Accessible Presentation Of “MANGA’S PORTRAYALS OF DEAF CHARACTERS”

Yoshiko Okuyama, a professor of Japanese studies at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, will discuss Reframing Disability in Manga (University of Hawaii Press 2020), which she wrote after interviewing manga artists, conducting archival research, and visiting events and organizations serving disability communities in Japan as a Japan Foundation fellow. Focusing on the book’s chapter on the deaf community in Japan, she will discuss their representation in manga using comic examples such as A Silent Voice (Koe no katachi) while sharing manga images and anecdotes she did not include in her book. She will conclude with a discussion of emerging issues as the pandemic continues to impact disability communities in Japan.