Five years in, Japan's public phone relay service for Deaf people is a lifeline, but low awareness means some calls still get refused

Five years after Japan launched its public telephone relay service, which lets Deaf and speech-disabled people make calls through sign-language or text interpreters, about 20,000 people are registered, Ibaraki Shimbun reports. Users in Ibaraki say it has made school, salon and hospital calls easy, but some have been hung up on because relay calls come from 050 numbers that people mistake for scam calls. The Nippon Foundation Telephone Relay Service says only 20% of the public knows the service exists and it wants hearing people to learn about it.