Kyousei or “Living Together” from the Perspective of Information Accessibility with Regard to the Captioning of Comedy Performance for the Deaf

Abstract

Abstract. Kyousei, literally“ symbiosis,” or, more figuratively,“ living together in harmony,” is a term that has been used with positive connotations in many contexts in contemporary Japanese society. In particular, phrases such as“ living together in harmony with the disabled,” or“ a society that lives together,” often associate kyousei with welfare for the disabled. This type of use of the word kyousei is also intended to convey a connotation of mutual understanding. However, careful consideration will reveal that hidden in the background of this term is a great ambiguity. That is to say, while on the one hand kyousei possesses a dissimilative tendency to accept differences and diversity, it also has an assimilative tendency to suppress differences and diversity. The purpose of this paper is to clarify circumstances surrounding information accessibility for the hearing disabled in the field of art and entertainment by focusing on the issue of accessibility, which is one of the supporting concepts of kyousei. The subject of study of this paper is the captioning of Japanese comedy performances, which presuppose the sharing of a social code. My analysis reveals that this captioning has problems in terms of both technology and content.