A temple was criticized for asking visitors not to use baby buggy

In Japan, many people visit shrine or temple on the first 3 days of the year.
It is a culture called "Hatsu-moude" (初詣), and they pray for their happiness, family's safety or success at university exams.

But this year one big dispute occurred on a temple in Tokyo.
Jorenji Temple at Itabashi Ward, Tokyo has set up a sign that asks visitors of hatsu-mode not to use baby buggy in the precincts.

This problem spread across Japan via Twitter very swiftly.

Some say,
・Baby buggy is dangerous in the crowd. It may hit somebody and hurt him/her.
・I feel sorry for the baby in the buggy. It is not good to expose a baby to the crazy crowd.
Since this temple has history and famous, many people visits these at the beginning of a year.
Therefore they worry about injury or health condition of the baby.

Others say
・It is a pure discrimination, I feel bad. I decided not to go there this year.
・How about wheel chair...

On the other hand, there is a good reason for that temple to ask for it.

Two years ago, an elderly lady stumbled upon a baby buggy and she got hurt.
Therefore temple was forced to take precautious measure to prevent these accidents from happening again.

The archbishop of this temple commented that.

"Maybe I should have more detailed explanation on this. We did not ban visitors from using buggy. We just wanted them to be careful "

Hatsu-moude is one of the biggest events in Japan.
So many people visit a shrine or a temple at the same time and precinct of shrine or temple gets crowded like crazy.

This kind of dispute can be happening at every big shrine or temple in Japan.

They must think of injury precaution method for the sake of babies whose lives are to be protected at any cost.