Eiji Matsumoto, 40, has embarked on a first: translating the Old and New Testaments, totaling 2,000 pages in Japanese, into Japanese sign language for a 104-hour recording on videotape and DVD.
Matsumoto, who hails from Yamagata Prefecture, became deaf at age 3 when he was struck with a high fever.
At a school for the deaf, he was taught how to lip read and pretended to understand what people said, even if he didn't get what they were saying.
"I was ashamed of using sign language when I was young. I couldn't make myself understood as other people around me did," he said.