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In the afternoon on Friday 22nd July, 2011, President Ishino and General Secretary Hisamatsu visited Nippon Television Network Corporation and presented a certificate of appreciation from the Japanese Federation of the Deaf to President Okubo.
The certificate of appreciation was presented to express JFD’s gratitude to the Nippon Television for providing subtitles for special programs just after the Great East Japan Earthquake and continuing the subtitles for 25 hours after the earthquake. Also many emergency special programs had subtitles after the 25 hours and these subtitles contributed to information access for the Deaf.
President Ishino, handed to President Okubo a certificate of appreciation and as a gift, “Dictionary of Japanese/Japanese Sign Language, New Edition” and DVD of the film “Yuzuriha”.
We hope that Nippon Televisions’ effort to provide subtitles will spread to other commercial television stations.
Transcript of Meeting
Mr. Okubo: I am Okubo from Nippon Television Network Corporation.
Mr. Ishino: I am Ishino from Japanese Federation of the Deaf.
Mr. Okubo: Nice to meet you.
Mr. Okubo: Thank you for making time to visit us today.
Mr. Ishino: I would now like to present you the Certificate of Appreciation.
Mr. Ishino:
Certificate of Appreciation
Nippon Television Network Corporation
Representative Director, President Yoshio OkuboYour company provided 25 hours consecutive television subtitles for emergency special program right after the Great East Japan Earthquake. By screening special programs with subtitles after the earthquake, Deaf were able to receive information and greatly benefited from the subtitles. We would like to present our feeling of gratitude for such performance during the earthquake.
22nd July 2011
Japanese Federation of the Deaf
President Fujisaburo Ishino
Mr. Okubo: Thank you.
Mr. Okubo: Thank you. It was a disastrous earthquake so as a television station; we tried our best to spread as much information to people with disabilities or difficulties due to the earthquake. It was 25 hours? It was long working hours and latter part of the 25 hours was tough but our staff believed that in such disaster, we must fulfill our duty and responsibilities of television so they worked actively by themselves so as the president, I greatly appreciate their work. Please introduce the person in charge.
Person in the left: He is Tanaka and he is in charge of subtitles.
Mr. Tanaka: You may already know but most subtitles of news are hand typed simultaneously. We do not have enough staff in Nippon Television so we work together with other company.
To tell the truth, that night, already 10 or more hours had passed and I asked the staff whether they were ok and whether they did not have to go back home. I actually told them that they can rest a little if they were exhausted.
When I asked the staff, they told me that they wanted to carry on working since there were people who were having more trouble. We carried on and I thought that it will be until the next morning but it lasted until the late afternoon. By that time, it was possible to grasp the situation and things had settled so the staff took a rest. I hardly did any work but the staffs’ effort enabled us to provide subtitles for such a long time.
Mr. Ishino: When the earthquake struck, I was in Tokyo.Now I live in Shiga but as the president of the federation I frequently visit Tokyo. I just happened to be in Tokyo on the day of the earthquake.
When the earthquake struck, I did not know what had happened. I was informed through a cellular phone that there was a big earthquake. I carried on watching the television to watch the situation after the earthquake. I kept the television on especially from the day after the earthquake. If I read the newspaper, I could only gain information the next morning or the late afternoon and I could not listen to the radio. I had to depend on the television.
In such situation your company provided subtitles. We could receive sufficient information from television programs with subtitles compared to television programs without subtitles. For us it is a very big difference. With subtitles, we were able to get information and were able to diminish our fears and worries. With the information from the programs with subtitles, our federation was able to immediately set up Central Headquarters for Rescue. If we were not able to receive information we would not have been able to act so quickly.
There were also subtitles from the morning to night. Other television stations sometimes had subtitles and sometimes did not have subtitles but your company provided subtitles throughout the special programs. We were moved by this.
In such situation for the Deaf, information is very important. It is said that for women, hair is the next important thing after life but for the Deaf information is the second important thing after life. Or it can be said that information is also life to the Deaf. We are very grateful to your hard work and effort. Not only our federation but all Deaf people in Japan are thankful to your work so we would like to express our sincere gratitude.
