Japanese manufacturers are stepping up efforts to develop products that are easier to use for the disabled, including a 3-D copying system for the visually impaired and easy-to-operate public lavatories.
Spurring the development of these new products was the introduction of nursing care insurance for the elderly in 2000.
The copying system, a tactile graphic copier, was developed jointly by what is now the Konica Minolta Group in Tokyo and Matsumoto Yushi-Seiyaku Co. of Yao, Osaka Prefecture, in 1980 to assist people with defective vision.