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Hi there. I'm going to get started,  

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so hello and welcome. my name is Andrew Campana, 
assistant professor of Japanese Literature  

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and Media here at Cornell University. 
Uh first, a land acknowledgement,  

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Cornell university is located on the traditional 
homelands of the Guyohkohnyo, the Cayuga Nation.  

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The Guyohkohnyo are members of the Haudenosaunee 
Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign nations  

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with a historic and contemporary presence 
on this land. The confederacy precedes  

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the establishment of Cornell University, New 
York State, and the United States of America.

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We acknowledge the painful history of 
Guyohkohnyo dispossession and honor  

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the ongoing connection of Guyohkohnyo people, 
past and present, to these lands and waters.

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So thank you very much for coming to today's 
event, "Reframing Disability: Manga's Portrayals  

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of Deaf Characters", it's wonderful to see people 
here from all over. I'm thrilled to welcome  

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Professor Yoshiko Okuyama, professor of Japanese 
Studies at the university of Hawaii at Hilo,  

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a scholar of Japanese language, mythology, 
disability studies, and deaf studies, among  

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many other fields. Professor Okuyama is really 
one of the most exciting scholars of Japanese  

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studies today with truly groundbreaking work that 
stretches across multiple disciplinary frameworks.  

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She's published two books, uh "Japanese Mythology 
in Film" from 2015 and last year "Reframing  

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Disability in Manga," which is a truly wonderful 
book based on 15 different case studies related  

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to depictions of disability and deafness in 
manga, Japanese comics, and the chapter of which  

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will be the basis of today's talk. And she also 
has a new book manuscript focused on manga memoirs  

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related to disability and mental health, which 
I'm extremely excited for. I'm so grateful that  

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she took the time to be with us here today and 
to share some of her fantastic work with us.  

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I would also like to thank the East 
Asia Program for hosting this event,  

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including its director professor Andrea 
Bachner, the program manager Joshua Young,  

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and the program initiatives and media coordinator 
Amala Lane. Thank you also to the interpreters  

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from SignNexus, Stephanie Feyne and Kami 
Malavey. This event is co-sponsored by the  

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new East Asia Plus Initiative at Cornell dedicated 
to interdisciplinary approaches, linking together  

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innovative digital publishing and East Asian 
media studies. I also want to mention the new  

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Central New York Humanities Corridor Working 
Group on Global Disability Studies, which will  

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mean that there will hopefully be many more events 
to come related to disability and East Asia here  

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at Cornell. So please, continue to check out the 
East Asia Program's website and its programming,  

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most of which continues to be online. Amala will 
be posting a link in the chat. Finally, a bit on  

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how we're doing the Q&A today, people should 
feel free to ask their question in the chat at  

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any time during the talk and we'll hopefully get 
to your question during the Q&A period afterwards.  

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Also, feel free to use the raise hand function 
during the Q&A period so we can call on you.  

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And also, a reminder to please turn 
off your video now, before the Q&A for  

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better bandwidth transmission, and if there are 
any technical issues or accessibility issues,  

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please direct message Amala Lane 
directly. And without further ado,  

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thank you so much and please give a warm 
welcome to professor Yoshiko Okuyama.

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Hello my name is Yoshiko Okuyama. As Andrew 
introduced me, I'm a professor of Japanese  

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studies at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. 
So let me share my presentation slides first.

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Okay, here we go. Hi, so today I will share my 
research related to reframing disability in manga,  

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which is my book published by the University 
of Hawaii Press last year. And last year, 2020,  

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is the 30th anniversary of the passing 
of the Americans with Disabilities Act  

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and this month, October, is National Disability 
Employment Awareness Month. So to me,  

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it is very symbolic to have this 
opportunity to talk about disability  

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and thank you very much for 
inviting me to your lecture series.

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I conducted the research in Japan as 
a Japan Foundation Fellow in 2017. I  

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interviewed manga artists, conducted archival 
research, and visited events and organizations  

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serving disability communities, mainly in Tokyo, 
Kyoto, and Osaka. Yeah, I visited other places,  

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but those three places were main places and today 
I will focus on one of the books chapter, which is  

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titled "Portrayals of Deaf Characters". It is a 
chapter that introduces representative manga, or  

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Japanese comics or graphic novels, that portrayed 
the deaf communities in Japan. So next slide.

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Before delving into the chapter's content, 
allow me to present the current disability  

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data to contextualize my talk. According 
to the united nations most recent data,  

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published in may of 2020, one billion people have 
disabilities in the world, which is about 15%  

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of the world population. And within that 
group, 80% of them live in developing countries  

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and women and children are particularly more 
vulnerable. One out of five women are either  

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currently experiencing or likely to 
experience some form of disability in life.  

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One in ten children has one or more disabilities 
in the world. The United Nations identifies people  

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with disabilities as one of the most excluded 
groups and they say that in in terms of the  

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number of COVID-19 related deaths, they are among 
the hardest hit in the global crisis. Next slide.

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Now, zooming into Japan. In Japan, the government 
data on disability are presented in three  

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different categories: people with 
physical disabilities, people with  

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intellectual disabilities, and people with 
mental disabilities. Japan's Cabinet Office,  

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Naimusho, has been publishing a disability 
white paper, Shôgai-sha Hakusho,

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annually since 1994. According to 
their 2021 disability whitepaper,  

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around 8% of the whole population of japan 
have some form of disability. By groups,  

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3.45% of people with physical disability,  

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0.87% are people with intellectual disabilities, 
and 3.32% are those with mental disabilities.  

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It appears that the percentages of people with 
physical and mental disabilities are almost  

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the same, however, when I looked at the increase 
from the data of two years ago, which is 2019, I  

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noticed an interesting difference among the three 
uh three groups. The increase in the number of  

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people with mental disability is close to 1%, the 
increase of the other two perceptual groups are  

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only about 0.1% respectively, so I must say the 
almost 1% increase with mental health cases it's  

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something we should pay close attention to. These 
data were actually collected pre-pandemic, so now,  

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in the second year of COVID-19 restrictions, I 
suspect the increase is even bigger and right  

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now I'm writing a book about mental disabilities 
in Japan, so this is a very intriguing outcome.

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Next slide.

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An important note on language use. 
The Japanese word for people with  

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disability is "shogaisha." It has such 
connotation negative connotations. So,  

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for example, shogai means obstacle, so 
shogaisha literally means obstacle person.  

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So I would like to propose that we use 
a different term, a term "Tojisha".

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Tojisha is a term referring to a 
person directly affected by that con  

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the condition, whatever the condition is and 
people with disabilities themselves don't  

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call don't call themselves shogaisha, they call 
themselves tojisha. So it's a more positive,  

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progressive way to refer 
to them and by themselves.

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The word tojisha was originally a legal term. It 
began to be used in reference to the membership  

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of a minority group, especially during their 
minority rights movement in the 1980s. But it is  

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um, actually, an all-inclusive term. It's kind 
of vague and it does not just mean people with  

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disability per se, but in this particular 
context, in today's lecture talk um I think  

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tojisha works. And most importantly Tojisha is 
a reference used by people with lived experience  

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of disability, so I would like to stick to the 
use of the term in this lecture. Next slide.

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Now, book overview. My book, "Reframing 
Disability in Manga," features recent manga  

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titles that portray tojisha with authenticity 
and cast them as the main characters,  

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not the side character or villain or "super 
crypt". A "super crypt" is a term used in  

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disability studies in reference to 
a disabled superhero or heroine.

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I present the selected manga titles in each 
of five representative conditions and these  

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manga casts everyday tojisha individuals in title 
roles without being forcing a super crypt model  

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or other stereotypes. These manga offer insight 
into a variety of issues affecting the tojisha  

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population of Japan. So these mangas are quite 
different from the older generation of manga,  

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particularly once published before 
the 1990s in Japan. Next slide.

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Media and disability has representational issues.

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From ancient folklore to contemporary media, 
tojisha characters have been typically presented  

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as "the other." This stroke of otherness 
contains negative characteristics, such as  

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strange, bizarre, or exotic and they are 
often represented as non-human entities,  

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such as monsters. And they are associated 
with some kinds of danger to society.  

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But it's not just Japan, of 
course. US comics, for example,  

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in the 1970s, Marvel and DC comics portrayed 
tojisha characters with stereotypes,  

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such as a disfigured individual that deserves our 
sympathy or a psychotic villain. And the real life  

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representation of disability related issues 
was was non-existent, according to some US  

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comic analysts. Now, back in manga. In manga, 
that trend continued up until the 1990s.  

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It was only during the early 1990s when tojisha 
characters in manga began to be depicted more  

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accurately and also cast as the main characters 
of the stories, without disparaging language,  

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without super crypt or villains typecast 
or even obscure sub-character roles.

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Unfortunately, though some manga continue to 
misrepresent the tojisha protagonists with ableist  

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views and stereotypes. So today, I will compare 
two manga titles "Gangsta" and "A Silent Voice"  

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using several sample images that feature deaf 
main characters very differently next slide.

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"Gangsta". "Gangsta" is an eight volume series 
published in a seinen magazine for adult  

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male readers. In this story, two male 
assassins live in an imagined US city,  

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which is probably Los Angeles. Worick is 
hearing and wears a patch over his left eye.  

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He's quite he is quite skillful at shooting 
with his gun and then Nicolas, or Nick,  

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is a deaf character with black hair 
who fights with the sword. Next slide.

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In this manga, Nick is portrayed in the typical 
super crypt model, like the iconic Zatoichi,  

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if you know, the blind sword master very 
popular in Japanese uh popular culture.  

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As image one shows, Nick is drawn to display his  

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speed and agility, he is also depicted to 
be using amazing swordsmanship swordsmanship  

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in many battle scenes. And image 2 is one example 
in which Nick is portrayed as a man of few words.  

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And in this first panel, Worick, Nick's partner, 
Worick is not good at cooking and he said  

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"Nick always looked puzzled when eating the 
meal I fixed." Well what's that supposed to be,  

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you know, it's as if Nick doesn't question and 
accept whatever is given to him, right, well as  

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such, in this manga the tojisha character lacks 
agency, except when he is fighting. Next slide.

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Image 3 shows Nick signing with Worick.  

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In the panel I circle, mixed fluency 
of signing is implied with the ompu,  

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or Japanese or manga effecting, sound 
effecting manga, so ompu pu pop pop!

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Is drawn above his moving hands. The translation 
of Nick's sign message is presented in  

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white text on a black background to distinguish 
from hearing character speech. But there is no  

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sign to word correspondence. And 
although created, it's not the realistic  

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way of representing sign language and perhaps 
uh the author chose to do so because Nick uses  

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unidentified sign language, we don't know if it's 
ASL or JSL or whatever, and but the fact is that  

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in this manga, neither the deaf character, nor 
his signing is given a fair representation.

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And in image four, two police officers are 
whispering behind Nick and one agent is saying  

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to the other "Nick as uh he he had sharp eyes to 
compensate for his ears," then he goes on to say  

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"Be careful, this guy can read lips. When you 
tell us tell me a secret, cover your mouth."  

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So the implication to me is like, Nick can 
pose a danger to to hearing individuals through  

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his impeccable lip readings and to me it is 
an ableist representation of deaf characters.

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So with all these misgivings, "Gangsta" 
not only fails to help the reader  

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to understand the real life deaf but also 
adds stereotypes about being deaf. Next slide.

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By contrast, "A Silent Voice", a recent mega hit 
manga, portrays the main deaf character not as a  

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super crypt, but as a real human being. Originally 
serialized in a seinen magazine for young  

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male readers, this manga depicts communication in 
JSL, Japanese Sign Language, very authentically.

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"A Silent Voice," or "Koe no Katachi" in the 
original Japanese title, which means voiced shape,  

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this came out as an anime for English language 
viewers, so some of them some of you already know,  

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but for those who are not familiar with this 
story, here is a plot. The story revolves around  

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two young protagonists. One is a hearing boy, the 
other a deaf girl. Shoko is a deaf sixth grader  

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transferred to Shoya's class. And 
trying to get classmates attention,  

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Shoya, a hearing boy begins to bully Shoko. Well, 
he's not the only one doing so in this manga, but  

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he's a ring-leader nonetheless. Then 
Shoya's classmate ostracizes him,

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as a bully. So, thereafter, Shoya takes on a 
personal journey of redemption, learns to sign  

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in JSL, and six years later, as a as a high school 
senior, Shoya reunites with Shoko. Next slide.

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Image one shows the young protagonist, Shoya, as a 
sixth grader as a sixth grade boy who would resort  

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to violence and domination solving problems 
and also to avoid boredom, according to the  

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character's own words. He is immature and out of 
control, that's when he meets Shoko, a deaf girl.  

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In image 2, you see Shoko's writing "I can't 
hear." Watch how Shoya catches the word "hear."  

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To him that signifies a difference between this 
girl and himself, then he conceptualizes Shoko as  

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the other. Now image three, a double page spread 
that provides a panoramic view to the reader,  

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this emphasizes the moment in which Shoya 
visualizes Shoko as someone from outer space.  

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Shoko becomes something that does not 
belong to his species, he's mankind.  

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And then actually on the page right after this 
scene, Shoya blacks out a weirdo in the classroom.

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So, volume 1 basically presents the prejudice and  

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discrimination that hearing people like 
Shoya tend to hold against the tojisha.

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Next slide. By contrast, volume 2 and the 
rest of the manga feature Shoko and Shoya as  

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high school seniors, and they are signing. 
A former bully, Shoya is now maturing  

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and desires to reconnect with Shoko. And as 
I said before, he has learned to sign in JSL.

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Image 4 shows Shoya signing "forget," telling 
Shoko the notebook he's holding is what she left  

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at school in sixth grade. In manga it's 
hard to see a dimension of uh your hands,  

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it's supposed to go behind your ear to sign 
to forget, but you get the gist of it, right,  

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and then image 5 illustrates 
"Shoko" signing "necessary"  

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and "happy," which is translated in Shoya's 
thought bubble "you are happy when you are needed,  

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huh?" And sometimes, the signed message is 
presented with a single single sign to highlight  

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what's important, like image 6. And in that image, 
image 6, Shoya's hands are shaped for the JSL sign  

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"friends" and he's vocalizing his message, "Can we 
become friends?", as shown in his speech bubble.

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Next slide.

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I have several examples to show how creatively 
sign language communication is represented  

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in this manga. Image 7 presents Shoko's 
message through Shoya's thought bubble.

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And so, it's like as if the reader can 
see what's he thinking or processing.  

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And like image 8, the sign message is 
sometimes it presented directly in the field.  

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So from Shoya's perspective, right, 
and then this in this message,  

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Shoko is signing how did you learn to how did you, 
I'm sorry, "How did you learn the sign language?"  

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and only sign is drawn in the in the image. In 
image 9, both characters are in the same frame,  

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and now the manga assumes the the reader's 
perspective. Then the signed message, "see  

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you again," is shown in a circle, as if the reader 
had full access to their conversation. Next slide.

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As as you can see in the middle the regular 
speech balloon in comics has a tail indicating  

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from whom the message is coming. Now watch 
image 10, in which Shoko is signing to Shoya.  

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On each panel, a single sign, or one time 
a sing a sign sequence, is translated in a  

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bubble without a tail. So it seems like the 
reader has direct access to the assigned messages  

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Shoko says I I "I was thinking thinking of the 
same thing" um and "together let's do our best,"  

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right, and then Shoya agrees, yeah. So 
neither one is vocalizing their messages,  

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they communicate simply through handshakes, as the 
title suggests, you know, Koe no Katachi, right.  

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So I thought it's a very neat way of 
showing their conversation visually.  

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By contrast, images 11 and 12 frame showcase 
signs messages using quotation marks.  

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The balloon in image 11 shows her signed 
"happy" in quotation and image 12 shows  

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her long signed messages in quotation and 
this indicates that there is a third party  

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interpreting Shoko and Shoya's JSL 
conversation through a hearing person.  

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In fact, in this scene, that third person 
is so-called sister, Yuzuru. And Yuzuru  

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is interpreting for Shoya's friend, who 
is watching the couple from the window.

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So like this, the author, Ōima Yoshitoki,  

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used a variety of manga strategies to 
represent the signed messages in her manga.  

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And incidentally, her mother is a 
real life sign language interpreter.

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So if you teach a course related to 
disability studies, I believe this is  

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a great material to use. By the way, I have a 
file called manga glossary, so if you like to  

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use some manga related terminology, that 
file has almost all like ompu and mampu  

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00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:38,240
and so forth, so I'll be happy to share 
the file with you. Okay next slide.

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So deaf-community-friendly manga like this 
did not just happen. In the 1990s, the pi  

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the pioneer of comics featuring deaf characters 
were written by Yamamoto Osamu and Karube Junko,  

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who paved the path for the millennium manga 
like Silent Voice. Yamamoto's manga stories are  

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serialized in the seinen manga magazine, seinen 
refers to the comics for adult male readers,  

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and and his uh works depicted deaf people and 
their families and teachers as central figures.  

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00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:33,440
In his works the character's signed communication 
is visually and properly represented. And Karube  

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00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:42,960
Junko's comics is that it's just the same. And 
these were serialized in a Shoujo manga magazine,  

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meaning for teenage teenagers and older female 
readers. And both authors comics became quite  

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00:29:52,240 --> 00:30:00,000
popular and were made into other forms of 
popular popular culture, such as tv drama.

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Both authors learned Shuwa, which means 
sign language in Japanese, at their local  

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Shuwa circles. They receive awards from 
the manga industry for their contributions.

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Next slide.

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Well by now, you may wonder why these pioneer 
works were published and became popular,  

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particularly in the 1990s, right, well here is 
a quick social background prior to that time.  

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First in the 1960s to 70s, the general public 
did not understand how deaf people lived,  

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00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,840
how they communicated, or what 
their needs were in Japan.  

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That absence of knowledge and awareness was, 
naturally, reflected in manga and according  

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00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:09,440
to Nagai, a manga critic who is also deaf, deaf 
characters in those old manga were more likely to  

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end up being physically abused and committing 
suicide and meeting another tragic test.

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00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:29,440
Um but but, in the early 1990s, that trend 
in the manga industry changed tremendously.  

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00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:41,280
Well, what happened? 1981 was proclaimed by the 
UN as the international year of disabled people.  

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In Japan, people became more 
aware of the basic human right,  

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00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:54,640
which is the right to live a good life, regardless 
of one's gender, race, or any other differences.  

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00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:03,280
Also, in 1992, the governments of the 
Asia and Pacific Region, including Japan,  

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00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:13,840
proposed to designate the next 10 years as the 
Asian and Pacific decade of disabled persons.

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00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:21,520
Um in 1993, Japan's disability 
law, which was established in 1970,  

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00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:30,640
was finally revised and renamed as the basic law 
for persons with dis disabilities. By the way,  

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00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:37,680
that law finally included the category of 
mental disability. And around that time,  

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00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:46,800
the manga industry was still very hits them to 
approve any projects that focus on disability.  

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00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:57,440
In uh but in 1988, that taboo was broken 
by Yamamoto's "Far-Off Koshien Stadium"

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00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:02,720
manga, which was published 
as a comic book in 1992.

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00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,000
In the same year, 1992, Karube Junko's  

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00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:16,720
"Your Hands are Whispering" that 
her manga came out as a comic book.

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00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:27,920
So, thanks to these pioneer of deaf manga, 
deaf tojisha characters are now represented  

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00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:36,000
with authenticity. Unfortunately though, as I 
demonstrated today, we still have manga that  

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00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:44,800
struggle with the stereotypical representation 
of deaf tojisha. Uh just a quick note, you see  

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00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:54,560
that the image on this screen right, yeah that's 
taken from Yamamoto's manga about oh Yamamoto's  

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00:33:54,560 --> 00:34:01,200
manga titled "My Finger Orchestra," and that 
manga is about Osaka City School for the Deaf.  

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00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:09,760
For those who are particularly interested in 
the history of deaf communities in Japan, right,  

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00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:19,680
after the Milan Conference in Italy 
in 1880, many schools for the deaf,  

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00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:25,120
including the school for the deaf in 
Japan, switched to the oral method.  

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00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:35,120
And in Japan, particularly, early in the 
1900s, they switched to the oral method.  

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00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:42,960
But, there is there was one school that refused 
to do so. That was Osaka City School for the Deaf,  

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00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:50,560
and its principle, Takahashi Kiyoshi, 
the the the man you see in the image,  

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00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:58,160
um is the was the leading force and actually, 
and there will be a new film coming out  

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00:34:58,720 --> 00:35:06,800
next year about Mr. Takashi, so that will 
be interesting to watch. Okay next slide.

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00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:15,840
So now we are in the middle of 
the almost two-year-long pandemic.  

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00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:22,240
This situation has affected us all of 
us, including tojisha, in various ways.  

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00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:30,880
So to end my talk from a global perspective, 
I would like to show a short video from the  

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00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:39,920
W.H.O. website and its title is "Leave Us Not 
Behind," and perhaps it's a resonance to one  

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00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:47,520
of the disability activists activism models: 
"nothing about us without us." Well, maybe not,  

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00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:54,720
but anyways, the video tells us how the world 
tojisha world's tojisha population has been hit  

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00:35:54,720 --> 00:36:02,960
hard by the pandemic. And especially if you are 
your academic interests in disability go beyond  

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00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:11,280
beyond deaf communities, this is a good video to 
use in your class, I thought. And one more thing,  

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00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:18,960
I would like to remind you that December 3rd is 
the International Day of Persons with Disability,  

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00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:26,960
so I thought it would be good resource to share 
with you. And I have one more URL in chat,  

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00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:35,760
so you will see both uh both videos URL in chat 
and that the second one is the UNESCO's message  

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00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:42,000
about the International Day of Persons with 
Disabilities, so I hope you can make use of this.  

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00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:50,800
Um so after watching the W.H.O. video, I will we 
will proceed to the Q&A session I believe, so...

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00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:59,200
Thank you very much for listening to my lecture 
today and I will show you the short video video,  

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00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:04,480
which is less than four minutes, and around that 
time it's probably a good time for me to catch  

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00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:13,200
my breath and also for you to kind of, you know, 
form your questions yeah for the the Q&A session.  

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00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:18,320
So, if you like to share your comment uh 
comments or questions directly with me,  

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00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:35,840
here is my email and that will be also in 
the in chat I believe. So, here is the video.

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00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,000
Thank you so much Professor 
Okuyama for your wonderful talk.  

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00:41:52,720 --> 00:41:59,920
I'd like to now open things up for 
the Q&A, uh please feel free to either  

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00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:06,080
put your question in the chat, and I will 
ask the question on your behalf, or to use  

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00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:11,280
the raise hand function, and then we could call 
on you and you could ask your question directly.  

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00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:19,840
For the first question I'm going to read out 
Brenda Schertz's question, which is really  

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00:42:20,400 --> 00:42:26,800
maybe the question when thinking "A Silent 
Voice," which is, "were deaf people asked  

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00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:34,960
about their perspectives on the deaf characters 
in the film and manga "A Silent Voice"?" Okay,  

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00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:42,800
thank you very much for that question well, were 
the deaf people asked to share their perspective  

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00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:51,520
on the manga as well as uh anime 
the adaptation, right, okay um.

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00:42:53,760 --> 00:43:01,040
As far as I know, well as I mentioned that 
you know the author manga author's mother  

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00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:07,840
is a professional sign interpreter, so 
definitely she helps her uh gain the  

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00:43:08,480 --> 00:43:16,240
deaf community's perspective, but I don't know if 
she uh if the author directly discuss the content  

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00:43:16,240 --> 00:43:23,280
with any particular deaf uh organization or 
represent representatives. However, okay,  

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00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:31,760
this is what I found out by interviewing uh 
you know manga manga artist in japan um. Those  

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00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:41,200
publishers, manga publishers, uh have occasional, 
you know, seminars and the presentation workshops  

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00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:48,800
for manga authors to raise their awareness 
about social issues including disabilities  

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00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:57,360
and their work was really scrutinized. Before 
they were uh you know okay to be published,  

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00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:02,480
the company the manga publishing 
companies it really examined the content  

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00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:08,640
so that's we don't uh they don't have 
to offend related minority groups,  

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00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:14,320
right, so definitely uh there must have been 
some kind of negotiation where, you know,  

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00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:23,680
uh the the study, research done before uh Oima 
Yoshitoki's work was put in in the public.

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00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:31,520
Thanks very much, um I'm going to first read 
out a comment in the chat and then a question.  

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00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:37,280
The comment is from Yuru Chen, who says "it was 
such a meaningful presentation thank you Yoshiko  

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00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:43,200
and all the ASL interpreters. I also noticed that 
in the Chinese deaf community, some have concerns  

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00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:49,520
about the personality/behaviors portrayed in "A 
Silent Voice" and think of them as inauthentic,  

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00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:55,120
regardless of the use of JSL. I think this 
will definitely lead to further conversations."  

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00:44:56,480 --> 00:45:03,280
And I'm going to ask a question that Kirk van 
Gilder posted in the chat. "Wondering if the  

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00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:09,840
presence of deaf and disabled people in manga and 
anime is changing perceptions of people in Japan  

305
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:15,760
toward deaf and disabled lives, or is it a unique 
market thing that has become a trend in plots,  

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00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:22,480
i.e. our decisions to play up the blind sister 
in "Miss Hokusai" when going from manga to anime,  

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00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:27,920
an inclusion move, or something done to capitalize 
on popular trends that viewers come to see?"

308
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:40,160
I think- that's a very interesting question, I 
think that's probably both way, you know, um of  

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00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:48,960
course manga what I'm I'm not saying that manga 
was the only force to change people's awareness  

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00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:55,440
about disability communities, including deaf 
communities, right so there were already  

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00:45:55,440 --> 00:46:03,040
presidents, you know, the minority activism in the 
90s, 80s, and so forth, so all the in sequence,  

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00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:14,320
since uh manga artists um started to pay more 
attention to those uh groups and they incorporated  

313
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:21,040
those characters into their story telling, 
right right, and then publishers probably saw  

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00:46:21,680 --> 00:46:28,720
um marketability as well, yeah. So now, 
the general public is more interested in,  

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00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:35,120
let's say, a mental disabilities, so 
they're manga artists are actually  

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00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:43,200
encouraged to write about mental disability like 
this, right, so I think you know it comes both way  

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00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:52,160
if there will be a good collaboration between, you 
know, the activism, increased awareness, and then,  

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00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:58,800
you know, marketability that publishers 
see, according to that. So did I answer  

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00:46:59,920 --> 00:47:06,080
the question? Well if there is any part um 
I missed to comment on, please let me know.  

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00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,880
Thank you very much, I think you 
covered what was in the question.  

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00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:16,720
Um continuing on in the chat, I want to point 
to a comment by Marcella Davies, in which-  

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00:47:16,720 --> 00:47:23,200
Davis- in which they say uh "JSL still practice 
in NYC, but they are hidden like hidden gems,  

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00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:29,280
pointing to the fact that JSL is truly a global 
community of speakers of Japanese Sign Language  

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00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:38,000
and and it's not just a phenomenon in Japan alone, 
I think." Jihao Lin asks "Hi Professor Okuyama,  

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00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:43,600
many thanks for this informative talk. I wonder 
if you have followed the deaf or disabled people  

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00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:48,800
who have entered the manga industry and 
played a part in it as authors, producers,  

327
00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:55,520
or any other creative roles." Oh that's a 
great question, thank you. As far as I noticed,  

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00:47:55,520 --> 00:48:02,800
there is only one deaf manga artist and 
he published his uh, you know, his stories  

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00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:10,400
in the uh in the digital manga format, I 
believe. And it didn't gather, his works  

330
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:20,640
didn't get so much attention, but at least as I am 
aware of one deaf manga artist. And then in terms  

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00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:31,440
of other forms involvement in the production of 
deaf-related manga or disability manga, yeah, well  

332
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:40,880
I just in terms of deaf individuals, I don't 
know any one person to name in particular,  

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00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:48,880
but when we go outside of the deaf 
community and deaf manga, well, for example,  

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00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:58,400
manga about the blind characters, right, I know 
one scholar who is involved in uh who was involved  

335
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:09,120
in the production of uh manga about deaf people 
and he uh he was hired as a consultant, of course.

336
00:49:12,240 --> 00:49:18,480
Thanks very much and uh it definitely points- 
oh, go ahead. Oh I mean one thing I just I just  

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00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:24,560
realized that, right, uh probably uh you know it's 
not just manga, but the anime version of "A Silent  

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00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:34,320
Voice", right, I remember hearing that uh the 
deaf deaf community I mean deaf organizations  

339
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:48,400
uh originally were upset about the infrequency 
of uh captions captioned uh film of "A Silent  

340
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:57,600
Voice" shown in Japan. And so, they negotiated the 
presentation time and so forth because it's about,  

341
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:03,200
you know, it show it feature the deaf 
character main character and why, you know,  

342
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:10,640
excluded deaf audiences, right, it didn't make 
any sense, so they correct the anime production  

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00:50:11,840 --> 00:50:18,640
producer corrected that mistake. Thank you very 
much and these questions and your answers really  

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00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:25,200
do point to the important reality of the continued 
discrimination against deaf and disabled people  

345
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:29,680
in Japanese pop culture industries, but 
also the opportunities that are opening up  

346
00:50:30,720 --> 00:50:35,600
and there's definitely a lot of activity 
in the Japanese deaf communities,  

347
00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:41,760
especially within filmmaking, dance, and 
theater. I'm going to put a link in the chat  

348
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:48,800
to a really interesting film from 2016 called 
"Listen" or "Rissun" by two deaf filmmakers  

349
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:57,280
who about sign language music, their 
names are Eri Makihara and Dakei. Um

350
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:04,160
type that out uh and so there's 
definitely a rich universe of  

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00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:09,920
deaf created Japanese cultural products, 
but "A Silent Voice" had such prominence.  

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00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:16,640
I'm going to continue on with questions in the 
chat, Monique Hold asked a similar question "Are  

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00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:20,720
there any deaf or other disabled manga artists 
out there?", which I think you've covered in your  

354
00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:28,160
last answer, um next is Eileen Vo, who asks 
"Thank you for your wonderful presentation,  

355
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:34,960
I was wondering if you can provide us with more 
information about the history of JSL." Oh great,  

356
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:43,120
great question. Uh well, honestly, to understand 
the history of deaf communities in Japan,  

357
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:50,560
the best book to read is Karen Nakamura's "Deaf 
in Japan" and it has you know the sections and  

358
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:58,880
the chapters of deaf history, but just for the 
synopsis, as far as I I understand, um there's  

359
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:10,880
the first school for the deaf was founded in 
Kyoto in 18 um late 18...1875 or something,  

360
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:20,480
right, and then after that uh that the school 
also included the blind. So that the first uh  

361
00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:28,480
school for the deaf and blind was founded in 
Kyoto and then after that there are many more  

362
00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:35,520
the schools for the deaf and the deaf or on 
the blind as well all over Japan. But um,  

363
00:52:36,480 --> 00:52:44,080
as I said before, you know, they were originally 
encouraging students to communicate and they they  

364
00:52:44,080 --> 00:52:51,760
were forming their sign language communication 
and their refined sign styles and so forth,  

365
00:52:51,760 --> 00:53:02,160
but after the Milan Conference in 1880s, right, 
uh because of that western influence and also  

366
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:12,480
pressure from the Japanese government, those 
folks who felt needed to change to oral, you know,  

367
00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:20,240
education and uh they only accept only one school 
in Osaka, yeah they change that that's the,  

368
00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:26,960
you know, the educational styles there, but 
it's not much different. And then, you know,  

369
00:53:27,520 --> 00:53:38,480
up until recently uh still majority of the 
school teachers were signing not their real JSL,  

370
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:46,160
but, you know, the signed Japanese uh 
I mean uh uh like a pigeon version of  

371
00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:56,160
the Japanese Sign Language and so forth. And 
only quite recently that trend changed. So in uh,  

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00:53:56,160 --> 00:54:02,960
we have one uh private school, which is 
totally bilingual, you know, just the natural  

373
00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:10,000
the Japanese Sign Language and the English, 
written English, uh communication, right,  

374
00:54:10,000 --> 00:54:20,320
so that's one in a Meisei Gakuen in Tokyo and then 
other public schools for the deaf uh were strongly  

375
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:27,680
encouraging teachers to use real sign Japanese 
Sign Language in regular instructions, yeah,  

376
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:37,520
so I hope I answered. Thank you so much for 
that really concise and great history of JSL.  

377
00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:45,200
Moving on in the chat to a two-part question from 
Yuanshui Jing, she asks "Hi Professor Okuyama,  

378
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:51,040
thank you so much for the amazing lecture. 
I noticed that "Gangsta" is a seinen manga,  

379
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:57,200
in other words, a manga meant largely for adult 
men, and "Silent Voice" is a shonen manga for  

380
00:54:57,200 --> 00:55:03,120
boys and young men. Do you think that, to some 
extent, specific genres of manga are consuming  

381
00:55:03,120 --> 00:55:10,400
deaf people?" And the second part is "Besides, can 
we say that in some manga deafness is reduced to  

382
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:18,560
an element, according to Azuma Hiroki's database 
theory. To clarify, Azuma Hiroki's database theory  

383
00:55:18,560 --> 00:55:25,760
is this idea that in Japanese pop culture, many 
characters aren't consumed as full-on characters,  

384
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:28,720
but just based on their elements, 
you know, the color of their hair,  

385
00:55:29,280 --> 00:55:35,440
the that they wear glasses or not", so in in 
she's asking, I think, is deafness sometimes  

386
00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:41,920
reduced to just another trait of characters that 
may make them attractive or interesting, rather  

387
00:55:41,920 --> 00:55:49,040
than become an actual accurate depiction of them, 
so that's a two-parter there. Okay great, so let  

388
00:55:49,040 --> 00:55:56,160
me respond to the first question, right, uh the 
first one is a genre, any particular genre is more  

389
00:55:56,160 --> 00:56:06,960
deaf manga friendly or disability manga, right, 
the "Silent Voice" is just, well, as I understand,  

390
00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:15,520
the difference, one of the elements that makes 
the difference in genre is content of violence  

391
00:56:15,520 --> 00:56:23,760
and sexual, you know, material, so "Gangsta" 
definitely has to be for older male readers,  

392
00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:29,280
because of all the action, you know, scenes 
and so forth, brutal killings and stuff,  

393
00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:37,600
right, so uh yeah. It doesn't doesn't mean that 
the author also neglected the disability focus,  

394
00:56:37,600 --> 00:56:43,440
just because of that particular genre 
and then by contrast, you know, uh

395
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:55,360
the the author of "A Silent Voice" um is is 
also um well-immersed in shoujo manga, you know,  

396
00:56:55,360 --> 00:57:04,560
the manga made for women, for girls and older 
women, I mean so teenage girls and uh those little  

397
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:13,440
older women and so, coming from that background, 
you know, she has that element of romance, but not  

398
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:22,480
without any sexual connotation. So, that is that's 
why the target readers were uh uh, you know,  

399
00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:33,680
seinen manga. Then, why not shoujo manga for 
women, why why shounen, why young why young boys,  

400
00:57:33,680 --> 00:57:44,000
right, well nowadays that genre specification 
it's really more uh, you know, blurry and  

401
00:57:44,000 --> 00:57:53,840
especially topics with social importance, such as 
disability or discrimination, and in this manga  

402
00:57:53,840 --> 00:58:03,280
in particular, bullying, right right, so those are 
the other stories with such social significance uh

403
00:58:05,520 --> 00:58:11,680
are more likely to be marketed to the the 
gen the readers with the, you know, um  

404
00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:22,880
with the the the male uh audiences, because 
traditionally, male readers tend to focus on  

405
00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:31,760
what they like, very narrow interests, compared 
to female readers. Female readers are said to have  

406
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:38,880
a little bit more diverse interests, but 
male readers tend to need you know their uh  

407
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:44,720
sports magazine sports um genre 
or, you know, like gambling or  

408
00:58:45,520 --> 00:58:52,880
you know yakuza type manga, but, you know, 
in order to create awareness in society,  

409
00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:58,800
right, that important message has to be shared 
with as many, all the different audiences,  

410
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:06,640
as possible. So I think it's there is a 
publisher's intention behind, you know, to market  

411
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:17,840
to the I mean market to the the younger boys 
there. Well uh I mean with the the "Silent Voice",  

412
00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:23,280
but with "Gangsta", I don't think the 
publisher had that type of intention,  

413
00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:31,840
I don't think that publisher wanted to use that 
manga to increase the awareness of deaf character,  

414
00:59:33,040 --> 00:59:41,280
right, so that I think that that's, you know, 
origin of the story is it has a big role to play.  

415
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:50,240
And then, for the second question, uh 
yeah I understand that, you know, uh  

416
00:59:50,240 --> 00:59:58,320
sometimes characters with disabilities are reduced 
to that disability, symbolism of disability,  

417
00:59:58,320 --> 01:00:06,000
what's possible, right, or element, um 
and this manga to some extent has that,  

418
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:17,920
yeah, so uh that implication. So I didn't say this 
in my lecture, but the reason I didn't choose that  

419
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:23,120
that manga "A Silent Voice", well, there 
are a few reasons one of the reason is you  

420
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:31,520
know the main topic, the theme of this manga is 
bullying, not particularly a disability community,  

421
01:00:31,520 --> 01:00:38,640
and I also think you know Shoko, the deaf 
girls um agency, is kind of reduced and  

422
01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:45,520
the manga does not really introduce how Shoko 
interacts with other deaf people, right,  

423
01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:53,920
so that's in in these regards that manga, 
"A Silent Voice", has more like an element,  

424
01:00:54,480 --> 01:01:04,240
the type of, you know, approach, compared to those 
pioneer manga uh manga titles I analyzed my book,  

425
01:01:04,240 --> 01:01:09,680
so that was the reason why why I didn't those 
are the reason why I didn't choose to analyze  

426
01:01:09,680 --> 01:01:19,200
"A Silent Voice", but for this lecture I chose it 
because I assumed that more people are familiar  

427
01:01:19,200 --> 01:01:25,440
with that anime version of it, right, and that 
was that is quite popular in the United States.  

428
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:30,880
And several of my students were talking about 
that too, so I thought it's more approachable.  

429
01:01:32,880 --> 01:01:37,840
So I hope I answered the questions, but if there 
is any element I left out, please let me know.  

430
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:45,040
Thanks very much uh, and on that note, I 
want to uh read out some comments that are  

431
01:01:45,040 --> 01:01:49,840
follow-up to earlier points related to what 
you just said, uh Brenda Schertz has followed  

432
01:01:49,840 --> 01:01:54,800
up saying "Thank you for mentioning about 
accurate portrayal of deaf people and manga,  

433
01:01:54,800 --> 01:01:59,520
most people might think it's a it is a positive 
thing to portray deaf characters in manga,  

434
01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:04,400
yet in the film "A Silent Voice", the deaf 
character is portrayed as a lonely and isolated  

435
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:09,520
girl, which is an old stereotype of deaf people. 
There were no other deaf characters. Usually deaf  

436
01:02:09,520 --> 01:02:14,160
people socialize with other deaf people, but 
that was not shown at all in the Silent Voice.  

437
01:02:14,160 --> 01:02:18,400
For that reason, I was curious if culturally 
deaf people in Japan was consulted on the film"  

438
01:02:19,440 --> 01:02:24,720
and uh Leanne responds to Brenda directly saying 
that that "Remember that deaf people aren't a  

439
01:02:24,720 --> 01:02:29,520
monolith, there's a variety of experiences, 
some deaf people, especially mainstreamed ones  

440
01:02:29,520 --> 01:02:34,160
like Shoko, where she's the only deaf 
student at school, don't have the opportunity  

441
01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:38,720
to make their friends. Many deaf people have 
that experience as children and later grow  

442
01:02:38,720 --> 01:02:43,600
up as adults to make deaf friends, that was my 
experience as well." So that was an interesting  

443
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:50,240
exchange in the comments, I'm going to go back 
up to the questions and uh the next question in  

444
01:02:50,240 --> 01:02:57,200
in the queue is uh Yan Liu who asks "Thank you 
for your terrific presentation, Professor Okuyama.  

445
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:01,840
I am curious about the category of 
intellectual disability in Japan,  

446
01:03:02,560 --> 01:03:06,240
can you say a bit more about that 
category and its portrayal in manga?"

447
01:03:08,320 --> 01:03:16,560
Uh intellectual disability, all right, category 
of intellectual disability um okay. Andrew,  

448
01:03:16,560 --> 01:03:22,800
can you specify that well so the question I I 
haven't pinpointed the question in chat- So yeah  

449
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:28,080
uh a bit more about the portrayal, oh sorry, uh 
a bit more about the portrayal of intellectual  

450
01:03:28,080 --> 01:03:33,680
disability in Japan in particular and how 
that category is constructed. Okay, all right.  

451
01:03:34,240 --> 01:03:44,720
So, as far as I can recall just off the 
bat, um two there are two big big manga  

452
01:03:45,600 --> 01:03:51,600
that features the protagonists with intellectual 
disability. One is "With the Light",  

453
01:03:52,560 --> 01:04:05,920
the "Hikari to Tomoni," and the other one 
is "Daisuki Yuzuru no Kosodate Nikki".

454
01:04:05,920 --> 01:04:12,320
It hasn't been translated into English yet, but 
if I would, then that would be that I love it  

455
01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:21,280
and this is Yuzuru's uh Yu- 
Yuzuru's um Yuzuki ka na,

456
01:04:21,280 --> 01:04:30,880
and uh uh parenting parenting the diary. So 
these two have attracted a lot of attention,  

457
01:04:30,880 --> 01:04:39,840
a lot of attention from Japanese readers and 
how they are constructed in terms of disability,  

458
01:04:40,800 --> 01:04:49,520
intellectual disability. The first one I cited, 
"With the Light", that focuses uh the autism,  

459
01:04:49,520 --> 01:04:58,400
that's a child with autism, and uh the mother 
. . . Well actually the protagonist is not only  

460
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:06,160
the child, but also mother and mother struggles 
to uh gain understanding from her relatives,  

461
01:05:06,160 --> 01:05:14,720
especially her mother, Izuko, and who is critical 
of her giving birth to a child with a disability  

462
01:05:15,440 --> 01:05:22,880
and then she also struggles to find support 
from schools and so forth. So it is really,  

463
01:05:22,880 --> 01:05:30,240
uh I believe, a very accurate 
rendition of how mothers uh with  

464
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:35,840
with children with intellectual disability 
go through within the school system in Japan,  

465
01:05:36,560 --> 01:05:43,520
and also community, as well as in interaction 
with their relatives. In Japan, we still have some  

466
01:05:43,520 --> 01:05:52,480
archaic um biases or the even the superstitions 
about disabilities, you know, if you your child is  

467
01:05:52,480 --> 01:05:59,120
born with a disability maybe it's a curse from the 
previous life and so forth and there are relatives  

468
01:05:59,120 --> 01:06:08,560
who say that, words that type of superstition. So 
those kind of things are also portrayed portrayed  

469
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:15,680
in that manga "With the Light". And then second 
one um, "Daisuki Yuzuru no Kosodate Nikki",

470
01:06:15,680 --> 01:06:23,600
I just I haven't read the the whole series 
myself, so I don't know, but uh it was it  

471
01:06:23,600 --> 01:06:33,760
became so popular, the NHK made a drama series I 
believe. So, so far, I haven't come up come across  

472
01:06:33,760 --> 01:06:42,800
any you know repercussion from the the the groups 
of groups representing intellectual disability,  

473
01:06:42,800 --> 01:06:50,560
so I think that it was well received. Thanks 
very much, for the next question in the chat,  

474
01:06:51,200 --> 01:06:57,760
Luis asks "Hello Professor Okuyama, thank you for 
the presentation regarding disability and manga.  

475
01:06:58,720 --> 01:07:04,640
What does the Japanese government- does the 
Japanese government have any mangaka manga artist  

476
01:07:04,640 --> 01:07:10,960
programs to support disabled communities in Japan 
that are interested in the arts and storytelling?"  

477
01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:23,840
Ah, that's an interesting question, uh you mean 
governmental support for manga artists with  

478
01:07:23,840 --> 01:07:32,880
disabilities, right, um that, I as far as I know 
there is no particular program that with that.  

479
01:07:33,680 --> 01:07:41,840
However, the the government uh the 
the, the Japanese government, has

480
01:07:42,560 --> 01:07:52,000
I think MEXT Monbusho has an outlet 
where which recognizes uh impactful,  

481
01:07:52,720 --> 01:08:02,480
inspiration and impactful manga for with 
awards. So government is involved in recognizing  

482
01:08:03,040 --> 01:08:09,040
progressive manga stories that cast 
like disability, but it's not just on  

483
01:08:09,040 --> 01:08:18,400
disability it's just, you know, any any manga with 
groundbreaking uh insights and the influential,  

484
01:08:18,400 --> 01:08:25,920
you know, messages, right, so and 
but uh any partic uh program uh  

485
01:08:25,920 --> 01:08:33,120
particularly to support uh manga artists to 
produce manga about disability or, you know,  

486
01:08:33,120 --> 01:08:40,080
among the artists with disabilities I don't 
know any any, but it would be, yeah, it would be  

487
01:08:40,080 --> 01:08:47,760
excellent because there are much fewer number of 
artists you know like like the disability model,  

488
01:08:47,760 --> 01:08:54,560
right, nothing about us without us, so we need 
to really encourage uh people with disabilities,  

489
01:08:54,560 --> 01:09:01,520
you know, to produce their own perspectives 
in the art form, in the manga art form.  

490
01:09:03,360 --> 01:09:08,400
Thanks very much, um so the next question 
in the chat is from Michael Rambus who asks  

491
01:09:09,280 --> 01:09:14,320
"Thank you for your wonderful presentation 
and book, so important. Very much looking  

492
01:09:14,320 --> 01:09:20,240
forward to your future work. I am curious, 
do deaf people identify as disabled in japan?  

493
01:09:20,880 --> 01:09:28,000
Is there anything analogous to the capital d 
deaf culture in Japan?" Ah, good question, right,  

494
01:09:28,000 --> 01:09:36,160
and once again I have to I have to cite Karen 
Nakamura's book "Deaf in Japan", right, so because  

495
01:09:36,160 --> 01:09:44,160
that features all the transitions Japanese deaf 
individual went through, from the just regular d,  

496
01:09:44,720 --> 01:09:52,320
to capital d movement, and so forth. So you can 
read in detail, in much detail, about that the,  

497
01:09:52,320 --> 01:10:00,160
you know, activism and transitions and so forth in 
the book, Karen Nakamura's book, yeah, but just to  

498
01:10:00,160 --> 01:10:10,320
answer your question, well, you know, of whether 
they recognize being deaf as disability is a  

499
01:10:10,320 --> 01:10:18,240
kind of double edged sword, well not, but it's as 
kind of multiple implications I should say. Right,  

500
01:10:18,240 --> 01:10:25,920
so for one thing they do that people with uh 
I mean deaf people do receive uh what we call  

501
01:10:25,920 --> 01:10:33,520
the "disability passport," Shōgai-sha techō, and 
with that passport, they can, you know, ride the  

502
01:10:33,520 --> 01:10:40,160
public transportation with discount and there are 
lots of benefits, right, so they applied, right,  

503
01:10:40,160 --> 01:10:45,840
and in order to apply they have to identify 
themselves with with that disability category.  

504
01:10:47,360 --> 01:10:52,240
But in terms of, you know, their 
awareness, their self-identities,  

505
01:10:53,040 --> 01:11:00,560
there are deaf leaders who really just like, 
you know, deaf leaders in the United States,  

506
01:11:00,560 --> 01:11:08,080
who identify themselves with just a different 
culture, different group, different language  

507
01:11:08,080 --> 01:11:16,960
speakers, not as a disability group, right, so uh 
it depends on the person of course right and then  

508
01:11:16,960 --> 01:11:27,280
uh Japan uh in Japan, there is a big uh deaf 
community uh deaf organization Japan uh Japan uh  

509
01:11:27,280 --> 01:11:35,120
Federation of Deaf. They have a different 
they have, their members have different ideas  

510
01:11:35,120 --> 01:11:41,600
from those who have progressive ideas 
and identify themselves as their own  

511
01:11:41,600 --> 01:11:49,360
culture group, right, so we can I cannot just 
speak for one group uh per se, but uh what,  

512
01:11:49,360 --> 01:11:56,000
as I said before, if you would like to know those 
different groups and different ideas and different  

513
01:11:56,000 --> 01:12:02,960
identities of deaf individuals, definitely 
check out Karen Nakamura's Deaf in Japan.

514
01:12:05,440 --> 01:12:10,160
Thanks so much for your answer um and 
we have one more question in the chat,  

515
01:12:11,120 --> 01:12:17,120
that's from Shan Shan Oyan, who asks "Thank 
you for your presentation Professor Okuyama,  

516
01:12:17,120 --> 01:12:23,280
I'm interested in queer culture. Do you know 
any manga about LGBT people with disabilities?"

517
01:12:25,600 --> 01:12:32,800
So, I don't recognize LGBTQ, of course, as that 
category, right, so you you are asking L D-  

518
01:12:32,800 --> 01:12:41,120
L G D Q class group which uh um, you 
know, medically recognized disability  

519
01:12:41,120 --> 01:12:48,480
like a mental disability or physical disability 
and so forth, so do I know any uh any group  

520
01:12:49,360 --> 01:12:57,440
um in Japan? Or any uh manga about people 
who are both queer and disabled, for example.  

521
01:12:58,240 --> 01:13:07,600
There are a lot of manga about you know queer 
backgrounds, of course, in Japan but uh just  

522
01:13:08,640 --> 01:13:17,840
from the top of my head, I can't think of any 
manga titles that that look at both LGBTQ and a  

523
01:13:18,560 --> 01:13:24,880
recognized disability, uh typically recognized 
disability, like a physical disability per se  

524
01:13:25,920 --> 01:13:34,560
so. Ah okay wait wait, I take it back, there is 
one, one manga I recently came across, but I can't  

525
01:13:34,560 --> 01:13:46,320
remember uh the title, but in in that manga the 
the protagonist is is uh gay and also has a speech  

526
01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:54,320
impediment, so he has a stuttering I think, um 
right, speech impediment, but it's there is no  

527
01:13:54,320 --> 01:14:03,680
one genre that's there I don't think there is not 
critical critical mass to create a genre for that.

528
01:14:05,760 --> 01:14:10,720
Thank you and uh I could think of one more example 
in the chat, it's called a manga called "I Hear  

529
01:14:10,720 --> 01:14:16,480
the Sunspot", which is a about two gay male 
characters, one of whom is hard of hearing  

530
01:14:16,480 --> 01:14:22,400
and uh that's an interesting example but,- Ah 
that's right that's right yeah yeah I I know  

531
01:14:22,400 --> 01:14:29,200
that one too. Right, but, it's definitely not 
a huge trend like you say um I think uh in the  

532
01:14:29,200 --> 01:14:36,480
chat that's almost it. Um, I have one question 
myself just to take the advantage of this time.  

533
01:14:38,400 --> 01:14:44,480
Many of my deaf friends in Japan told me that 
there's some relationship between manga and JSL,  

534
01:14:44,480 --> 01:14:50,640
for example JSL slang, slang where 
you can sign sound effects across  

535
01:14:50,640 --> 01:14:56,960
your body sort of in a manga style. So I was 
interested to hear your thoughts on sort of  

536
01:14:56,960 --> 01:15:03,680
uh this relationship between the manga medium 
and JSL more generally and not just in its  

537
01:15:03,680 --> 01:15:12,080
portrayal in these two works. I see, 
so the manga medias and JSL. Uh well,

538
01:15:15,280 --> 01:15:18,720
you know, um as I mentioned in the lecture  

539
01:15:19,280 --> 01:15:25,360
uh those two manga uh I mean those two 
manga artists, Yamamoto and Karube,  

540
01:15:26,720 --> 01:15:37,840
their works really portray the specific sign 
signing right, sign representations and uh

541
01:15:40,400 --> 01:15:43,600
uh so it's this uh

542
01:15:46,160 --> 01:15:53,360
"The Silent Voice", but any specific 
collaboration, um I'm not really sure  

543
01:15:53,360 --> 01:16:01,920
how to approach that question, yeah, so it's it's 
any development between the two yeah, I haven't,  

544
01:16:03,040 --> 01:16:10,080
right now I can't think of anything, I'm sorry but 
maybe, you know, if we exchange email addresses,  

545
01:16:10,080 --> 01:16:16,000
I could be able to come up with some ideas or 
I mean that I may remember something and then I  

546
01:16:16,000 --> 01:16:25,040
can respond later, but right now I don't really 
uh have anything to share. That's totally fine,  

547
01:16:25,040 --> 01:16:29,280
but I also want to use this as an opportunity 
to direct people to some of your excellent past  

548
01:16:29,280 --> 01:16:36,640
work on uh on deaf teens in Japan and their use of 
text messaging, uh you've written some really done  

549
01:16:36,640 --> 01:16:43,600
really some really interesting research on that so 
using new media, new technologies uh in innovative  

550
01:16:43,600 --> 01:16:49,200
ways, so thank you so much for, not just this 
book, but for your vast amounts of past work.  

551
01:16:50,320 --> 01:17:02,240
We have time for one more question perhaps, if 
anyone wants that in the chat or raise their hand.

552
01:17:02,240 --> 01:17:10,480
Um, but if there is no more questions, I think uh 
Professor Okuyama has uh had a very intense couple  

553
01:17:10,480 --> 01:17:17,440
of hours, so I just wanted to wish her a very 
warm thank you for a really wonderful talk uh.  

554
01:17:17,440 --> 01:17:24,560
Thank you so much for your really fascinating uh 
lecture and your answers to the very extensive Q&A  

555
01:17:25,120 --> 01:17:30,880
and thank you to the audience for your attention 
and your great questions and thank you to  

556
01:17:31,440 --> 01:17:43,840
the two interpreters for your wonderful work, 
uh thank you so much. Thank you very much!