Japan · 日本
こんにちは。これは私たちの物語です。
We turned 1,741 councils. Then the Diet.
Access on this page: Signed: Japanese Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
In 2013 Tottori passed Japan's first sign-language ordinance. We carried it to every council in the country — nearly 400 had followed by 2020, and all 1,741 municipal assemblies backed a national law. In June 2025 the Diet passed the Act on the Promotion of Measures Concerning Sign Language, unanimously. Five months earlier, on 21 January 2025, the Osaka High Court ruled that a Deaf girl's lost future was worth 100 per cent — not the 85 the lower court had allowed. The law is ours. Now the delivery.
JSL video — this story, in our language
A named Japanese Deaf creator tells this page's story in 日本手話 (JSL). The video is the page, and the text is its transcript's cousin. This video existing is the reason this page is allowed to exist.
The court refused the gap. The Diet wrote the law.
Now we close it — ourselves.
What do you want to do?
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I want access
Watch.Understand.Belong.
Movies, news, services — and alerts — in JSL, captions, or audio description.
Go -
I create access
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf signers, interpreters, captioners, audio describers — your work, your name, your income.
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I provide access
One API.Every screen.
Platforms, governments, cinemas, companies — deliver real access with one integration.
Go -
I back access
Host.Sponsor.Invest.
The builders who will deliver the 100% the High Court promised — be part of the firsts.
Go
More than one of these can be yours. The access is for you, and you can be paid to help make it.
Access in Japan today
Prefecture by prefecture, we changed the law.
Since 1 April 2024 every business in Japan, not just government, must provide reasonable accommodation — the duty now sits on every reception desk in the country. Since June 2025 the state has a legal duty to promote sign language. And since 21 January 2025 a Japanese court has said it in writing: a Deaf life is worth 100 per cent.
We also carry the hard memory of why this can never wait. Information that does not reach you is not information.
The 15% was never our deficit. It was the delivery that never came — so we deliver it ourselves. That is what ally is: Deaf and blind creators, paid to make the access — JSL, captions, audio description — delivered to any screen, any counter, any alert.
In plain words
The law is on your side. What is missing is the service — and that is what gets built here, with the community.
Why captions alone are not enough → Why sign language
Talk to us
Tell us who you are
Write in your own language. We reply in it.
- Emailpartners@a11y.media
- Video messageSend a signed video — no writing needed
Contact us by form, email, or a signed video message — never voice-only.