Japanese working on adding subtitles for deaf and hard of hearing?

[takenoko]

So I received my copy of Reiwa the First Generation today. I was looking at the back to see if they had subtitles, and to my surprise, they did! (Usually subtitles only appeared on summer movies previously)

But there was a weird term for it. Barrier free Japanese subtitles. I was like what is that?

http://cinematheque.jp/barrierfree

Oh okay, so I guess that's what they're calling subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. In addition to dialogue, it includes sound and music descriptions. I mean, previous subtitles had them too, but now they're making a special effort to support this for the deaf and hard of hearing, I guess?

In any case, that's very exciting for us as translators, since it's obviously a lot easier to translate if we have a copy of the script. It looks like the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications had plans to have all broadcast TV subtitled by 2017. (Hint, Garo -Versus Road- on Tokyo MX does not have subtitles so I guess they missed that goal)

But this is heartening for us. Currently we get subtitles with the Rider and Sentai shows. And ones that show in movie theaters. And that was more or less it.

If it's direct to DVD or has a limited theater run, no subtitles. (Like Geiz Majesty to use a recent example). Like even Garo -Gekkou no Tabibito- didn't have Japanese subtitles (they had English subtitles because it screened at an international movie festival though). Hope to see more things get subtitled in the future.

[Lunagel]

"Barrier Free" is a catch-all term used to refer to anything that has been modified in such a way as to be easily used by anyone with disabilities. Barrier Free bathrooms are wide, with handlebars for the toilet (and some facilities even have places to drain catheter bags). Some buses are equipped with hydraulics to raise or lower the bus so there is no step up required. Pretty much all city sidewalks have grooved tiles fitted in for blind people to walk on, which change to dotted tiles at intersections.

[takenoko]

So it's like lowering the barrier as much as possible? I get it now

[Lunagel]

It's like making sure there aren't any barriers in the way of a normal life. Stuff like a wheelchair-accessible (and traversable) apartment or elevators, or the station attendant being there with a ramp to help you get on the train easily. There's lots of movement to try and make the country more friendly to disabled people, although it's really difficult still for wheelchairs :/ everything's just too narrow

[Mandalori]

Well, small improvement are better than no improvement at all.