Japan: Language Policy and Planning in Transition

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.

Japan, moving towards becoming a multi-cultural society, and the way of disseminating multilingual disaster information to non-japanese speakers

“…Some people become frightened", "Intensity 6 lower: It is difficult to remain standing." 2 The Sahana System is a well-known IT disaster support system, developed in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami (Perera, 2008). While Sahana is a reactive disaster management system that provides a missing person registry, shelter registry etc., MLDI is a proactive system that enables real time communication during, and after, disasters, within a multilingual framework.…”

Learner Perspectives on National Identity and EFL Education in Japan : Report of a Questionnaire Study

“…The prominent arguments they proposed regarding why they believe a change in the system is required have been mentioned on numerous occasions by researchers in the past. The participants targeted the examination-driven nature of the EFL education system (Gottlieb, 2008;Kikuchi, 2006), the lack of productive, practical English skills (Butler & Iino, 2005;Hosoki, 2011) and the lack of abilities held by Japanese EFL teachers themselves (Kikuchi & Browne, 2009;Nishino & Watanabe, 2008). Interestingly, over 70% of the participants expressed a desire for Japanese to be used to some extent in the EFL classroom.…”

“…The language of instruction is almost always Japanese, and despite MEXT's policy goals, communicative oral and written English skills are not fostered (Gorsuch, 1998). During secondary school EFL education, the yakudoku method is employed to prepare students for passing university entrance examinations, which focus almost exclusively on receptive EFL skills and grammatical knowledge (Butler & Iino, 2005;Gottlieb, 2008;Kikuchi, 2006;McVeigh, 2004;Sato & Kleinsasser, 2004). Teachers are trained to engage students in literature analysis for such examination purposes, and have little training in CLT methods themselves as a result (Nishino & Watanabe, 2008).…”

Using scale to bridge the local and the global : an exploratory case study of English in the lives of five Okinawan women

“…In addition to these local factors, the Japanese national Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) declared English instruction compulsory at middle and secondary levels in 2002 (Gottlieb, 2008). The most recent curriculum, implemented in the spring of this year (2011), requires English instruction for grades 5 and 6, and there is continued discussion of its introduction at the lower elementary levels (Gottlieb, 2008, Kubota & McKay, 2009. English language testing also plays an important role in most national university entrance examinations and course requirements.…”

“…While considerable attention has lately been given to language ideologies and the functions of English in mainland Japan (Gottlieb, 2008;Hino;Honna, 1995;Honna & Takeshita, 2005;Kawai, 2007;Kubota, 1998;McVeigh, 2002;Seargeant 2005Seargeant , 2008Seargeant , 2009Sullivan & Schatz, 2009) and attitudes towards English among young Japanese learners (Matsuda, 2000(Matsuda, , 2003bMcKenzie, 2008;Ryan, 2009;Sakuragi, 2008), there appears to be only been one study to date that has explicitly focused on the role of English in a particular local language context in Japan (Kubota & McKay, 2009). In recent years there have been repeated calls in the literature for more in-depth analysis of English in Japan and other countries in the expanding circle (for example, Berns, 2005;McKenzie, 2008;Ryan, 2009).…”