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| Photo taken on June 5, 2022, shows server Hitonari Nakazawa (L) enjoying a conversation with a customer during an event held in Toyama, central Japan, for young people who stutter to gain real-world work experience as waitstaff. (File photo by=Kyodo) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] TOYAMA: A project that gives young people who stutter real-world work experience as waitstaff has taken root in Japan, giving people with speech impediments opportunities to build confidence with strangers, Kyodo reported.
The project, named "Cafes Where Orders Take Time," takes over existing cafes for a day at a time and hopes to promote a wider understanding of the condition while helping people who stutter achieve their life goals. At a cafe in the city of Toyama, central Japan, in June, four young waiters worked while wearing face masks bearing printed messages such as "I want to talk with many people" and "Please let me finish speaking." Amid the cafe's welcoming atmosphere, many customers were happy to listen to staff talk about facing their anxieties and difficulties with stuttering. The group of waiters included Hitonari Nakazawa, an 18-year-old high school student from Tsunan, Niigata Prefecture, who said, "I had avoided speaking to other people as much as possible, but today I was able to really enjoy my conversations."
Stuttering, also known as dysfluency, affects some 1.2 million people in Japan. It's a speech impediment in which the first sound is involuntarily repeated or prolonged. The cafe event has been conducted twice in Tokyo, and Toyama, on the Sea of Japan coast, was the first to hold it outside the capital.
