Minoru Maeda dreads going outside alone. For him, one wrong step could be fatal.

Maeda, 61, is one of 160,000 Japanese registered as legally blind. "When I go out with my white cane, cars still speed right past me. It really scares me," says Maeda, who lost his sight 13 years ago due to eye disease. Now unemployed, he lives alone in Tokyo's Ota Ward.

Several years ago, he learned firsthand just how perilous things can be. At a train station, he walked right off the platform, hit the tracks and broke his wrist.

But Maeda was luckier than many others. In November 1999, a visually impaired person who fell off a platform in Gifu Prefecture died from the fall. Others have been killed or maimed after being hit by trains. While official records of such incidents are not kept, the Japan Federation of the Blind estimates that two out of three blind people have fallen from station platforms.

"In the past, the problem was much worse," says federation Chairman Yoshihiko Sasagawa, 67, who lost his sight at age 16. He has fallen from platforms three times. The yellow "Braille blocks," first introduced in the 1960s, have greatly reduced accidents, he says, but they could be improved by widening them from the current 30 cm to 60 cm. He also thinks they should be more widely used in areas outside of stations.

However, according to Masahiro Muroya, director of the Transport Consumer Policy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Policy Bureau, the blocks have drawbacks. In particular, women who wear high heels and wheelchair-users have complained about them.

"The best solution is installing walls along the edges of platforms, with sliding doors to prevent people falling on the tracks," he says. Such platform doors are now used at several newer Tokyo stations, but Muroya says the high cost and space restrictions make them unrealistic for all of them.

Instead, his ministry is focusing on more cost-effective alternatives. Earlier this month, it announced the testing of a new sound-based guidance system using transmitters in roads and buildings to relay messages to people with mobile receivers, helping them locate barrier-free routes. The system is not expected to be up and running until at least 2003, and it will be many years before it is standard equipment, a spokesman said.

In view of Japan's rapidly aging population mix, the government has already implemented many disabled-friendly initiatives such as the "barrier-free law," which went into effect last November, and 1994's so-called "heart building law," which encourages the installation of disabled-friendly aids, like Braille, in public places such as ramps and elevators. However, disabled interest groups have criticized these laws, calling them weak and ineffective.

Meanwhile, the number of blind people is expected to increase as Japan's population ages. Between 1991 and 1996 (the last data available from the regular five-yearly surveys), the proportion of the visually impaired aged 60 or over rose from 62.7 to 67 percent.

Naturally, those who lose their sight later in life have different needs from the congenitally blind. "Whereas people blind from birth can more or less get around by themselves with only a cane, those who become blind later in life need assistance when going outdoors," says Koichi Wakatsuki of the Japan Guide Dog Association.

Although acceptance of guide dogs here is growing, Wakatsuki explains, a 1999 survey found that approximately 50 percent of guide-dog users reported being refused entry into apartments, hotels, supermarkets, restaurants or taxis. While it is illegal to turn guide dogs away from public transportation, including taxis, these rules are not always followed, and other public areas are not covered by such regulations at all.

"Guide dogs are not pets," Wakatsuki says. "People don't know the facts about them, and there are still many instances where they are not accepted."

Many Japanese are often frightened "because of the size of the dogs," he says. However, because their training is strict, they will not even bite an attacker stealing from their owners, he says. They also only go to the bathroom on command and never bark or eat off tables.

Despite strong demand for the canine helpers, guide-dog programs remain underfunded. The nation's eight registered associations, which give out the dogs for free, receive little government support and must raise about 95 percent of their funds from charity. Due to the high cost of rearing and training the dogs, between 3 million yen and 9 million yen each, there are constant shortages.

Morio Sugai, 47, of Yokohama, waited a year for the dog he got last October. Before that, he relied on his wife or friends when he needed to get somewhere. "I always had to think about what time was convenient for other people," says Sugai, who had to quit his job as a teacher three years ago after a progressive eye disease rendered him nearly blind.

After several near-misses, including brushes with cars and almost falling off station platforms, he decided to get a dog. "When I use a guide dog, I feel safer," he says, "and I think about going out more -- I even get some exercise."

Back in Ota Ward, Maeda says he would like a guide dog, too, but his lease forbids it. Under current law, landlords are under no obligation to accept tenants with guide dogs. Thus, Maeda depends on "guide helpers" -- people dispatched free of charge through local-government programs. He calls on them up to 15 times a month to go to the supermarket and do other errands. But helpers are not always available, must be booked in advance and don't work nights. "If I need one and they can't come, sometimes I just choose to suffer at home," he says.

The blind, 74 percent of whom are unemployed, depend largely on outside assistance to get by, and the Japanese, at least traditionally, are not known for their active concern toward others. But times might be changing, Wakatsuki explains.

Just as the recent terrorist attacks in the United States stirred philanthropy in general, the Great Hanshin Earthquake opened the floodgates for charitable giving in Japan, he says. His organization's revenue, which had been declining, suddenly surged after that natural disaster in 1995, and has grown by 2 to 3 percent annually ever since.

"The volunteer spirit in Japan has been awakened," he says.