Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� November, 2003

Commendations for Contributors to the Promotion of Barrier-free Environments Thursday, November 27, 2003 A ceremony honoring contributors to the promotion of barrier-free environments was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. This ceremony is to honor organizations and individuals which have made outstanding achievements and contributions from the viewpoint of promoting barrier-free environments throughout society, in both soft and hard aspects, so that all persons, including the elderly and disabled, can lead a safe and pleasant social life. This year marks the second such ceremony. An enterprise which manages hotels that actively promote barrier-free environments received the Prime Minister's commendation. This enterprise has highly been assessed for taking in the opinions from the organizations for the disabled and elderly in the region, and improving the level of all the affiliated hotels by utilizing the experiences gained from renovating one hotel facility and the opinions of the users after the renovation when renovating another facility. The enterprise has also highly been evaluated for creating a service menu by type of disability and provides each disabled person with detailed service. In addition, 11 groups and individuals received the Chief Cabinet Secretary's commendation. In his address, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, "I hope that the various activities you have conducted will give further momentum to the promotion for barrier-free environments in the society."