Gallaudet experts help prepare for Tokyo Deaflympics at Japanese Embassy workshop

Deaf athletes from around the world are coming to Japan this November for the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics. Gallaudet will be well represented in the competition — about 40 percent of the members of the U.S. team are students and alumni.

To help prepare Japan to host this major international event, Dr. Kota Takayama, G-’09, and Ai Minakawa, G-’21, led a workshop on deaf culture at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., for embassy officials, diplomats, and invited guests.

The June 23 workshop, “Understanding the World through Deaf Perspectives,” offered participants an opportunity to gain foundational insights into deaf culture, including language, identity, history, and communication practices. Takayama, an Associate Professor in Gallaudet’s Social Work program, and Minakawa, a research support specialist for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Child Resilience Center, provided special attention to the cultural differences between deaf and hearing communities, including values, communication norms, and worldviews.

They emphasized the importance of understanding deaf people not through the medical model, which focuses on impairment, but through the social model and the cultural-linguistic model, which recognize deaf people as members of a distinct cultural and linguistic community.

The discussion also included practical considerations for diplomacy and public service engagement in preparation for the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics, such as:

– How to recognize and respectfully engage with deaf individuals during public events or diplomatic gatherings.

– Understanding deaf cultural norms in communication, such as eye contact and visual attention cues, which can differ from hearing cultural expectations.

– The value of consulting local deaf organizations and leaders when planning international events like the Deaflympics.

This workshop was made possible through the initiative of Yukimi Kurata, a Japanese diplomat with a strong interest in deaf culture and Japanese Sign Language. Kurata coordinated the workshop and played a key role in connecting the Embassy with Gallaudet University. Kurata also kindly provided a cultural orientation on Japanese customs and etiquette last year for Gallaudet students traveling to Japan through the Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction & Emergency Planning Program (DEP). Her dedication exemplifies a growing commitment within international diplomacy to better understand and engage with the global deaf communities.

Takayama and Minakawa also extend their sincere gratitude to Sayaka Umeda and Rieko Niinaka, Japanese sign language interpreters based in Japan, who generously volunteered their time and skills to provide simultaneous JSL interpretation remotely via the internet. Their support ensured full accessibility and cultural integrity throughout the session.