Kei Tanaka
Programming Division
General Programming Office, Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation

In February 2018, NHK and regional broadcasters in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya drew up guidelines saying that they would add sign language for an average of 15 minutes a week by 2027, and Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation (ABC TV) also came up with plans for the amount of sign language broadcasting each year between FY 2018 and FY 2027.

When starting our sign language broadcasting in FY 2018, we researched the production situations at broadcasters which had led the way in this area (TV Asahi, Sun Television, TV Wakayama). What became clear from this series of observation visits was that each broadcaster had a different style when it came to making sign language programmes. After comparing the production set-ups at each broadcaster, we decided to adopt a structure where two sign language interpreters divided the work, with one providing sign language interpreting and the other checking it.

We decided that sign language would be added to a programme publicizing our line-up, Monthly ABC (aired on the last Saturday of each month, from 5:08 a.m. to 5:20 a.m.), around four times a year. We asked Osaka Hall for the Deaf and Mute (Osaka Association of the Hearing-Impaired, a public interest incorporated foundation) to collaborate in providing sign language interpretation. The Association dispatched people who had participated in the “Training sessions to develop sign language interpreters for television broadcasts” run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

During the sign language recording, the person in charge of checking repeatedly points out errors, and each time we have to start the sign language interpreting over again from the beginning. We aim to come up with the best sign language expressions for our audience, and the sign language interpreters often exchange opinions about this.

Based on the Z Pattern Rule, which says that people’s gaze moves from top left to top right, then to bottom left and bottom right, we decided to place the sign language image on the bottom right. In addition, by putting a border around the sign language insert, we sought to make it stand out from the surrounding image.

Incidentally, while we were collecting information on sign language broadcasts, we learned that Sketch Osaka, an Osaka City public relations programme broadcast by ABC TV around 30 years ago, included sign language. Unfortunately, when this programme finished, ABC TV’s sign language broadcasting also came to an end.

After we finished recording the first sign language programme, we held a review meeting with the sign language interpreters. At the meeting, we were able to hear an unexpected story from one of the people who had done the interpreting. When they were young and aspiring to become a sign language interpreter, they videoed Sketch Osaka, then replayed it over and over, practicing their sign language as they did so. As it happens, this sign language interpreter acted as an instructor for the “Training sessions to develop sign language interpreters for television broadcasts” held last year. Among the young people who aspire to become sign language interpreters, there may be some who replay the sign language broadcasts of Monthly ABC to watch them over and over. We intend to bear in mind the need to produce a sign language programme which is of use not only to the hearing-impaired, but also to the next generation who are learning sign language.

Photo 1
The sign language interpreter and the person responsible for checking exchange ideas, aiming to come up with the best sign language expressions

Photo 2
The sign language footage which has been recorded is edited into the footage of the main programme to produce a sign language programme