Local News

A Fukuoka Prefecture association for the hearing impaired and a prefectural association of sign language interpreters submitted a request to the Fukuoka District Court seeking greater consideration for the hearing-impaired people selected to serve as lay jurors. The groups say there are no fixed gestures for interpreting certain words. For example, some use the gesture of lighting a match to interpret arson, while others mime a cigarette lighter. Also, the language used in a court differs greatly from that used in everyday speech, so they are asking for more research and discussion to standardize the gestures used.