News in Easy English: Osaka station opens special spaces to help people calm down

The Mainichi

3 days ago

TOKYO -- Osaka Metro opened a special place called "calm down, cool down" spaces at Yumeshima Station in Osaka. The station opened this January for the Expo (a big world event) in Osaka. These are the first calm-down spaces like this at a station in Japan.
These spaces help people who feel very sensitive to things like bright lights, loud noises, or too many people. They can feel safe inside and relax quietly.
Each space at Yumeshima Station has two booths. Each booth has a grey sofa and is about 1.8 meters high, 1.5 meters wide, and 1.5 meters deep. The booths are near the ticket gates on each side.
Jiei Kato, 19, is a company president in Tokyo. He also has sensory sensitivity. He visited these spaces and said good things and bad things about them. He was glad the booths were quiet, black-colored outside, and in a place with few people. But he said they had some problems, too. For example, the booths had no roof and felt too bright. It was also easy to see people in the next booth. People felt worried because there was no clear sign showing if the booth was being used or not.
Kato said, "People who have sensory sensitivities often want privacy. They feel safe if other people cannot see them going in or coming out."
Osaka Metro said these special spaces are still new and that they can make them better in the future. They plan to change things after receiving ideas from users like Kato. They have already added a light outside each space to show when a booth is busy.
Kato's ideas helped create calm-down spaces in other places at the Expo event, too. Those new spaces have adjustable lights and less noise.
While there are some problems, Kato said these calm-down spaces are very helpful. He said even if people never use them, knowing these spaces exist can help people feel safer and go to more places.
(Japanese original by Natsumi Hara, Tokyo Bureau)