The 14th Meeting of Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research

Video Message

Dr. Kenji Yoshida, Director-General, National Museum of Ethnology, Assistant Professor Dr. Josepf Murray, President, World Federation of the Deaf, Dr. Christopher Stone, President, World Association of Sign Language Interpreters, Professor Dr. Ritsuko Kikusawa, Chair, Local Organizing Committee, distinguished guests. I am delighted that this conference is being held in Asia for the first time, and I would like to express my deep appreciation to Director-General Yoshida and the museum for hosting this event.

At The Nippon Foundation, our dream is to realize an inclusive society, one in which everyone can participate equally whether with or without disabilities.

For more than 30 years, we have been supporting young deaf people from developing countries through our scholarship program to pursue higher education in the United States, at Gallaudet University and Rochester Institute of Technology. Our wish is to see them become leaders and play an active role in their respective countries.

In Southeast Asia, we have been working with the Chinese University of Hong Kong for more than twenty years to expand educational opportunities for the deaf. This includes research into improving the state of deaf education in Asia and putting that research into practice.

Now, here in Japan, we have been working to ensure that everyone can learn to use sign language through a number of our activities. We have developed and promoted games for learning sign language equipped with ICT and AI driven recognition technology. We have cooperated in the first enactment of the sign language ordinance in Japan. And we continue to provide telephone relay services.

I hope to work together with all of you to build a globally inclusive society, regardless of disabilities in the post-COVID era. I wish you all a constructive and fruitful meeting. Thank you.

*This video message is available at The Nippon Foundation YouTube.