The continually increasing international population in Japan is resulting in language and cultural gaps that have created expanding needs for interpreting services in health care. Currently, no national standards, training, or certification for health care interpreting exists in Japan. Interpreters all over Japan - most of them volunteers - are struggling with little financial support.
On January 28, MIC Kanagawa, a leading group in the field of health care interpreting in Japan, held its inaugural national conference in Yokohama. Over the course of the day, approximately 200 people from all over Japan gathered at the Labor Plaza in Yokohama for the "National Conference on Health Care Interpreting."
In this month's issue, I'll tell you about the conference, and current movements in the field of health care interpreting.

A little Background
During the past several decades, due to the international population influx into Japan, the number of people with limited Japanese speaking ability is growing. Language and cultural differences between these groups and Japanese-speaking institutions was causing great concern in some sectors about the quality of service they were receiving. This has led to innovative programs in several areas of the country that provide interpreting services to those clients. These initial efforts were led by pioneering groups who are developing their programs in such places as Yokohama and Kyoto. Save for sporadic contact, these groups were, however, largely working alone on a local level.
There has been a growing desire among providers of health care interpreting services to establish closer ties with others in the field with the goal of establishing a national dialogue around issues of training, certification, and financial systems. MIC Kanagawa (Multilanguage Information Center Kanagawa) is an NPO that has been providing and training health care interpreters at participating hospitals in Kanagawa Prefecture, to help patients who do not speak Japanese. They managed to secure a small grant to fund a working conference to address these concerns on January 28.

Conference Goals
This one-day conference was designed to meet several goals:

• To clarify the issues involved in improving interpreting services in health care settings
  
• To share experiences with and approaches to interpreting and the training of interpreters
  
• To introduce international well-developed systems, training programs, and certification
  
• To outline an agenda for further discussion and research
  
• To establish a nationwide network to continue the dialogue
  

As well, there were 12 resource persons in attendance who represented health care interpreters, program planners, trainers, and health care providers. These are experts who have all had experience in the field of health care interpreting.

Conference Main Topics
The plenary session offered an opportunity for participants to get a quick overview of health care interpreting services in and out of Japan. The panelists presented various pioneering activities centered around the three elements of health care interpreting which are:

• Cooperation with health care providers
  
• Training and certification for health care interpreters
  
• Management of health care interpreting services
  

Based on the three main topics, the participants were divided into three workshops in the afternoon and discussed the issues. Post-conference survey comments, provided by the participants, indicate that many people found the workshops to be thought-provoking and fun. While there may have been respectful disagreements, the sharing of ideas and discussion was beneficial to all.

Moving on to the next stage...
In the end, there was a consensus among the participants about one thing: the need to continue the dialogue in a formal way and to continue to work together to further the cause. The group has dubbed itself the "Japan Medical Interpreting Network," and has tentatively planned a follow-up meeting for next year.
In Hokkaido, more and more tourists are visiting, but a safety net for their health care services is not well established. Now is the time for us to start training good health care interpreters and organizing a system for high quality services in Hokkaido.
As the first step, I've started training volunteer interpreters in Sapporo and Asahikawa. In both lessons, we have as many as 30 students, some of whom are interested in becoming professionals. For those interested in the field, finding resources and contacts isn't easy. Wouldn't it be useful if there were a convenient way to access materials to support health care interpreting?
In fact, a new association was launched last year. The Japan Association for Health Care Interpreting in Japanese and English (J.E.) has been established to provide various materials in the field of health care interpreting. The objectives of J.E. include the following:

• Research health care interpreting systems and training courses in other countries with the intention of improving services in Japan
  
• Provide various materials to help support the field of health care interpreting in Japanese and in English
  
• Develop models to improve and set standards for health care interpreting
  
• Improve and provide training opportunities for interpreters in health care settings
  
• Provide awareness in training programs for health care providers
  
• Provide leadership in the management of effective health care interpreting services
  
• Maintain a center for cultural health care interpreting to make educational materials available

We are currently researching well-developed training courses in other countries, and we are offering a variety of information regarding training tools and programs for interpreters in Japan on our website (http://www.medical-english.net).
With continued effort, cooperation, and teamwork, the health care interpreting field is growing and developing into an essential well-respected profession. I hope that lots of you out there get interested in the field and check out our website.