*This is a machine-translated text of the original article.

Starbucks Coffee Japan announced that it would open its fifth signing store in Tokyo’s Kunitachi city in summer 2020, where hearing-impaired partners (employees) use sign language as its main communications tool.

It is said to be one of the stores that symbolize Starbucks’ diversity and inclusion with the aim of creating a place where hearers and hearing-impaired partners can work together and where diverse people can spend their own time and play an active role.

In the vicinity of Kunitachi city, there is a signing school, which is considered to be a region with understanding of signing culture, and the decision to open a store this time has been reached.

Since 2018, the company has been focusing on “NO FILTER” as a theme for diversity and inclusion.

The company also aims to realize a society in which all people are warmly welcomed, recognized, and each one can be self-friendly, with no preconceptions, thoughts, or prejudices, and with no difference in race, age, gender, role, employment pattern, presence or absence of disabilities, and individual values.

Original Text: https://ampmedia.jp/2020/03/10/starbucks-8/