Ensuring comfort for all: the renovation of facilities as an example UTokyo D&I Actions and Messages
― UTokyo D&I Campaign 2022 ―
The University of Tokyo has launched a campaign aimed at promoting diversity and inclusion on campus, and making the university a place where people from diverse backgrounds can thrive. The initiative, called UTokyo D&I Campaign 2022, started in March 2022. Here, we introduce plans and actions related to D&I initiatives from members of the UTokyo community, including deans and directors of various UTokyo organizations.
Actions and Messages
Ensuring comfort for all: the renovation of facilities as an example
Toru H. OKABE, Director General, Institute of Industrial Science (IIS)
The Institute of Industrial Science has long aimed to build a workplace that is comfortable for women, and an example of this is a room for women to take a rest when needed in a newly built facility when the Institute moved from central Tokyo to its current location in Komaba about 20 years ago. Since then, we have always been conscious of the expansion of D&I when renovating, and in 2019 we installed an all-gender restroom equipped with a powder space to accommodate all people including the LGBT community (Figure 1). The following year, the positive response to this facility led to the installation of a women’s powder room (Figure 2). In addition, we also plan to set up an organization with functions to promote D&I to develop not only the facilities but also intangible measures such as developing procedures and systems, awareness-raising and training, and human networks.
