施設のバリアフリー化を実現し、より安心してイルカと触れ合う体験を！

Introduction　～Purpose of this project〜

 

The Japan Dolphin Center, located in Sanuki City, Kagawa Prefecture, is a facility specializing in interaction with dolphins.

This year marks the 20th anniversary since its opening in 2004.

 

With the goal of "making life better with dolphins," our staff has been working hard to make our guests' lives better by providing them with opportunities to interact with dolphins regardless of disabilities, gender, age, or nationality, and by encouraging their smiles.

 

We have been supporting the experience of interacting with dolphins with a "barrier-free mind" at ...... so that people of all backgrounds can enjoy the experience with ease, but there was one issue that remained at our facility that we could not overcome.

 

That is the "barrier-free hardware" of the facility.

 

Since the main part of the facility faces the sea, it is continuously affected by sea breezes and typhoons, and the deterioration and damage to the hardware, such as rust damage and breakage, rain leaks, and peeling walls, are progressing rapidly, and it is all we can do to make minimal repairs on a case-by-case basis. The company has been unable to proceed with large-scale renovations due to the difficulty in securing financial and time resources for such work, affected by declining sales and soaring prices as a result of measures to combat new coronavirus infections.

 

However, now, while restructuring the plan, we have been able to prepare construction funds for this two-part reconstruction work through our own funds and loans from banks and other sources, and we are able to begin moving forward with the hardware barrier-free.

 

On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, we are still in a situation where we do not have enough funds, so we have decided to challenge crowdfunding in order to ask for your help in funding part of this rebuilding work.

 

 

 

 

What we can achieve with your support

 

The Japan Dolphin Center has decided to completely rebuild the shower building and administration building by the end of 2023, as we have been planning for some time. Your support through this project will be used to help pay for the reconstruction of the administration building.

 

 

Phase 2: Reconstruction of the administration building

 

Your support will be used to help pay for the reconstruction of the administration building for the second phase of the project, which will begin in October. The administration building will be used to receive rental equipment such as wetsuits for use by guests and as a changing area for those who need assistance changing clothes.

 

With your support, we plan to construct a shower changing room and restroom with a wide frontage and barrier-free access for people with disabilities and wheelchair users, as well as a nursing and diaper changing room for people with children, which was not previously available in the administration building.

 

The shower changing rooms with a wide frontage will be spacious enough to accommodate wheelchairs, etc., to make the administration building more accessible to visitors who have difficulty using the shower building that was completed in July.

 

In addition, since the entrance to the current administration building faces the road, the entrance will be moved to a location off the road in order to prevent accidents.

 

▲Image of the shower building and administration building after completion.

 

 

Our Philosophy　～Happy dolphins and happy customers! ～

 

We believe that the most important thing in our business of interacting with dolphins is "that the dolphins themselves are happy and find the interaction enjoyable" so that all people, regardless of disability, age, gender, or nationality, can enjoy the experience.

 

We sometimes hear people say that the dolphins are "fishing with food" or "just following the trainer's instructions," perhaps because of the image of being controlled by humans in terms of interaction and training. Of course, we feed our dogs on a daily basis, and we sometimes feed them as a reward after training in which they use their brains and move their bodies by practicing tricks and other skills. We also ask our guests to feed the dolphins when interacting with them.

 

In reality, however, when the dolphins are playing or interacting with customers, they often do not want to be fed and want that time to continue. We believe that this is truly a sign that the dolphins feel that they are not being "force" to interact with each other, but rather that they are playing.

 

When guests and dolphins interact and play with each other, neither gender, nationality, age, nor disability affects their relationship with each other. The dolphins want to play with humans, and that alone creates a program that can be enjoyed by all.

 

Our goal is to "enrich people's daily lives through contact with dolphins. This is not only to make people smile and enjoy their time with the dolphins, but also to have a positive impact on their lives afterwards.

 

Some of our customers have found their future dreams of becoming dolphin trainers through their interactions with dolphins, or are working hard in their daily school lives or jobs with the goal of playing with dolphins.

 

Also, through interacting with dolphins, they can develop an interest in other living creatures, become interested in marine debris issues, and gain confidence from the successful experience of playing well with dolphins...

Although interacting with dolphins is an extraordinary experience, we hope that it will have an impact on the rest of their lives and enrich their daily lives.

 

 

This time, rather than simply asking for your support, we would like to make this project a project that will help people to get to know the Japan Dolphin Center and connect with us, regardless of whether or not they support us.

 

We would like to ask for your support for the Japan Dolphin Center through this crowdfunding project.