Mitsuhiko Ogawa
Director, All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People
(General Incorporated Association)

For those of us who cannot hear, having subtitles on TV was a long-cherished wish.  Even after teletext broadcasting (captioned broadcasting) began in 1986, the number of programs with subtitles did not increase.  In 1996, as a result of petitioning the Diet with 405,000 signatures to “enhance closed captioning on television,” the administrative guidelines on closed captioning and other features were created.  In 2000, when NHK’s 7 o’clock news was broadcast live with captions for the first time, people involved gathered together in different places in Japan to watch the program and celebrate.  Recently, the number of commercials with subtitles is increasing.  Here, I would like to thank everyone involved for their tireless efforts.

As for subtitles, the main objectives of our Association are the following four points:

(1) Provide subtitles to live broadcast programs without subtitles

(2) Provide subtitles for essential information on local broadcasting stations in times of emergency or disaster

(3) Provide subtitles to all broadcasts of political views by election candidates and Diet proceedings (suffrage)

(4) Provide subtitles to videos on the Internet (JIS X 8341-3)

Among these, for subtitles of videos on the Internet, the Japanese Industrial Standards JIS X 8341-3 sets the minimum standard for adding captions (subtitles) to recorded videos as Level A, and to live videos as Level AA.  There are regulations that JIS has to be respected in the case of public procurement.

[Source]  JIS X 8341-3:2016 Guidelines for the Consideration of Design for the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities -- Equipment, Software and Services in Information and Communication -- Part 3: Web Contents

Moreover, in recent years, there are new growing issues.  It is about the lag of subtitles in live broadcasts.  In the past time lag was considered to be technically inevitable, and providing subtitles anyway was a priority.  However, according to the results of a questionnaire, there were complaints such as “I am annoyed by the subtitle lag.” (61.3%), “I cannot enjoy it because the video and the subtitles do not match.” (60.8%), and “The subtitles are cut when the commercial message starts.” (57.6%)  (604 responses to the questionnaire conducted in 2021 by All Japan Association of Hard of Hearing and Late-Deafened People)

For the time lag of subtitles, NHK has come up with “Sync Subtitles” as well as a new technology for subtitle synchronization on NHK Plus, which is an Internet broadcast.  These have been very well received by the parties and stakeholders concerned.  Although the implementation is still limited, we would like to work towards expansion with broadcasters and all other concerned parties.