Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Japan: Language Policy and Planning in Transition

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2167/cilp116.0

1747-7506

Nanette Gottlieb,

Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract This monograph discusses the language situation in Japan, with an emphasis on language planning and policy. Japan has long considered itself to be a monoethnic and therefore monolingual society, despite the existence of substantial old-comer ethnic minorities, and this – with the instrumental exception of English – has been reflected in its language planning and policy until quite recently. Increasing immigration (and hence emergent new-comer multilingualism), technological advances affecting the way people write and a perceived need to improve the teaching of English, however, mean that policies have begun to undergo a rethink. This monograph is divided into three main sections. Under the language profile of Japan I discuss in detail the national language and minority languages; the next section discusses language spread and maintenance through the education system and other means; and I conclude with some thoughts on how language planning and policy might develop in the future. My aim is to give readers a sense of how major language issues in Japan are evolving in such a manner that many of the policies developed during the 20th century may no longer be totally relevant. Keywords: Japanlanguage policyminority languageslanguage spreadlanguage maintenancefuture trends Notes That is, ‘a language which has no known structural or historical relationship to any other language’ (Crystal, 1987 Crystal, D. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]: 326). A Tokyo-based government institute set up in 1948 to provide empirical survey data on which the National Language Council could base policy decisions and to conduct language-related research projects. It changed its English name to the National Institute for Japanese Language in 2001, having originally been called the National Language Research Institute. The Japanese name is Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūjo. Gyaru Moji Henkan (Gal Talk Conversion), http:?//mizz.lolipop.jp/galmoji/v2.cgi. Accessed 1 February 2007. A body established in 1988 to deal with matters relating to internationalization, among them the joint running of the Japan Exchange and Teaching program with MEXT, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). CLAIR is responsible for local-level internationalization initiatives, in particular grass-roots international exchange of personnel at local government level (see www.clair.or.jp). A famous travelogue written by poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694). By comparison, the 2004 estimated value of domestic publication sales was 2.243 trillion yen (943 billion for books and 1300 billion for magazines) for books and magazines published in Japan (JETRO, 2005 JETRO. 2005. Japanese Publishing Industry. Japan Economic Monthly, (July). On WWW at www.jetro.go.jp/en/market/trend/industrial/pdf/jem0507-2e.pdf. Accessed 6 November 2006 [Google Scholar]). Manga sales have been particularly profitable at the New York branch of Kinokuniya, one of Japan’s major bookstore chains. See ‘Manga sales revive NY’s Kinokuniya’, PW Comics Week, 21 March 2006. On WWW at http:?//www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6317282.html. Accessed 7 November 2006. Prior to the formation of MEXT in 2001, the ministry was known as the Ministry of Education. References in this text reflect that chronology. Ainu, Okinawans and foreigners who have taken Japanese citizenship amounted to 15,251 in 2005 (which is roughly the average for the years since 1995). Of these, 9689 were Korean, 4427 Chinese and 1135 ‘other’ (Ministry of Justice Japan, 2006 Ministry of Justice Japan. 2006. Kako Jūnenkan no Kika Kyoka Shinseisha-sū, Kika Kyokasha-sū nado no Imin (Migrants by numbers of applicants for naturalisation approval in the past ten years, numbers approved and others)., On WWW at http:?//www.moj.go.jp/TOUKEI/t_minj03.html. Accessed 11 September 2006 [Google Scholar]). See, for example, http:?//ramat.ram.ne.jp/ainu/. Accessed 7 September 2006. http:?//www.okinawan-shorinryu.com/okinawa/uchina.html. Accessed 7 September 2006. Because they had not gone through the standard Japanese education system offered in government schools. A comprehensive list of links may be found at http:?//www.han.org/a/link_korea.html. Accessed 6 November 2006. For example, Mundo de Alegria school in Hamamatsu city and Escola Centro Nipo-Brasileiro in Oizumi. ‘International Press: The Portuguese Edition’. On WWW at http:?//www.ipcjapan.com/ptedition_en.html. Accessed 8 September 2006. International Press Japan Co. also publishes Japan’s only Spanish-language paper. These numbers refer only to those students in the Japanese education system. Foreign children are also educated at international and ethnic schools in Japan. A full chart of the kanji introduced for each year level may be found online at http:?//www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shuppan/sonota/990301b/990301d.htm, or reproduced in Gottlieb (2005) Gottlieb, N. 2005. Language and Society in Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 84–86. Some curricula were revised slightly in 2001, but not the kokugo curriculum. This number also includes a small number of children who have returned from areas in, e.g. China where Japanese settlers lived before the end of World War Two. This has been done at the University of Tokyo since 1988 (Torikai, 2005 Torikai, K. 2005. The challenge of language and communication in twenty-first century Japan. Japanese Studies, 25(3): 249–256. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]: 250). This programme is run jointly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, in collaboration with local authorities. For example, in 2004 Matsuyama Technical High School became a SELHi and remained the only technical high school of the 101 SELHi in 2006. Second-year Information Technology students at this school combine English, environmental studies and IT as their SELHi project and have regular email contact with students at a sister school in the US (Mizui, 2006 Mizui, Y. 2006. SELHi in action: Schools’ water study helps English flow. Daily Yomiuri Online, 7 March 2006. Archived on WWW on the Linguist List at http:?//listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0603a&L=edling&P=3652. Accessed 29 September 2006 [Google Scholar]). A test of English proficiency created for the Benesse Corporation of Japan and designed to measure proficiency in authentic communication, first administered in 1998. When the earlier system of general education gave way to a focus on specialization. English was one of the previous basic education courses; many EFL instructors had to reinvent themselves in order to teach English in departments of literature, linguistics or intercultural communication among others.