Japanese Sign Language

, also known by the acronym JSL, is the dominant sign language in Japan and is a complete natural language, distinct from but influenced by the spoken Japanese language. Deafness in Japan There are 304,000 Deaf and Hard of Hearing people who are above age 18 in Japan (2008). However, there is no specific source about the number of JSL users because of the difficulty in distinguishing who are JSL users and who use other kinds of sign, like Taiou Shuwa and Chuukan Shuwa. According to the Japanese Association for Sign Language Studies, the estimated number of JSL users is around 60,000 in Japan. Little is known about sign language and the deaf community before the Edo period. In 1862, the Tokugawa shogunate dispatched envoys to various European schools for the deaf but the first school for the deaf was not established until 1878 in Kyōto. It was founded by Tashiro Furukawa, who also developed what would become JSL. Until 1948, deaf children were not required to attend school or to receive a formal education. In the second half of the 20th century, a subtle cultural change in views about the Deaf in Japan evolved. The long-standing concept that deaf only means "people who cannot hear" emphasized a physical impairment as part of a biomedical disease model; however, this was gradually replaced by a slightly different paradigm. Deaf people were more often identified as people who use Japanese sign language. In other words, the biomedical disability model began slowly to be displaced by a social-cultural or JSL paradigm. The Japanese Federation of the Deaf has worked with slow success in efforts to enhance communication opportunities for Japanese whose primary language is JSL. The changing status of JSL and the Deaf in Japan is a slow process, but there are highlights. For example, JSL has an advocate among the Imperial family. Kiko, Princess Akishino has studied JSL and is a trained sign language interpreter. She attends the Sign Language Speech Contest for High School Students held every August, and Praising Mothers Raising Children with Hearing Impairments every December.