When a discriminatory remark is uttered during a public meeting hosted by a municipality, it is the city officials' responsibility to demonstrate their categorical rejection of bigotry by admonishing the offender on the spot.

But Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura and others failed to live up to their obligation during a city-hosted public forum on June 3.

The gathering was held to discuss restoration work on Nagoya Castle's wooden tower.

When a man in a wheelchair called for the installation of an elevator that would go to the top floor of the five-story tower, another man told him off to the effect, "Forget the elevator. Get used to not having it."

Then, another individual interjected, using a derogatory term for physically disabled people and went on to argue, "Who's going to maintain the elevator? (The maintenance cost) is a waste of tax money."

This even elicited applause from the audience.

Such remarks should never have been allowed. The moderator or any of the city officials in attendance should have immediately confronted or reprimanded the offenders. But no such intervention was made, and the meeting simply went on.

After the event, Kawamura told reporters, "I couldn't really hear (the offending remarks)."

The city took the video of the meeting offline, and the mayor apologized two days later for failing to deal with the derogatory term about disabled people.

But that was the extent of his "mea culpa," and Kawamura has since refrained from expressing any opinion, effectively ending further discussion of his own responsibility.

Does the mayor understand his obligation, as an elected public official, to leap into action and fight any form of discrimination? We seriously doubt it.

As barrier-free access to the castle was the theme of the June 3 forum, there was every possibility of people's deep-rooted bigotry rearing its ugly head during the meeting.

The city should have foreseen and prepared for that.

One of the indirect causes of this June 3 case probably lay in the city's long-held attitude.

Barrier-free debate has been going on for years, and support groups for the physically disabled have repeatedly demanded--as did the Japan Federation of Bar Associations last year--that an elevator that goes to the top floor be installed in Nagoya Castle.

But obsessed with "faithful restoration (of the castle) based on historical facts," the city has continued to ignore the demand.

The only concession the city has made is to consider installing small elevators that will be wheelchair accessible, but they will be designed to travel only between the basement and the ground floor of the part of the castle that is inside the stone fence.

That is practically tantamount to saying it's unnecessary to consider the needs of people with disabilities. And didn't this mindset reveal itself during the forum in the discriminatory remarks and the misguided notion that they were deserving of applause?

As someone who was present at the meeting, Kawamura needs to humbly and quietly reflect upon his own behavior.

The original Nagoya Castle was a government-designated national treasure when it burned down during World War II in an air raid in 1945. We can certainly appreciate how proud Nagoya citizens must be to restore their treasure to its former glory with cutting-edge technology.

And that is precisely why we want everyone to stop for now and think about how best to restore it to everyone's satisfaction.

Anyone can become a wheelchair-user, which will be all the more likely as society continues to age.

A recent survey of Nagoya citizens found that about half of respondents supported installing small elevators that will go to the top floor.

While a 100-percent restoration of the castle is impossible anyway, it does not stand to reason to ignore barrier-free access requirements solely among the many other needs in today's society.

The city is now in the final stages of drawing up its castle restoration plans for submission to the Cultural Affairs Agency. And people with disabilities must not be excluded from the plans.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 7