SHARE has worked on health activities for foreign residents in Japan since 1991 and began supporting foreign mothers and children in 2016. It dispatches medical interpreters to prenatal checkups, infant checkups and newborn home visits, and says requests have grown about fivefold over five years.
When communicating in Japanese is difficult, people can struggle to access the maternal and child health services available to them. Health workers also find it hard to fully understand a person's situation and feelings.
The crowdfunding project tackles four challenges: expanding interpreter dispatch from the 23 wards to all of Tokyo, strengthening online interpreting, training interpreters for rarer languages such as Uzbek, Dari and Sinhala, and running training and awareness events for health and welfare professionals and the public.
Key points
- Interpreting requests up about fivefold; 17 languages covered
- A challenge to overcome four barriers: region, distance, language and understanding
- Limited-time campaign through October 31, goal of 4 million yen
Why this news is worth noting
International cooperation happens not only overseas but also in our own communities. Helping foreign families who raise children in Japan use health services with confidence is an important foundation for multicultural coexistence.
SHARE describes medical interpreting not as mere translation but as a mechanism that supports trust between people and their supporters, a perspective worth learning from.
Editor's comment
SHARE is known for its global health work abroad, and it is encouraging to see it also supporting foreign mothers and children here in Japan.
Details of the project and ways to support it are available on the announcement page. We hope you'll take a look.