Oticon Hearing Aids, the flagship hearing aid brand of the global hearing care group Demant with a history of more than 120 years, will hold the “Oticon Hearing Aids Mimitomo Summer Camp” from Thursday, August 6 to Saturday, August 8, 2026. The program is designed to develop next-generation hearing care professionals and is aimed at students aspiring to become speech-language-hearing therapists. For the first time, the event venue will be changed to Grand Lectore Yugawara, a residential training facility surrounded by nature in Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Applications will be accepted through a special website from Monday, May 18 to Friday, June 5, 2026. Oticon Hearing Aids continually challenges the limits of hearing care technology and develops hearing aid technologies that can change the lives of people with hearing difficulties. The company also works with hearing professionals to provide high-quality hearing care to more people around the world. In Japan, where Oticon has operated for more than 50 years, the company has introduced advanced products to the market while providing information to specialists and raising public awareness of hearing care in order to improve domestic hearing aid adoption. Although Japan is aging faster than many other countries, its hearing aid adoption rate remains low compared with Western countries, at 15.6% according to the latest JapanTrak 2025. While there are various reasons for this, one major factor is said to be the shortage of hearing specialists. Japan has no national qualification equivalent to audiologists overseas, resulting in a lack of hearing care professionals. Speech-language-hearing therapists are considered a comparable qualification, but only around 10% of them are said to specialize in hearing. To address this challenge, Oticon launched the event in 2019 with the aim of developing professionals who will support the future of hearing care and revitalizing the industry. This year marks the eighth edition, with