FY2025 Captioning and Accessible Broadcast Results
Overview
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications surveyed and published FY2025 results for captioned, audio-described, and sign-language broadcasts as part of efforts to expand programming accessible to people with visual or hearing disabilities and older adults. Captioning and audio description are reported using two measures: the share of programs covered by the guideline’s dissemination targets and the share of total broadcast time. Sign-language broadcasting is reported as average weekly hours per station. Captioned broadcast time accounted for 71.7% at the five Tokyo key stations and 91.6% at NHK Educational, while the share for audio-described broadcasts ranged from 21.5% at NHK Educational to 0.7% at 13 independent prefectural stations. Average weekly sign-language broadcast time was 4 hours 44 minutes at NHK Educational and 26 minutes at the five Tokyo key stations. In October 2023, the ministry revised its Guidelines on Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Sector, originally established in February 2018, and broadcasters are advancing measures based on the guidelines.
Key points
- Captioned broadcast time as a share of total broadcast time was 91.6% at NHK Educational and 18.5% at 13 independent prefectural stations.
- Audio-described broadcast time as a share of total broadcast time was 21.5% at NHK Educational and 0.7% at 13 independent prefectural stations.
- Average weekly sign-language broadcast time per station was 4 hours 44 minutes at NHK Educational and 26 minutes at the five Tokyo key stations.
Overview
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications surveyed and published FY2025 results for captioned, audio-described, and sign-language broadcasts as part of efforts to expand programming accessible to people with visual or hearing disabilities and older adults.
In October 2023, the ministry revised its Guidelines on Information Accessibility in the Broadcasting Sector, established in February 2018, and broadcasters are advancing measures based on the guidelines.
Captioning and audio description are reported as the share of programs covered by the guidelines’ dissemination targets and as the share of total broadcast time; sign-language broadcasting is reported as average weekly time per station.
Details
Programs covered by the captioning dissemination targets are, in principle, those broadcast during the continuous 18-hour period from 6:00 to 25:00, excluding programs that cannot technically be captioned, foreign-language programs, music programs consisting mostly of instrumental performances, and programs that cannot be captioned for rights-clearance or other reasons. The shares are based on a sample survey, in principle, covering two weeks: May 26 to June 1 and December 1 to 7.
Programs covered by the audio-description dissemination targets are those broadcast from 7:00 to 24:00, excluding programs that cannot be audio-described because of rights-clearance reasons, the use of multiple audio tracks such as bilingual broadcasts or secondary audio, 5.1-channel surround sound, or a lack of space in the main audio track for audio description.
Year-on-year changes in captioned broadcast time as a share of total broadcast time were +1.0 percentage points at NHK Educational, +0.7 percentage points at the five Tokyo key stations, and +0.2 percentage points at 13 independent prefectural stations. For audio-described broadcast time on the same measure, the changes were +1.0 percentage points at NHK Educational and +0.2 percentage points at 13 independent prefectural stations.
Average weekly sign-language broadcast time per station was 23 minutes at four Osaka sub-key stations, 24 minutes at four Nagoya wide-area stations, 22 minutes at 101 affiliated prefectural stations, and 1 hour 24 minutes at 13 independent prefectural stations.