As Japan prepares to host its second Paralympics next summer, one social welfare group can look back on over five decades of effort it has made to achieve the vision of a pioneering doctor who many consider to be the father of sports for disabled people in Japan.

Set up in 1965, just a year after the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics, Japan Sun Industries has been building communities where disabled people can live independent lives based on the mission of its late founder Yutaka Nakamura, who believed in providing opportunities rather than charity.

In the hot-springs resort of Beppu, Oita Prefecture, for instance, JSI set up a host of facilities, including a grocery store, bank, training facility and several workplaces, all designed to be easily accessible by people with disabilities.