September 28, 2021 Actual Results of Television Broadcasts with Captions, Explanations or Sign Language in FY2020

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) promotes the spread of people-friendly broadcasts, such as television programs with captions, explanations and sign language, considering aged people and people with seeing or hearing impairments. As a part of this initiative, the results of subtitled broadcasts, explanatory broadcasts, and sign language broadcasts aired in fiscal 2020 have now been compiled, and MIC has decided to release the results to the public.

MIC surveyed actual achievements of subtitled broadcasts, explanatory broadcasts, and sign language broadcasts in fiscal 2020 and summarized the results. ^{(Note 1) (Note 2)}
MIC formulated the Guidelines on Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Sector in February 2018. Accordingly, since fiscal 2018, each broadcasting company has been promoting efforts based on the guidelines.

Subtitled broadcasts

• *

  Values in brackets show a comparison with the previous fiscal year.

  • (Reference 1)
    Japan Broadcasting Corporation, also known as NHK (General; base broadcasting stations) ^{(Note 11)}

• Percentage of subtitled programs in broadcast programs targeted by the guidelines: 92.4% [+0.1%]
• Percentage of subtitled broadcast time in total broadcast time: 85.2% [+2.6%]
  • (Reference 2)
    NHK (General; local broadcasting stations) ^{(Note 12)}
• Percentage of subtitled programs in broadcast programs targeted by the guidelines: 90.2% [-0.1%]
• Percentage of subtitled broadcast time in total broadcast time: 83.5% [+2.4%]

Explanatory broadcasts

• *

  Values in brackets show a comparison with the previous fiscal year.

  • (Reference 3)
    NHK (General; base broadcasting stations)

• Percentage of explanatory programs in broadcast programs targeted by the guidelines: 16.7% [-1.0%]
• Percentage of explanatory broadcast time in total broadcast time: 14.3% [-0.8%]
  • (Reference 4)
    NHK (General; local broadcasting stations)
• Percentage of explanatory programs in broadcast programs targeted by the guidelines: 16.8% [-1.0%]
• Percentage of explanatory broadcast time in total broadcast time: 14.3% [-0.8%]

Sign language broadcasts

• *

  Values in brackets show a comparison with the previous fiscal year.

  • (Reference 5)
    NHK (General; base broadcasting stations)

• Sign language broadcast time per week: 35 minutes [-5 minutes]
  • (Reference 6)
    NHK (General; local broadcasting stations)
• Sign language broadcast time per week: 36 minutes [-5 minutes]

Note 1

When broadcasting more than one video stream through one television channel is performed, the broadcast time is the total broadcast time on each multichannel.

Note 2

See Appendix 1 to Appendix 4 for the individual achievements of each broadcaster.

Note 3

A survey during a two-week sample week ^(*).

• *
  In principle, the first week of June [Monday, June 1 through Sunday, June 7, 2020] and the first week of December [Monday, November 30 through Sunday, December 6, 2020]. The period two weeks before or after can be selected if there is a specific reason.

Broadcast programs targeted by the guidelines are all programs broadcast for 18 consecutive hours from 6:00 to 25:00, except for the following programs.

• Programs that cannot be technically subtitled (e.g., live programs where multiple people have conversations at the same time)
• Foreign language programs
• Music programs mainly constituted of instrumental music performances
• Programs that cannot be subtitled due to rights processing reasons

Note 4

NHK (General; broadcasting center, etc.): NHK broadcasting stations covering Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, and Kanagawa Prefectures.

Note 5

Key stations in Tokyo (5 stations): Nippon Television Network Corporation, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc., Fuji Television Network, Inc., TV Asahi Corporation, and TV TOKYO Corporation

Note 6

Quasi-key stations in Osaka (4 stations): Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc., Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation, Kansai Television Co., Ltd., and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

Note 7

Wide-area stations in Nagoya (4 stations): CBC Television Co., Ltd., Tokai Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Nagoya Broadcasting Network Co., Ltd., and Chukyo TV. Broadcasting Co., Ltd.

Note 8

Affiliated local stations (101 stations): Terrestrial television broadcasters other than those listed in Note 4 to Note 7, Note 9, Note 11, and Note 12

Note 9

Independent stations (13 stations): Tochigi Television Co., Ltd., Gunma Television Co., Ltd., Television Saitama Co., Ltd., Chiba Television Broadcasting Corporation, Tokyo Metropolitan Television Broadcasting Corporation, Television Kanagawa, Inc., Gifu Broadcasting System, Inc., Mie Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Biwako Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Kyoto Broadcasting System Co., Ltd., Sun Television Co., Ltd., Nara Television Co., Ltd., and Wakayama Telecasting Corporation.

Note 10

BS stations affiliated with Key stations in Tokyo (5 stations): Asahi Satellite Broadcasting Ltd., BS-TBS, Inc., BS TV TOKYO Corporation, BS Nippon Corporation, and Fuji Satellite Broadcasting, Inc.

Note 11

NHK (General; base broadcasting stations): Osaka-based broadcasting station, Nagoya-based broadcasting station, Hiroshima-based broadcasting station, Fukuoka-based broadcasting station, Sendai-based broadcasting station, Sapporo-based broadcasting station, and Matsuyama-based broadcasting station. (7 stations)

Note 12

NHK (General; local broadcasting stations): NHK broadcasting stations, excluding those specified in Note 4 and Note 11. (43 stations)

Note 13

Broadcasts programs targeted by the guidelines are all programs that are broadcast between 7:00 and 24:00, except for programs that cannot be explained due to reasons, including rights processing.
Broadcasts that cannot be explained due to reasons, including rights processing, are the following programs:

• Programs that cannot be explained due to rights processing reasons
• Programs that use two or more sounds, such as bilingual broadcasts and sub-audio broadcasts
• 5.1-channel surround programs
• Programs whose main audio have no spare time for explanations

Note 14

Sign language broadcast time per week = {Total sign language broadcast time per year / 365 days} × Seven days