NAGAOKA, Niigata Prefecture--Partygoers and others wanting a raucous atmosphere should look elsewhere than the newly opened Nobi by Suzuki Coffee here.

Sound or even a spoken word is not a requisite at the cafe. 

Owner Tsukasa Kuramata, 38, who was born deaf, opened the establishment in the Sanwa 3-chome district of Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, on May 15. His goal is for people with or without a hearing impairment to feel at home there.

The cafe has been bustling with numerous customers and is alive with their sign language conversations and smiles, even though it remains quiet inside. 

The name Nobi by Suzuki Coffee embodies its aim to serve as a “third place,” or somewhere other than the home and the workplace, which allows customers to feel relaxed (“nobi-nobi” in Japanese), officials said.

Kuramata graduated from Prefectural Nagaoka School for the Deaf in the city.

Following a stint working in a semiconductor plant, Kuramata became an instructor at his alma mater’s boarding house, where he taught his juniors how to live properly in society, such as life skills including washing, cleaning and being punctual.

But Kuramata’s juniors, once they graduated, often suffered hardships at their workplaces.

Surrounded by colleagues without a hearing impairment, with whom they found it difficult to communicate, they could not join their conversations even when the latter appeared to be chatting merrily during breaks.

Many of the graduates thus deepened their sense of solitude, Kuramata said.

Kuramata himself has gone through various experiences.

When, for example, he went to a restaurant where workers called customers by their ticket numbers when the dishes were ready, Kuramata had to stand near the restaurant counter so he could see when his order was ready.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kuramata could not make out what others were saying, because everyone wore a mask and he could not read their lips.

Kuramata found it difficult to live in a society where being able to hear was taken for granted.

“Couldn’t I do something to help hearing-impaired people live more happily?” he thought at the time.

That idea led him to leave his job as an instructor two years ago and take a seminar that provided assistance to would-be entrepreneurs.

Kuramata has always liked coffee, and he had made the rounds of cafes across Japan.

He had come across many cafes where he felt he could open up at once to staff workers and to fellow customers through gestures and by writing, even when he was meeting them for the first time.

He now knew more clearly what he wanted to do. He wanted to open a cafe that would allow people both with and without normal hearing to communicate in a relaxed manner.

Last year, Kuramata went to event venues across Niigata Prefecture to set up and operate pop-up cafes there. But he came to believe that he would have to study under a professional if he were ever to open a business in earnest with a brick-and-mortar shop.

Kuramata thereupon contacted Suzuki Coffee Co., a cafe chain operator based in Niigata’s Chuo Ward, which offered a tutorial course on know-how for opening a cafe.

Shunsuke Sato, 43, the company president, agreed immediately to see him.

Sato said he was impressed by Kuramata’s enthusiasm to create a place where hearing-impaired people could feel at ease. He said he decided the very day that he saw Kuramata to extend assistance for him.

Sato had part of Suzuki Coffee’s Nagaoka branch office refurbished into a cafe, which he commissioned Kuramata to operate.

Kuramata usually manages the place all by himself on his own.

Hearing-impaired people account for about half of the visitors, whereas those who are interested in sign language and those who didn’t know about the establishment previously, account for the remaining half of the visitors, he said.

Kuramata takes orders by having his customers point to items on the menu at a counter close to the entrance.

Some customers look bewildered as they come close to the counter without being greeted and appear ready to leave. Kuramata said he will smile at similar visitors and beckon to them.

“Nothing gets started with people unless you communicate with them,” he said.

Kuramata said a customer who recently came to his place alone to have a coffee talked about a hearing-impaired subordinate. The customer asked Kuramata for advice to understand the subordinate better.

“What difficulties does a person hard of hearing typically face?” Kuramata quoted the customer as asking him.

He said he felt happy that the customer had this desire to learn about a disability. He said he is thinking about offering, for example, tutorial sessions on sign language at his cafe once the business gets on track.

“I want my cafe to be a place where everyone can feel relaxed, whether they have normal hearing or not,” Kuramata said. “That’s why I call this place a ‘cafe where sound or voice is not a requisite’ instead of an establishment for hearing-impaired people alone. I hope that my place will help spread understanding so life will be easier for both groups of people.”