United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

In March 2006 Saga Prefecture formulated Guidelines for Saga Universal Design Promotion and set universal design as one of the basic concepts of prefectural administration promotion. The fundamental goal of the guidelines is to make a society where three generations can have a happy, enjoyable and secure life while feeling relaxed and warm.

The following issues appeared as tasks in realizing this basic goal:
Recently the idea of accessibility has widespread among many public facilities such as shopping centers, hotels and libraries, and parking spaces for people with disabilities were maintained.

This is due to the following stated in Japanese law and in the regulations of local public institutions: Public facilities exceeding a certain size should set up a disability parking space with a width of 3.5m or more per a car at where it is easy to enter and exit.

However, there are no unified rules on the management of disability parking spaces and it is unclear who may use these parking spaces.

Moreover, people with disabilities often said “it is difficult to park in disability parking spaces.” Certainly there is an issue with the number of reserved disability parking spaces, but many of them also said “we are inconvenienced because we cannot use disability parking spaces since people without disabilities who park their cars in those spaces.”

Saga Prefecture is trying to make itself a place where anyone can be themselves and live a secure life.
In order to achieve this, creating a system that allows people to support those in need became necessary.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
In order to make disability parking spaces available for people who really need it, Saga Prefecture led the country in implementing a parking permit (disabled parking permit) system since July 2006. This system allows us to reserve spaces for users with disabilities with cooperation from both users and facility managers who manage disability parking spaces. The following is the number of people issued with the permit and that of supporting facilities from the time of the introduction to this system: July 2006 March 2007 March 2008 March 2009 March 2010 People issued 573 3,423 5,645 7,812 10,626 with the permit Supporting facilities 221 423 517 892 1,200 Issuing the permit made it clear who can use a disability parking space, so users became able to conveniently park their cars. It became easier for facility managers to identify whether the car parked on a disability parking space is allowed to park or not and to warn people who abuse disability parking spaces. The results of user surveys, which were conducted in March 2007 (first survey) and March 2009 (second survey), showed that 55% of users in the first survey and 58% of users in the second survey answered “disabled parking space abuse has decreased” compared to the pre-introduction to the system. Also, 75% of users in the first survey and 78% of users in the second survey answered “it became easier to park” in disability parking spaces.

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Guidelines for Saga Universal Design Promotion were formulated in March 2006 by having 8 advisors including representatives of various organizations in the prefecture and nationally active experts. The parking permit was proposed by Mr. Yasuhiro Yamazaki, who is one of the advisors and a CEO of Access International Co. in Tokyo. Reformist governor Mr. Furukawa is aiming a society that can be a role model in various fields of social and economic activities. He implemented the parking permit system as one of the policies for realizing a desired society. The parking permit system covers not only people with disabilities, but also people who have trouble walking due to a physical disability, injury, pregnancy, age or intractable disease. In order for people with trouble walking can use the permit with satisfaction, we planned the parking permit system after hearing opinions from organizations of people with disabilities and seniors, child-rearing groups and counselling/support centers for intractable diseases. Permits are valid for five years for people with permanent physical disabilities, for a period of time when having trouble walking (for maximum one year) for injured people, and from the seventh month of pregnancy until three months after giving birth for pregnant women. We set the effective period according to various physical conditions. Four years have passed since this system has been implemented and currently we are receiving words of appreciation, demands and questions from citizens. In order to make this system more satisfactory in future, we hope to improve where it should be improved while being open to feedback from users and facility managers.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Saga Prefecture implemented the parking permit system from July 2006 and formulated Guidelines for Saga Universal Design Promotion in March 2006. The following points were considered as basic attitudes in promoting universal design: 1. Promotion of accessibility aimed at universal design. Promote accessibility as one of the important tasks to be realized in future. 2. Value the process. Value the process of listening to users’ opinions on conceptual plan, designing, construction and every level of usage, and making an improvement. 3. Pursuit of ideals. Always re-examine and try making an improvement, and put an effort in pursuing user-friendly designs to meet everyone’s needs. 4. Unaffected design. Let all users to naturally accept the design. Take an extra care not to give users special consciousness. 5. Collaboration with citizens. Listen to various opinions of citizens/users and work hard to make Saga a better place with a collaboration of citizens and CSO. When implementing this policy we worked from the 4 fields of “Machi-zukuri (community development)”, “Mono-zukuri (Creation of products)”, “Soft-zukuri (creation of information and services)” and “Ishiki/kokoro- zukuri (creation of awareness and mind)”. Saga Prefecture was the first in the country to introduce the parking permit as a part of “Machi-zukuri”, which aims for making a user-friendly town for everyone. This system allows people in need of disability parking spaces like those in wheelchairs to use those spaces. Thus, the parking permit system gained understanding from many citizens on the meaning of the system and was accepted by the society.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
After formulating Guidelines for Saga Universal Design Promotion, we formulated Saga Prefectural Universal Design Implementation Plan in January 2007 to systematically proceed with works in each field. Here we came up with 73 detailed examples and spread universal design work all over the prefecture. In February 2009 we re-examined from the perspective of enhancing effectiveness of the plan. We set up a quantitative indicator on an achievement marker for the next 5 years (2009~2013) and formulated Saga Prefectural Universal Design Implementation Plan (Ver.2) with a progress schedule for achieving our goal. In order to make policies in this plan be effective, “Conference of Saga Prefecture Universal Design Promotion Office (Head: Governor)” in the prefectural government office managed the plan and adjusted important policies. The plan for the parking permit set the target number of supporting facilities in 2014 as 1,200 and that of permits issued as 12,000. The current (end of September 2010) number of supporting facilities is 1,430 and that of permits issued is 12, 738, far surpassing the first target number. We are working hard continuously to open up new supporting facilities so permit users can use their car in a safe and comfortable environment.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
There have been two problems since the introduction of the system. 1. Measures against disability parking space abuse Asking for the permit without any punishment to people who park their car without the permit and putting peer pressure on them by citizens do not cost anything and are more effective. Also, this way, combined with the prefecture’s educational activity for universal design consciousness, increases cooperation’s and CSO’s consciousness and creates supporting activities for people with disabilities. This also helps recover human connections in local community and will eventually increase social capital. Therefore, we are certain that this way is replicable for local governments with a difficult financial condition. For this system to settle into the society smoothly, it was necessary to try spreading the system among citizens and to gain their understanding on the meaning of the system. Thus, we conducted advertising activity toward a target permit users and many organizations by distributing flyers. Since the prefecture was the first in the country to introduce this system, it was featured in mass media such as newspapers and became well known in the public. However, there are still drivers who do not seem to fully understand the system. In future in-depth publicity for drivers is necessary. 2. Securing parking spaces Permit users have increased since the spread of the system and there has been a need to secure more parking spaces. With cooperation from facility managers, it has been decided to secure parking spaces by applying disabled parking markings in a prefecture’s target parking lot for people who have trouble walking, especially for those with internal disabilities.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
In introducing the system we had to prepare the permit and information sticker. We made the permit to be easy to place inside the car and easy to be seen from outside. We chose polypropylene for the permit since the material had to be resistant to heat and to last more than 5 years (effective period of permit). We chose vinyl chloride for the information sticker since it had to last outside and be resistant to ultraviolet. This kind of technical support was from the private sector. Also, technical support for applying road markings for the “Parking Permit Plus One Campaign” started from January 2010 is from manufacturers. For information signs at private facilities, high school students of Saga Prefectural High School Industry Research Group helped making information signs after finishing training on universal design and by using private fund signs were provided to facility managers at a low price. For advertising activity to create system’s publicity, we posted it on the prefecture’s website and also used mass media such as flyers and newspapers. Costs for order intake of products, making flyers and advertisement on newspapers were provided by the prefecture. Application of road markings and temporary employees’ labor costs were provided by the country. Work was performed by employees of the Regional Welfare Division of Saga Prefectural Government and of five health and welfare offices which are established as prefecture’s regional offices.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
We are trying to reflect problems of the system and improvement of administration in the practice by sending out surveys to users and facility mangers, opinion exchanges with such related organizations as organizations for people with disabilities and listening to opinions of employees working in the field. Annual cost for managing the system including making the permit and information sign is 500,000yen, which is not a huge amount. Problems the prefecture is facing are being asked to be dealt with by local governments all over the country regardless of regionality. The meaning of this system is easy to understand and it is creating an environment where people with disabilities can go out at ease. Also, it has been recognized that the system provides convenience for both users and facility managers. Thus, local governments implementing this system are increasing. This system spread out to 15 prefectures (as of the end of October 2010) and there are local governments examining this system to implement as soon as possible. Being featured in mass media, continuous visits by local governments’ assembly members and employees, and evaluation on its superiority and sustainability are contributing factors of the system being reproduced and spread all over the country. Moreover, we are encouraging other local government to make a permit issued by each local government can be mutually used. The system spread further since the permit can be used in other prefectures and people understood the users’ convenience is further improved.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
1. It was perceived as a social issue, but there was no detailed solution. 2. We implemented this as universal design work not only for people with disabilities but also for people having trouble with walking due to injury, pregnancy or age so people can think of this as a personal matter. 3. It is a system that included collaboration of facility managers to eliminate disabled parking space abuse. 4. Financial responsibility of the prefecture for managing the system is small.


Institution Name:		Regional Welfare Division, Health & Welfare Head Office, Saga Prefectural Government
Institution Type:		Government Agency
Contact Person:		Yoshiaki Mizuta
Title:		Section Chief
Telephone/ Fax:		+81-952-25-7053
Institution's / Project's Website:		+81-952-25-7264
E-mail:		chiikifukushi@pref.saga.lg.jp
Address:		1-1-59 Jonai
Postal Code:		840-8570
City:		Saga-shi
State/Province:		Saga
Country:		Japan

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information