Regular bookstores or libraries might not be much use to blind people, but there's one place in Tokyo where they can not only read and borrow books and meet others in similar situations, but also get advice on improving their quality of life — and even buy a range of everyday goods.
The Japan Braille Library in Tokyo's Takadanobaba district, which celebrated the 70th anniversary of its establishment last month, has played an instrumental role in the lives of some 300,000 visually impaired people in Japan.
One recent morning, some 20 people gathered at a meeting room in the four-story library to study Braille. Graduates of a Braille-reading program run by the library, they meet twice a month to further improve their skills. For Tetsuo Nozawa, the chair of the meeting who lost his sight at age 60 due to a hereditary disease, the library, he said, has made his "second life" possible.