Activities of Central Headquarters for Disaster Relief for Deaf People in the Great East Japan Earthquake
Fujisaburo Ishino
Chief, Central Headquarters for Disaster Relief for Deaf People in the Great East Japan Earthquake
Establishing a support system the day after the great earthquake
It has been one year since the unprecedented Great East Japan Earthquake hit, and the disaster area appears to be settling down compared to immediately after the earthquake. However, there are many persons with hearing impairments affected by the disaster who still require support.
When the Great East Japan Earthquake hit, I happened to be riding on the Ginza line subway in Tokyo. I was with the secretary general and assistant secretary general of the Japanese Federation of the Deaf (the JFD), and we were on our way to a meeting of JDF Board of Representatives. The violent shaking unnerved me, but I calmed down a bit when I learned what was happening as the assistant secretary general interpreted by sign language the announcement broadcast on the train. I thought that a deaf person riding on the train alone would have probably been extremely worried and terrified since he/she could not get any information.
The JFD hastily changed the directors meeting that happened to be scheduled for the next day to an earthquake response meeting, and at the meeting, we examined various issues, including what our response would be and confirmed related guidelines.
First the JFD worked to gather information on the damage caused by the disaster in cooperation with the National Research Association for Sign Language Interpretation (Zen-tsu-ken) - the JFD targeted member organizations while Zen-tsu-ken targeted its branch offices. On March 12, the JFD, Zen-tsu-ken, and the Japanese Association of Sign Language Interpreters established the Central Headquarters for Disaster Relief for Deaf People in the Great East Japan Earthquake (Central Headquarters) since the disaster was a complex one involving an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident and affected a wide area, and on March 18, one week later, the Central Headquarters held its first meeting. Representatives of the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) attended the meeting as observers, and overall thirty-eight people from twelve affiliated organizations were present.
There was a moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting, and in my opening remarks, I stated, “Compared to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the size and scope of the earthquake was extremely large, and the area in which people will be forced to evacuate will grow because of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. At a time when the general population is receiving insufficient information, persons with hearing impairments are getting no information, and we need to examine a new way to provide support.” Taking into consideration the reports received from each responsible person, we discussed concrete activities that could be taken at that time and confirmed the following. (see organizational chart provided separately)
Central Headquarters for Disaster Relief for Deaf People in the Great East Japan Earthquake Organization Chart (as of May 12, 2011)
（Text）
[Support activities]
1) Support would be provided to various parties including adults and children with hearing impairments, people related to sign language, speech-to-text interpreters, etc., and donations would be broadly collected.
2) Support would be provided in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures for the time being. In the Kanto area, including Tochigi, Ibaraki, and Chiba prefectures, support would be provided by the Kanto Federation of the Deaf.
3) An examination would be made of the disaster area, and concrete support measures would be decided upon.
4) Information needed by persons with hearing impairments affected by the disaster would be collected and posted on the JFD's website.
5) We would request that local governments and other bodies install receivers from Japanese Organization of CS Broadcasting for People with Disability in the emergency shelters so that people could watch Me de Kiku Terebi (Listen with Your Eyes Television), broadcasts with sign language and closed captioning.
6) Mental healthcare specialists for persons with hearing impairments would be sent to provide mental healthcare services for those impacted by the disaster and support providers.
After that, we called on hearing-impairment-related organizations throughout Japan to partner with us, fifteen organizations heeded our call, and we established a cooperative relief system.
Since we mainly undertook relief activities in the disaster area, we established local relief headquarters, which were centered on member organizations, in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures, which had sustained particularly strong damage, and these local relief headquarters were tasked with providing support to various people, including persons with hearing impairments, in cooperation with the local and central governments.
At the same time, we pushed for the establishment of local relief headquarters in each prefecture throughout Japan and launched support activities in cooperation with hearing-impairment-related organizations throughout Japan, and these activities included collecting donations and providing support for persons who evacuated to a different prefecture. As for the source of funds for these activities, the more than 2.50 million yen in the Disaster Relief Fund operated jointly by the JFD and Zen-tsu-ken served as a tentative source, and we called for donations from throughout Japan to support those impacted by the disaster. In addition, the activities of local relief headquarters in prefectures hit by the disaster were undertaken with support from the Nippon Foundation.
Request that entities such as the government and media guarantee information accessibility for persons with disabilities.
We made the following requests related to guaranteeing access to information, which the lives of persons with hearing impairments depend on, to the government, mass media, and other entities.
♦ March 12
- Submitted an emergency request to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation to guarantee that persons with hearing impairments had access to broadcasts covering the disaster.
- Requested that a sign language interpreter be present at Tokyo Electric Power Company press conferences, which was done.
- Requested that announcements by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Meteorological Agency be made using a sign language interpreter and closed captioning.
♦ March 14
Held discussions with MHLW and requested that sign language interpreters, speech-to-text interpreters, and counselors for the deaf officially be sent to local governments throughout Japan - MHLW passed on the request to all local governments on March 30.
♦ March 16
Held discussions regarding having a sign language interpreter assigned to press conferences at the Cabinet Office's Public Relations Office and Prime Minister's Official Residence, which was agreed to.
♦ May 11
Held informal talks with the chairman of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters' Association. Requested a sign language interpreter and closed captioning be used for the news and that the sign language interpreter be shown on footage of news conferences at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
♦ October
Submitted the following requests at hearings on disability organizations involved with the Great East Japan Earthquake held by the various political parties including the Democratic Party of Japan, Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, and New Komeito.
- Persons with hearing impairments living in emergency shelters should be eligible for communication and counseling support provided by the local government the shelter is located in.
- Consideration should be given so that persons with hearing impairments living in emergency shelters receive the same information provided to the other people staying at the shelter.
- For TV viewing at emergency shelters, receivers for information for persons with hearing impairments should be installed, and it should be possible to view broadcasts for persons with hearing impairments by the Japanese Organization of CS Broadcasting for People with Disability.
- A sign language interpreter is assigned to the press conference held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence and that information is provided on the Internet with sign language interpreters. Sign language interpreters, however, are cut out of the footage used on TV news programs. Sign language interpreters should be shown in the footage used on news programs.
Official dispatch of sign language interpreters and counselors for the deaf
The relief activities provided after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake demonstrated that sign language interpreters for the deaf in the disaster area are indispensable, and we requested that MHLW require the official dispatch of sign language interpreters throughout Japan. On March 30, the MHLW sent a notification titled “Dispatch of Sign Language Interpreters, Counselors for the Deaf, etc., to Support Communication to Persons with Vision or Hearing Impairments, etc., at Emergency Shelters, etc.,” which requested the official dispatch of sign language interpreters, counselors for the deaf, etc., to all prefectures, designated cities, and medium-sized cities, making it the first time that such persons were officially dispatched.
Using a list of people such as sign language interpreters from local governments throughout Japan registered with MHLW, the Central Headquarters coordinated the dispatch of people such as sign language interpreters in accordance with requests from the prefectures hit by the disaster.
We provided support for various types of work including disaster victim certificates for the disaster; procedures related to numerous issues such as insurance, certificate for persons with disabilities, licenses, and loans; medical care; work; and counseling and general communication in daily life. Ultimately,178 people from 29 prefectures throughout Japan registered as workers for dispatch, and a total of 76 people, including sign language interpreters, from 21 prefectures were dispatched as requested by Miyagi and Fukushima. People were dispatched from April 5 - June 30, 2011.
Support activities
1) Donation support
A total 1,326 donations totaling 68,675,895 yen were collected from both throughout Japan and overseas (as of August 29, 2012).
Of the collected donations, 45,120,000 yen was distributed to 1,679 people, including ones related to sign language and persons with hearing impairments affected by the disaster that evacuated to somewhere in the disaster area or to a another prefecture, such as Tokyo, Niigata, and Okinawa.
At the same time, one of our efforts to support decontamination work involved donating various types of equipment including pool-side protective mats and robotic pool cleaners to the Fukushima Prefectural School for the Deaf so that the children could safely take pool classes with peace of mind. This made it possible for students and children to take the pool classes without having to directly touch the concrete on the side of the pool. In addition, we provided aid for reducing the level of radiation by donating door mats for use in front of the preschool building. We will continue these efforts into the future.
2) PR activities
We added a webpage for the Central Headquarters to the JFD's website. On that page, we posted information on the disaster area and important information for providing support to person with hearing impairment. At the same time, a website for people overseas was launched to disseminate information on how persons with hearing impairments were doing following the disaster.
3) Supplies and mental health support
Initially after the earthquake, material support was provided through local relief headquarters, which delivered necessary items for daily life such as bicycles and futons. At the same time, we developed plans taking into consideration the mental health of persons with hearing impairments affected by the disaster, such as the Shuwa Hotto Matsuri (sign language heartwarming festival), and implemented the plans in collaboration with local relief headquarters.
Fact-finding survey of persons with hearing impairments affected by the disaster in Iwate and Fukushima
Following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, Kobe-shi released a list of names at the strong request of the JFD and local organizations for the deaf, making it possible to ultimately confirm the safety of 1,626 people in Hyogo Prefecture.
In order to protect personal information, following the Great East Japan Earthquake, prefectures did not provide a list of persons who have a certificate for persons with physical disabilities, which is necessary to confirm their safety; the Central Headquarters and local relief headquarters, however, held numerous negotiations with Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima and worked to find a way to conduct a survey of persons with a certificate for persons with physical disabilities. Therefore, in cooperation with the Facility for Providing welfare services for Persons with Hearing Impairments in Iwate, we initially conducted a survey of such persons living on the coast that sustained major damage. For the preliminary survey, the local relief headquarters created the survey sheet, which the prefecture sent to persons with a certificate for persons with disabilities, and respondents mailed their responses to the local aid headquarters. The survey asked if the person wanted counseling, and for those who wanted counseling, a follow-up survey was conducted during a home visit. For the follow-up survey, a prefectural government worker and a person associated with the local relief headquarters visited the person who requested counseling and provided counseling. The same method was used to conduct a fact-finding survey in Fukushima.
According to the results of the surveys in both prefectures, there were problems related to disaster information, administrative procedures, obtaining information on medical and welfare services, and communication. There was also a tendency for persons with hearing impairments to feel isolated in the local community and groups. The question is whether this information will be used for future support activities. In Miyagi, the prefecture conducted its own survey independently of the Central Headquarters.
Creating an initial safety confirmation manual and dispatch of sign-language interpreters coordination manual
In addition to the official dispatch of workers such as sign language interpreters as commissioned by MHLW, we created the Initial Response/Safety Check For Persons with Hearing Impairment During an Emergency and Coordinating the Dispatch of Sign Language Interpreters Manual.
The Initial Response/Safety Check Manual summarizes various items including not only disaster prevention and response measures for persons with hearing impairments as an initial response, establishing local relief headquarters, and its organization and roles but also methods for confirming the safety of people. The Coordinating Dispatch of Sign Language Interpreter Manual covers issues such as dispatch system, functions of the dispatch office, and coordinating dispatch. The manuals are posted on the JFD's website.
Furthermore, the JFD created the Standard Sign Language for Emergencies Handbook through a Red Feather Community Chest project, and the handbook not only has been distributed to local governments throughout Japan but also is posted on the JFD's website.
In preparation for future disasters, organizations throughout Japan, mainly ones for persons with hearing impairments, will move forward with responses to disasters using theses manuals and other material as reference.
Striving to eliminate deaths due to disasters
There are many people who have lost their jobs because the company they worked for went bankrupt due to the earthquake, who are receiving no income as they wait at home to return to work, or who have no idea when they will be able to restart their own business. The insufficient support system for people affected by the disaster, including mental health support, makes the lives of persons with hearing impairments even more difficult.
Under these conditions, the Sixty-second Tohoku Deaf Conference, which we were considering not holding at one point, was held in Morioka-shi, Iwate, in October 2011. More than 741 people attended the conference, which surpassed the target. Our friends from the disaster areas were invited to the conference, and there were scenes of people hugging each other while shedding tears of joy that the other person was safe. At the conference, the Earthquake Reconstruction Support Conference Declaration was unanimously approved, and there was a sense of unity with the people of the Tohoku region.
The news crew for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation's Fukushi (Welfare) Network program released the results of a survey that indicate “the mortality rate due to the Great East Japan Earthquake was twice as large for persons with disabilities than the general population.”
There would be nothing strange if an earthquake of the same magnitude as the Great East Japan Earthquake hit again. In order for the sad situation that developed after the Great East Japan Earthquake to never occur again, it is the duty of those of us who have survived to thoroughly examine the actual conditions for persons with disabilities and work to eliminate deaths of persons with disabilities due to disasters, regardless of its size.
Distinctive characteristics of relief activities for persons with hearing impairments
The main support activities conducted by the Central Headquarters can be organized in the following way.
1) Undertaking relief activities that the Central Headquarters, comprised of the JFD, Zen-tsu-ken, and Japanese Association of Sign Language Interpreters, planned with the help of fifteen partner organizations, and the government (Cabinet Office, MHLW, and MEXT).
2) Getting sign language interpreters assigned to press conferences at the Prime Minister's Official Residence
3) Working with MHLW to officially dispatch sign language interpreters and counselors for the deaf.
4) Conducting fact-finding surveys through public-private partnerships in Iwate and Fukushima.
5) Making emergency disaster broadcasts within thirty minutes of an earthquake through Japanese Organization of CS Broadcasting for People with Disability “Listen with Your Eyes Television” program.
6) Conducting organization-wide activities, such as material support and medical care and mental healthcare support.
7) Providing support for fundraising drives both inside and outside Japan.
8) Communicating information overseas. We received numerous messages and funds from overseas.
9) There were growing calls for the creation of an information and communication law in response to insufficient efforts to ensure equal access to information and communication during a disaster.
Issues and responses
The following are issues that came to light through the work of the Central Headquarters following the Great East Japan Earthquake and possible responses
1. Releasing the list persons with a certificate of persons with physical disabilities for checking their safety.
(1) The recent earthquake proved that it is in fact impossible for public entities such as local governments to provide support by themselves to persons with disabilities during a disaster. The Act on the Protection of Personal Information should be amended, and the law should stipulate the disclosure of the list of persons with a certificate of persons with disabilities to support organizations, especially ones that are mainly composed of persons with disabilities.
(2) There are limits to the system for providing aid to people requiring aid during a disaster. Local social welfare councils and local welfare commissioners (minsei-iin community volunteers) are unable to provide all the necessary support to persons with disabilities by themselves. The central government should call on local governments to also release the list to organizations of persons with disabilities. The effectiveness of systems during the recent earthquake should be examined, and keep those concerned informed of the necessity of a review of measures.
2. Efforts to guarantee equal access to information
(1) Communicating emergency information when there is a disaster
1) It is not possible to use closed captions on the nationwide warning system J-Alert, which the Fire and Disaster Management Agency is promoting. It is necessary to create a new system that can display closed captions.
2) Some local governments have lent persons with hearing impairments equipment that adds captions to the information from the Anti-Disaster Radio Communication System. The central government should spread this type of equipment throughout Japan.
(2) Guaranteeing equal access to information during disasters
1) Efforts should be made to increase the use of closed captions and sign language on TV.
2) Video of press conferences at the Prime Minister's Official Residence used on TV news programs should show not only the speaker but also the sign language interpreter.
3) The Japan Broadcasting Corporation should provide the images of their TV news programs to the Japanese Organization of CS Broadcasting for People with Disability without any compensation.
3. Importance of efforts during non-emergency times
The system for assigning and dispatching sign language interpreters, speech-to-text interpreters, personal assistants who can interpret for the deaf, and counselors for persons with hearing impairments should be strengthened. Funds in the central government's reconstruction budget should be earmarked for measures for persons with disabilities.
4. Providing counseling to support the daily lives of persons with disabilities in the disaster area and securing the budget for such efforts
For persons with hearing impairments, it is important to assign counselors who can communicate in sign language.
5. Developing concrete measures related to promoting work for persons with disabilities in the disaster area
6. Developing an assistance program for support activities undertaken by organizations of persons with disabilities
7. Having organizations of persons with disabilities take part in creating reconstruction plans by the central government, prefectural government, and municipal governments
8. Conducting surveys of the current conditions of persons with disabilities affected by the disaster and having all local governments create disaster prevention guidelines related to persons with disabilities. Have persons with disabilities participate in the creation of these.
9. Requiring the FAX number be included in the contact information for all government announcements
View toward long-term support
Because of the Great East Japan Earthquake, there is an awareness of the importance of projects to support communication in prefectures and municipalities, particularly the establishment of the Facilities for Providing Information to Persons with Hearing Impairment, and this was stressed even at the MHLW's National Meeting of Division Manager. At the general meeting held in February of this year, the Central Headquarters confirmed that it would examine creating a long-term support system and would request the government expand social resources, such as the Facilities for Providing Information, as an emergency issue.
On other hand, more than one year after the earthquake, there are still children living in harsh conditions. Children at the Fukushima Prefectural School for the Deaf have limited opportunities to take part in physical education classes and extra-curricular activities in the school yard because of the radiation from the nuclear accident, and they are also unable to use the pool as they would like to during the hot summer. We will continue to provide support to remedy this situation, even if only slightly, and to make it possible for children to have a school life that is less worrisome.
The Great East Japan Earthquake hit in the midst of the We Love Communication campaign, the goal of which was to create a law that guarantees access to information and communication. The 1,120 signatures sent on March 9 before the earthquake hit arrived at the office on March 17, and the names of municipalities that often appeared in TV and newspaper reports as cities that sustained damage from the tsunami, such as Hanamaki-shi, Ofunato-shi, Rikuzentakata-shi, Miyako-shi, and Kamaishi-shi, also appeared on the signature pages. I value these precious names and fervently want to realize the hopes of all those who signed the petition.
