Norimasa Nishida、president of Toyoko Inn Co., speaks Jan. 27 about allegations over his hotels of removing mandatory facilities for the disabled people after the hotels had passed inspection.

Toyoko Inn President Norimasa Nishida (pictured) admitted to the illegal modification at a hastily convened news conference Jan. 27 after a newspaper reported the transgression.

Toshiko Kato, in charge of opening new properties for the Tokyo-based chain of business hotels, said at a separate news conference that the company has long engaged in the practice of converting facilities originally set up for the disabled into those for general customers after passing inspection.

Such changes are in violation of the Building Standard Law and the special law for the elderly and disabled, which aims to make building facilities free of barriers for these people.

The chain is also suspected of converting guest rooms tailored for disabled people into conference rooms or removing handrails at premises in at least eight prefectures.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 4, 2006
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