Building on the success of the past two years, we are pleased to announce that the ISAD 2025 campaign in Japan will once again be a collaborative effort between the Japan Stuttering Genyukai Association (JSGA; https://www.zengenren.org/; website in Japanese), a nonprofit national liaison organization, and the Japan Society of Stuttering and Other Fluency Disorders (JSSFD; https://www.jssfd.org/en/index.html), an academically and clinically oriented professional organization. The JSSFD, founded in 2013, is an academic society in Japan with members from diverse backgrounds, including clinicians, researchers, and individuals who stutter. Its annual meeting attracts hundreds of participants and hosts vibrant discussions. The JSSFD became known worldwide when, together with the JSGA, IFA and ICA (now WSCO), it co-hosted the 2018 World Congress “One World, Many Voices: Science and Community” in Hiroshima.

This marks the third year of our joint initiative. As in previous years, we have created special pocket tissue leaflets to raise public awareness of stuttering, which will be distributed nationwide. The leaflet design again features a QR code linking to the JSSFD website, which provides accurate, research-based information about stuttering written by researchers and expert clinicians (https://www.jssfd.org/kaisetsu.html; in Japanese).

While the campaign to distribute pocket tissues with an information sheet on stuttering awareness for ISAD was initiated in 2017 by the JSGA, the joint campaign conducted by the JSGA and JSSFD over the past three years has been a unique and meaningful opportunity in Japan to involve individuals who stutter, clinicians, researchers, supporters, parents of children who stutter, and even local governments, thereby fostering a more inclusive and supportive society. Last year, approximately 38,000 pocket tissues were distributed at a wide variety of locations across Japan, including preschools, elementary and junior high schools, universities, boards of education, special education classes for people with hearing and language disorders, university training programs for Speech-Language-Hearing Therapists, neighborhood associations, libraries, workplaces such as restaurants and airports, downtown areas, community festivals, and school festivals. By placing these materials in such diverse settings, our campaign seeks to make accurate knowledge about stuttering easily accessible and to foster more positive attitudes toward people who stutter.

In line with this year’s ISAD theme, “A DIVERSE STUTTERING COMMUNITY,” this campaign seeks to highlight the diversity within the stuttering community and to emphasize the strengths that individuals bring when facing challenges. In Japan, people who stutter and professionals are working together to make ISAD a meaningful opportunity to foster understanding and inclusivity regarding stuttering.

We look forward to ISAD 2025 as another step toward building a more supportive and stuttering-friendly society in Japan.

Daichi Iimura, Ph.D., is a Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist and Assistant Professor at the University of Tsukuba. He received his Ph.D. in Disability Science from the University of Tsukuba in 2020. He has served as a member of the Publicity Committee of the Japan Society of Stuttering and Other Fluency Disorders (JSSFD) since 2013 and was appointed to its Board of Directors in 2025. He is a person who stutters himself. 

This year’s pocket tissue flyer