In early spring 2024, a sign language learner living in Yakage Town contacted me and asked, “Would you like to take part in the Chugoku Region Joint Sign Language Training Workshop being held in July?”
Around the same time, I noticed that friends with hearing disabilities and sign language interpreters were frequently gathering in Kurashiki City, so I asked why. They told me, “We’re preparing for the Chugoku Region Joint Sign Language Training Workshop.”
I became curious about what kind of gathering the “Chugoku Region Joint Sign Language Training Workshop” was, since everyone from beginner sign language learners to people who use sign language every day talked about it, so I went along too.
The information presented was accurate when this article was published in August 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.
What Is the 31st Chugoku Region Joint Sign Language Training Workshop?
The 31st Chugoku Region Joint Sign Language Training Workshop was organized by the Chugoku Region Sign Language Circle Liaison Council and the Chugoku Block of the National Research Association for Sign Language Interpretation Issues.
In 2024, it was held over two days, Saturday, July 20, and Sunday, July 21, at Kirameki Plaza, the Okayama Prefectural General Welfare, Volunteer and NPO Center, under the theme “Land of Sunshine: A Circle of Friends Connected Hand in Hand.”
The organizing committee for the 31st Chugoku Region Joint Sign Language Training Workshop, made up of the Okayama Prefectural Branch of the National Research Association for Sign Language Interpretation Issues, the Okayama Prefectural Association for the Welfare of People with Hearing Disabilities, and other organizations, oversaw the event.
The two-day schedule was as follows.
A Packed Venue
At the opening ceremony, the director of the Okayama Prefectural Center for People with Hearing Disabilities said, “I’ve been the director here for five years, but I’ve never seen a meeting room this full.” By the time the ceremony began, the event was so well attended that chairs had been set up in the aisles on both sides.
The next day, tickets for the commemorative lecture were distributed starting 45 minutes before it began. So many people attended that those unable to enter the venue watched the livestream in another room.
I attended the opening ceremony and breakout sessions on the first day, as well as the program following the commemorative lecture on the second day, and will report on what it was like.
The Breakout Sessions
The Okayama Prefectural Branch of the National Research Association for Sign Language Interpretation Issues holds its own training workshop every year, with participants splitting into several breakout sessions to deepen their learning. In 2024, it became a large-scale workshop drawing participants from across the Chugoku Region, not just Okayama Prefecture. Building on its experience from previous years, the organizers set up the following five breakout sessions.
Heavy Rain Disasters: An Urgent Disaster Preparedness Issue in the Chugoku Region
I’m from Miyagi Prefecture, so the Great East Japan Earthquake is the disaster that comes most readily to mind.
I moved to Kurashiki from the Kanto region in December 2023, but I don’t know what preparations I, as a person with a hearing disability, need to make in the area where I live. So I attended Breakout Session 4: Daily Life (Disaster Preparedness), “Let’s All Learn About Disaster Preparedness—Are You Prepared for Disasters? Let’s Think Together About What We Can Do!”
Breakout Session 4 proceeded as follows.
- Share local initiatives
- Learn about disaster preparedness
- Think it through in a group workshop—let’s make a My Timeline
First, each group discussed what disaster preparedness initiatives were being carried out in the areas where they lived.
My group shared examples such as Kurashiki City distributing bandanas that people with hearing disabilities can use to identify themselves as such at evacuation shelters, and groups of people with hearing disabilities in Hiroshima Prefecture holding disaster preparedness study sessions together with sign language circles and notetaking circles.
Other groups included people affected by the Heavy Rain Event of July 2018. It was agreed that heavy rain disasters are an especially urgent issue for the Chugoku Region.
A Proposal for a My Timeline
Next, we learned more about disaster preparedness from Shimoyama Masanobu, a certified disaster prevention specialist with the Japan Bousaisi Organization.
According to Shimoyama, people are more likely to delay evacuating during a disaster when they strongly believe things like “I’ll be fine” or “It’ll be fine this time.” On the other hand, seeing people around them evacuate or being urged by others to evacuate can prompt people to act. This highlighted the need to work with those around us on disaster preparedness.
One practical example was creating a “My Timeline.” This is a way to visually organize what actions we can take from three days before a disaster occurs until the moment it strikes.
After hearing Shimoyama’s talk, each group began creating its own “My Timeline.”
Every group seemed to consider having a mobile battery and charging smartphones top priorities. Many people with hearing disabilities cannot hear spoken information on the phone or radio, so smartphones are essential for gathering information through video calls, text and video, and for communicating in writing at evacuation shelters.
At first, the focus tended to be on actions individuals could take on their own. But as each group created its “My Timeline” on a large sheet of paper, participants gradually began to recognize the need to work on disaster preparedness together with those around them, for example by “deciding who will check on people with disabilities during an evacuation” and “finding out who in the neighbourhood may need assistance.”
With Neighbourhood Ties Growing Weaker, Disaster Preparedness Proposed at the “Sign Language Circle” Level
My group included people living in relatively large cities such as Okayama City, Kurashiki City, and Onomichi City in Hiroshima Prefecture. As a result, the idea of “neighbours” did not really apply to us.
On the other hand, since this was a “sign language training workshop,” many participants belonged to sign language circles. Even if no one immediately comes to mind when asked to think of neighbours, picturing friends in a sign language circle makes it easier to think of specific people: “I’d like to check whether so-and-so has evacuated,” or “I’d like to check the contents of our emergency bags with everyone.”
In response to this exchange among participants, Shimoyama also suggested that “if more disaster prevention specialists with hearing disabilities and disaster prevention specialists who can interpret sign language were available, we might be able to develop disaster preparedness initiatives better suited to our needs.”
Apparently, there are already disaster prevention specialists with hearing disabilities and specialists who can interpret sign language.
The Commemorative Lecture
The second day began with the commemorative lecture.
The instructor was Nasu Eri, a Deaf person (a person with a hearing disability) who works across a wide range of fields, including as a sign-language entertainer, actor, and international sign-language interpreter. She has also appeared in the drama “silent” and on NHK E-Tele’s “Minna no Shuwa.”
Under the title “A society where Deaf people can live as equals: International exchange, international sign, and appearing in television dramas,” Nasu spoke from a Deaf person’s perspective about her activities and experiences, and what she wants to convey to people learning sign language.
Since Nasu is a woman in her twenties, many younger people also gathered at the venue—more than on the first day. The event was so popular that the venue was split into two areas: one for the live event and another where the online broadcast was screened.
Tickets for entry to the main venue were distributed from 8:45 a.m., but apparently some people had been lining up since around 8 a.m. I arrived almost as soon as reception opened and managed to get a ticket for the live event.
An introduction to international sign
Nasu’s talk began with an introduction to international sign, drawing on her experiences studying abroad and interning overseas.
Just as spoken languages differ from country to country, sign languages also differ by country. Due in part to historical factors such as colonial rule, some countries in Latin America use Spanish as their official language, while some African countries use French. Sign languages, however, have been less affected by such factors, and most countries have their own sign language.
So what language do people from different countries who use sign language use to communicate with one another? When it comes to spoken languages, they may often use English, but in sign language, international sign is used.
International sign is an equitable system of signs in the sense that it does not belong to any one country’s language, but it is still unfamiliar to sign-language learners and Deaf people living in Japan.
According to Nasu, international sign is not a language but a system of signs.
It is something like a list of words. For that reason, it is not suited to situations where emotions need to be expressed. However, it is apparently used as a system of signs understood around the world in settings where facts are conveyed, such as broadcasts of the Deaflympics (the Olympics for people with hearing disabilities) and instructions to athletes.
Next year (2025), the Deaflympics will be held in Japan. Since tourists with hearing disabilities are expected to visit from around the world, I felt that, as the host country, we should take an interest in international sign too.
Deaf people’s success leads to more opportunities for sign-language interpreters
After a break, Nasu, who works across a wide range of fields as a sign-language entertainer, actor, and international sign-language interpreter, spoke about how she changes the way she expresses herself in sign language depending on the role required in each situation.
Sign-language entertainers and actors express emotions vividly in order to “perform.” In contrast, the purpose of international sign-language interpreting is to “interpret,” so she conveys the facts without adding emotion. She also makes adjustments, such as avoiding overly large gestures, to reduce strain on her arms when signing alone for long periods.
As Nasu participates in society as a Deaf person, an indispensable presence is the sign-language interpreter.
Situations that require emotional expression in particular call for thorough discussions with the staff. She says it is difficult to work without a sign-language interpreter on a drama set, where all kinds of audio information are exchanged.
Along with expressing her gratitude to the sign-language interpreters who support her every day, she said, “When Deaf people succeed in society, the work of sign-language interpreters also continues to grow. That is precisely why Deaf people and sign-language interpreters should work hand in hand to build an equal society.”
I also have a hearing disability, so I regularly have opportunities to request sign-language interpreting in both my personal and professional life.
In those situations, I feel grateful that someone is interpreting for me, while also feeling somewhat apologetic that the interpreter is taking time out of their busy schedule for my sake.
However, listening to Nasu made me realize that by requesting sign-language interpreting, I might be helping to increase the work available to interpreters and improve their skills.
It was a valuable learning experience that made me feel that, when I request an interpreter from now on, I would like to do so not passively, but with the intention of refining my expression together with the interpreter and considering together the situations in which they can put their skills to use.
A training session attended by everyone from beginner sign-language learners to Deaf people who use sign language in daily life
This sign-language training session brought together people from a variety of backgrounds—not only sign-language interpreters, but also beginner learners and Deaf people who use sign language in their everyday lives. The person who told me about the session had only recently started learning sign language and was a beginner too.
At the breakout sessions on the first day, beginner learners, sign-language interpreters, and Deaf people all deepened their learning together using sign language. Of course, people’s sign-language skills varied, but the organizing committee carefully checked whether participants were communicating smoothly and, when needed, committee members interpreted. I was also struck by how often participants interpreted for one another.
Sign languages also have regional variations, so even participants from the same Chugoku region sometimes encountered expressions they had never seen before. They asked one another, “What does ‘〇〇’ mean?” and shared expressions unique to their regions, sometimes exclaiming, “So that was a regional expression!”
From the Writer
In everyday life, I rarely get the chance to meet people who use sign language, so seeing a venue filled with people interested in sign language—so many that they could not all fit inside—was a refreshing experience.
The 54th National Deaf Women’s Gathering will be held in Kurashiki City from Friday, October 18 to Sunday, October 20, 2024, and the Deaflympics will be held in Japan in summer 2025. I hope this training session, which brought together people involved with sign language from across the Chugoku region—not just Okayama Prefecture—to get to know one another and deepen their exchange, will help the circle of friends connected hand in hand grow even wider.
Apparently, the 2025 joint sign-language training session for the Chugoku region will be held in neighboring Hiroshima Prefecture.
31st Chugoku Region Joint Sign-Language Training Session Information
| Name | 31st Chugoku Region Joint Sign-Language Training Session |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, July 20, 2024, 1:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Sunday, July 21, 9:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m. |
| Location | 2-13-1 Minamigata, Kita-ku, Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture |
| Participation fee (tax included) | Members of the National Association for Sign Language Interpretation Issues, members of the Association for the Welfare of People with Hearing Disabilities and their families, and circle members: ¥2,000 Non-members: ¥3,000 High school, junior high school, and elementary school students: ¥500 *The networking event has a separate fee. |
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