About POP!

POP! is INQUIRER.net’s premier pop culture channel, delivering the latest news in the realm of pop culture, internet culture, social issues, and everything fun, weird, and wired. It is also home to POP! Sessions and POP! Hangout,
OG online entertainment programs in the
Philippines (streaming since 2015).

As the go-to destination for all things ‘in the now’, POP! features and curates the best relevant content for its young audience. It is also a strong advocate of fairness and truth in storytelling.

POP! is operated by INQUIRER.net’s award-winning native advertising team, BrandRoom.

Contact Us

Email us at [email protected]

Address

MRP Building, Mola Corner Pasong Tirad Streets, Brgy La Paz, Makati City

Girl in a jacket

Starbucks to open its first sign language store in Japan on June 27

American coffeehouses chain Starbucks is set to open its first store in Japan with sign-language ability for its hearing-impaired customers.

The store, located in Kunitachi, Tokyo, will open tomorrow, June 27, as per Kyodo News on Wednesday, June 24. In support of the deaf community, the store also has 19 hearing-impaired employees among its 25 staff members.

20200626 Starbucks
Starbucks coffee shop in downtown Pittsburgh (Image: AP/Gene J. Puskar)

Starbucks Japan also showed the store, which “proudly serves in sign language,” via Twitter last Wednesday.

“I want everyone, people with or without hearing disability, to enjoy our coffee casually,” a spokesperson of Starbucks, Eri Otsuka, said in sign language as per the report.

The store will only offer takeout for the time being amid the COVID-19 crisis. It will also hand out numbered tickets for customer entry.

The new outlet in Japan will be the fifth “signing store” in the world operated by the multinational coffee chain company. At the moment, the four other stores are located at Malaysia, the United States and China.

Some hearing-impaired Starbucks employees in Japan apparently wanted to open their own signing store in the country after Malaysia opened its first signing store in 2016.

Aside from opening a new signing store, according to the report, Starbucks is also stepping up its efforts in creating outlets that highlight diversity and inclusion.  /ra

RELATED STORIES:

Starbucks creates own Black Lives Matter shirt for employees

How the Deaf deal: Finding work and working to be heard

Basic phrases to get started on learning Filipino Sign Language

About Author

Related Stories

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.

Popping on POP!