At a station in Tokyo metropolitan area, an aged male worker of a security company worked for several years to support passengers in wheelchairs, but the person liked to touch female passenger's body. I think it was sexual harassment, but in the Japanese context, he will never be punished. I know some women in wheelchairs hated him and avoided to use the station. "Fortunately", many aged workers left their jobs because of Covid-19. Since 2020, I didn't see him.

    Anyway, the problem for me is the rising risk of infection. I don't agree to have Olympics in this summer, but Japanese government will never give up. I think I should avoid to be in Tokyo metropolitan area till this September, the Paralympic games will end up. I have 2 cats. I receive visits by care helpers twice a week. I should not infect to save my cats and the care helpers. 

    There is a large problem. To avoid being in metropolitan area means that I can't access the National Diet Library. I am attending the graduate school in Kyoto, and it is difficult to access the university library in the same reason. I should finish my assertion with resources that I can access. 

    Of course, my work as a journalist have been restricted by Covid-19 in the same reason. With minimum face-to-face coverage, with minimum use of transportation, with restricted resources, I have been continuing my job. I think I loved sports, but now I wonder my love for sports was real or not. Now for me, Tokyo Olympics are severe threat and large barriers. As a result, many Japanese who like to play or watch sports allowed to have Olympics in this summer amid Covid-19, and there is no measure to stop it.