By Frank Mondelli Garbled voices over loudspeakers, screens that don’t show last-minute schedule changes, crowded environments where it’s hard to see important – oftentimes, D/deaf and hearing-impaired persons are no strangers to travel complications, especially one what tend to be multi-step journeys like going to Japan. As organizations in Japan Read more…
By Accessible Japan reader, M. G. Koe no Katachi, or as it is known in English, A Silent Voice, is a 2016 Japanese anime movie based on the manga of the same name by Yoshitoki Ōima. On first look, its story is about being disabled or being bullied. However, after finishing the Read more…
By Cristina Hartmann My two-and-half weeks in Japan as someone with both vision and hearing impairments left me amazed—in a good way. My time in Tokyo, the megalopolis to end all megalopolises, and Sapporo, the largest city of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, showed me how different countries deal Read more…
By Mary Esther Penner “For 300,000 Japanese Deaf people, Japanese is a foreign language they have to study arduously to learn. In reality, their first language (their heart language that is naturally absorbed), is Japanese Sign Language (JSL). JSL is a visual language more different from Japanese than English is Read more…
At Sign With Me, a local soup Café in Tokyo customers are received by sign language and gestures from staff members. In Japan it is traditional to receive a ‘irasshaimase’ shouted as a welcome when a new customer enters into a restaurant but here it’s a much more quiet affair. Read more…
As mentioned in a previous post, Japan has its own form of sign language that draws from Chinese characters and Japanese culture. The Japanese Imperial Family has close ties to sign language as Princes Kiko is a strong advocate. Recently, Princess Kako – the 20-year-old second daughter of Prince Akishino Read more…