Takahiro Horiuchi
Director, Terrestrial Broadcasting Division, Information and Communications Bureau
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

1.Introduction

In order to ensure information accessibility in the field of broadcasting, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is promoting the dissemination of broadcast with the use of closed captions, audio description, and sign languages.  Due to the spread of COVID-19 and the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, it is becoming increasingly important to promptly and accurately provide information concerning the lives and livelihood of the people.  Considering the significance of the social and public roles that broadcasting plays in protecting the safety and security of the people, we recognize the importance of further disseminating broadcasting programs to people with visual/hearing impairments so that they can obtain information just as quickly and accurately through television broadcasting to promote their participation in society.

This article describes the past and future efforts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in the spread of closed captioning and similar modes of communication.

2.Efforts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

The amendment of the Broadcasting Act in 1997 stipulated that broadcasters must provide programs with closed captions and audio description as much as possible.  In response to this amendment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has promoted various measures.

● Formulation of Administrative Guidelines

Since FY1997, the administrative guidelines have been formulated every 10 years that set new targets for the dissemination of programs using closed captions and other functions by gradually increasing the dissemination targets to encourage broadcasters to take action.  The current “Guidelines for Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Field” were formulated in February 2018 with goals set until FY2027.

As for closed captioning, the guidelines’ target is 18 consecutive hours between 6:00 and 25:00.  However, programs that cannot be technically captioned are excluded, such as live broadcast programs in which multiple people talk at the same time, foreign language programs, music programs, etc.  Captions must be added to all programs covered by the guidelines stipulated for Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) General TV and wide-area stations of terrestrial commercial broadcasters, and to at least 80% of commercial prefectural area broadcasters by 2027.

As for audio description, all broadcast programs from 7:00 to 24:00 are subject to the same guidelines, excluding the programs that cannot be accompanied by audio description due to reasons such as rights management.  The goal is to add audio description to at least 15% of NHK General TV, 20% or more of NHK Educational TV, and 15% or more of commercial wide-area stations of all the programs covered by the guidelines by fiscal 2027.  For commercial broadcasting prefectural area stations, at least 10% is the goal to strive for.

As for sign languages, the guidelines require NHK and commercial broadcasters to add sign languages to an average of at least 15 minutes per week by FY2027.

● Financial Assistance

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications supports the efforts of broadcasters by subsidizing the production costs of closed captioning (since 1997) and the installation costs of equipment for captioning live programs (since 2020).  In recent years, in response to the worsening of business conditions of commercial broadcasters and the growing importance of ensuring information accessibility due to the COVID-19 crisis, we are working to increase the budget and provide even more extensive support.  We subsidize at least 120 companies every year for program production costs, and several companies every year for equipment installation costs.

Although closed captioning is spreading nationwide, captioning live programs is lagging behind.  It is because the conventional methods (relay method, respeak method, etc.) require a large number of specialized personnel, making it difficult to secure human resources and train them, and the running costs are also high.  In particular, there is a lack of progress in equipment installation in commercial prefectural area broadcasters.  Currently, more than 100 commercial prefectural area stations have not installed equipment for captioning live programs, and therefore, it is not possible to add captions to emergency live broadcast programs and local news programs in the event of a disaster.  In addition, with the conventional method, when a disaster occurs late at night or early in the morning, it would take time to assemble personnel and it would be very difficult to timely caption emergency live broadcast programs, which we have yet to address.  To respond to this issue, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has been supporting the development of a system that uses cutting-edge ICT technology to automatically generate and display closed captions from broadcast program’s audio without human intervention.  In the future, we will promote the introduction of equipment through the above-mentioned subsidy projects.

One of the reasons why it is difficult to spread programs with sign languages is the lack of sign language interpreters who can handle television broadcasts, especially in areas other than Tokyo and other big cities.  Sign language interpreting for news programs requires not only specialized knowledge, but also the collection of information that must be updated on a daily basis.  Therefore, it is difficult to increase the number of interpreters without first providing them enough training opportunities; otherwise they have to practice on their own.  For this reason, since FY2018, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has been working on training interpreters by holding seminars conducted by skilled sign language interpreters, including lectures as well as workshops to enhance their practical skills.

3. Actual Data on Broadcast with Closed Captions and Other Functions

Broadcast programs with closed captions, audio description, and sign languages from FY2018 to FY2020 are shown in the table below.  Closed captions are steadily increasing year by year.  Nearly 100% have been achieved by NHK General and wide-area commercial stations that are required to add captions to all programs stipulated by the guidelines.  The 101 affiliated prefectural stations also achieved the target (80% or more) with 86.6%.

As for the audio description, NHK General and Educational, and wide-area commercial broadcasters have achieved their target values.  The results for FY2020 are generally on the decline due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic causing changes in programming, production systems, and production schedules.  We expect that after the COVID-19 pandemic has died down, it will return to an increasing trend again.

With regard to sign languages, since the target values ​​were set in the guidelines for the first time in 2018, each broadcaster has been making steady progress in their efforts.

4. Future Efforts

In the bill to partially amend the Radio Act and the Broadcasting Act, which was submitted to the 208th ordinary session of the Diet on February 4, 2022, a new obligation shall be imposed on NHK which is to make efforts to cooperate with private broadcasters to disseminate closed captioning and other relevant features.

In addition, the current administrative guidelines are scheduled to be reviewed in 2022, and we are considering holding a study group for the review once a month from September 2022 to December 2022.  Based on the latest performance of broadcasting using closed captions and technological trends, this study group will carefully listen to the opinions of concerned parties such as organizations of the persons with visual/hearing impairments and broadcasters, and proceed with discussions on promoting the spread of the technology in the future.  After the study group summarizes the guidelines, we will solicit opinions on the amendment of the guidelines around February 2023.

5. Conclusion

In order to enhance broadcasting for the benefit of persons with visual/hearing impairments, we believe that it is important to maintain close communications among the parties involved to foster and deepen a common understanding.  The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will continue to promote initiatives for the spread of closed captioning and other functions by taking into account the opinions of organizations of persons with visual/hearing impairments and broadcasters.

Table 1

Changes in the percentage of programs using closed captions achieved under the “Guidelines for Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Field” (FY2018-FY2020)

2018

2019

NHK (General)

NHK (Educational)

5 key stations in Tokyo

4 sub-key stations in Osaka

4 wide-range stations in Nagoya

101 affiliated prefectural stations

13 independent prefectural stations

Table 2

Changes in the percentage of programs using audio description achieved under the “Guidelines for Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Field” (FY2018-FY2020)

NHK (General)

5 key stations in Tokyo

4 sub-key stations in Osaka

4 wide-range stations in Nagoya

101 affiliated prefectural stations

13 independent prefectural stations

Table 3 

Length of time alloted for programs with sign languages per week (FY2018-FY2020)

5 key stations in Tokyo

4 sub-key stations in Osaka

4 wide-range stations in Nagoya

101 affiliated prefectural stations

13 independent prefectural stations