Photo/Illutration A station worker learns how to guide a blind passenger during a training session held at Inzai-Makinohara Station on the Hokuso Line in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, in November 2020. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Hirotaka Yamasaki, who works at Wakayama City Hall, goes to the bus stop after 7 a.m. every morning and waits for the same bus.

Getting on and off a bus is a real challenge for Yamasaki, 59, who is blind. But taking this particular bus is different because there is always a schoolgirl assisting him.

More than 10 years ago, Yamasaki was at the Kitsunejima Miyamae bus stop near the mouth of the Kinokawa river when he heard a young girl's voice telling him, "The bus is here."

Clearly having noticed his white cane, the girl tapped him lightly on his hip to guide him to the bus door. Then she called to other passengers, asking them to help him get seated.

Yamasaki was deeply moved.

He had been diagnosed with retinal pigmentary degeneration, a rare progressive disease that causes tunnel vision and eventually leads to severe vision impairment.

He initially had commuted to work on a motorbike. But when he became unable to even ride a bicycle, he switched to the bus.

After the girl graduated from elementary school, her younger sister and other girls--all pupils at the elementary school attached to Wakayama University--inherited the task.

Last autumn, Yamasaki expressed his thanks in an essay, which he submitted to an essay contest sponsored by the national central society of credit cooperatives.

His piece won the grand prize, which resulted in his visiting the school in January and meeting with four of the girls together for the first time.

I read his essay, which was filled with words of gratitude. "Thanks to this relay of simple acts of kindness, I think I'll be able to keep working until it's time to retire," Yamasaki wrote.

After interviewing him, I stood at the bus stop. The traffic was heavy, and the day was windy. I could imagine how reassuring the girls' little hands must have felt to Yamasaki.

April 1 is the start of the fiscal and scholastic years in Japan, and some people must be waiting for their ride at a bus stop or train station for the first time.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic requires us to observe social distancing and refrain from unnecessary personal interaction, I hope nobody will be made to feel lost and helpless during this year.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 1

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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