Paku Midin: CHANGES PARALYMPIAN LIVES IN DRAMATIC WAYS BY JAPANESE PROSTHETICS MAKER

CHANGES PARALYMPIAN LIVES IN DRAMATIC WAYS BY JAPANESE PROSTHETICS MAKER

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

TOKYO/PARIS

Few can take credit for changing lives in the dramatic ways prosthetist Fumio Usui has.

Some call him a pioneer, responsible for introducing sports prosthetics to Japan and later platforming several Paralympians who have gone on to achieve extraordinary things.

With the Paris Paralympics bringing a fresh surge of inclusive energy to the French capital, Usui said several prominent Japanese para athletes have put their trust in his equipment to deliver at the games, including badminton bronze medalist Daisuke Fujihara and runner Sae Tsuji.

The Tokyo-based prosthetist said his first real exposure to amputees and disability issues was when his teacher in elementary school had his leg amputated.

He recalled his late 20s, when he was unemployed and visited what was then Japan's largest prosthetic manufacturer, which primarily made artificial limbs for rail accident victims.

"As luck would have it, they had a job vacancy," Usui, now 69, said, adding that at the time, no formal qualifications were required to get into the industry.

Having always had an interest in helping people, Usui joined the organization, which is now called the Tetsudo Kousaikai Foundation's Prosthetics and Orthotics Support Center in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward.

He has not looked back since, and says the reason why he does his work has not changed.

"It's because it makes people happy," Usui said. "Especially kids."

When children with limb deficiencies try on prosthetics, "they become limitless in terms of muscle prowess, communication skills, and confidence," he said.

Usui first learned of sports prosthetics when he saw athletes from countries like the United States and Australia use them at the Paralympics, and grew eager to bring the technology to Japan.

Around the same time, more pliable carbon prostheses began appearing on the market, replacing traditional wooden models.

He ended up developing the first sports prostheses worn by Japanese Paralympic athletes at the Sydney Games in 2000, a sporting event he also attended.

Usui has developed a reputation as the go-to guy for prosthetics in Japan, sought out by past, present and aspiring Paralympians.

Shino Kawai, 32, is one of them. Although she did not qualify for the Paris Games, she has already set her sights on Los Angeles in 2028.

Despite being born with both legs, Kawai's left one was not functional. She was forced to use a wheelchair and eventually developed a tumor, leaving her no choice but to have the limb amputated.

She had dedicated herself to wheelchair fencing and aimed to represent Japan in Paris, but decided to take up badminton with an eye on the 2028 games after failing to qualify, alongside having recently had her amputation.

"It was hard because I trained for around six years to get to Paris...but I am still pleased with my work," she said. "I want to see how far I can push myself," she said, adding that she sought out Usui's prosthetics for precisely this reason.

People who have benefitted from Usui's skills can be found throughout Japan, particularly on Wednesday evenings on the running track at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Even on humid summer nights when breaking a sweat comes easy, the group, made up of people who run just for fun as well as Paralympic hopefuls, can be often seen practicing their sprints alongside other non-disabled athletes.

"This group is for diehards," Usui said, adding that he has a much bigger event once a month called Startline Tokyo that people travel from all over Japan to attend.

Atsuko Matsuura, 30, who has competed in para sports at a national level and attended a recent Wednesday evening session, was there to make adjustments to her prosthetic leg to find her groove.

"I can only thank him," Matsuura said of Usui, who invited her to the event shortly after her leg was amputated due to a tumor. "He showed me a future," she said.

"I'm just doing this because I like it and I can move my body, while lately, I've also been trying to surpass my own personal record," she said.

Usui's work has also caught the attention of other entrepreneurs in Japan, like Ken Endo, bioengineer and CEO of Xiborg Inc., a firm that developed highly advanced prostheses for both daily and sports use.

"(Usui's) a very big buy in prosthetics in Japan," Endo said.

"Xiborg started in 2014," Endo said, "and focuses on developing technology for professional athletes from a biomechanics perspective...while we also utilize that same technology to create prostheses for everyday life."

Two of Xiborg's main products are called the "Blade for the One" and "Blade for All," the former being for serious sports competitors, and the other for use in daily life.

Xiborg, like Usui, has also sent its technology to Paris, with Endo saying that U.S. track athlete and multiple Paralympic medalist Blake Leeper brought the equipment to compete in the French capital.

Meanwhile, back at the support center in Arakawa Ward, Usui says that although he is of retirement age, he is "still kicking."

"They said I can keep working for a little longer, but we are also training younger specialists," he said, conceding that age may be finally starting to catch up with him. "But of course, I want to keep doing this forever."

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