Competitive video gaming is booming worldwide, with global e-sports revenues estimated in more than US$1 billion dollars, and many think it might one day be on the Olympics.
The sector is not really as big in Japan as in e-sports-crazy China and South Korea, but it is gradually starting to consider root.
Enthusiastic to offer Japanese players with disabilities an opportunity to be part of the motion, social welfare employee Daiki Kato started a company called ePara in 2016.
Kato’s firm utilizes players such as Hatakeyama and Kitamura, who are both 28, and gives them time to practice around their additional duties, which include focusing on the company’s website and helping organise gaming events.
Hatakeyama mostly enters Road Fighter V tournaments that are open to anyone – disabled or non-disabled – and says the beauty of fighting games is that “you can overcome impediments and compete towards different people”.
“When I play in a tournament We don’t want my disability to be an issue, ” he said.
“I wish to move people with the way in which I play. inch