Nanette Gottlieb

Playing with Language in E-Japan: Old Wine in New Bottles

Taking as its premise the conceptualisation of the Internet as a virtual public space, this article focuses on the manner in which language play is manifested through the manipulation of linguistic (and particularly orthographic) conventions in informal Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and in cell phone emails in Japan. The flexibility of the Japanese writing system, with its three official scripts often also combined with Arabic numerals and the Roman alphabet, lends itself very well to ludic use of orthography to create a desired effect. Users therefore play with standard orthographic conventions in cyberspace to an extent not possible for single alphabet users, subverting norms in order to create eye-catching effects which strengthen in-group solidarity through play and in some cases act as markers of subcultural identities. From time to time it is suggested that innovative use of orthography in cyberspace is a product of new electronic technologies. I argue, however, that language play of this kind, far from being new to Japan, builds on an already existing tradition of orthographic creativity facilitated by the nature of the writing system, the only real difference being that the practice has now moved into the much wider public arena of cyberspace.

Linguistic Stereotyping and Minority Groups in Japan

This book is the first full-length study in English to examine the use of discriminatory language in Japan. As in other countries, there has been much debate about the public use of language deemed demeaning to certain groups within society especially in relation to the issue of minority rights versus freedom of speech. Adding a new dimension to the discussion of language and society in Japan, the book focuses on an aspect of language and power which highlights some of the dissent underlying Japans officially promoted ideology of a harmonious society. The text presents a revealing examination of the discriminatory language, known as sabetsu yogo , as identified by five minority groups, the Burakumin, the Ainu, people with physical or mental disabilities, women and ethnic groups within Japan.

Language and Disability in Japan

Language relating to disability in the public arena has been a sensitive issue in Japan as elsewhere. Since the 1970s and 80s, major media organisations have replaced words considered derogatory with more acceptable equivalents; laws, statutes and other legal documents have likewise been revised. This article examines how the language used to portray people with disabilities has changed, how the changes came about and how they were received. The debate has largely been played out in four public spaces, which to some extent intersect and overlap: the media (both print and visual), the laws, literature and, increasingly now, the Internet. I argue that while the laws were rewritten primarily as the result of external international trends, such as the International Year of Disabled Persons, disability groups achieved media compliance mainly by exploiting the keen desire of Japanese media organisations to avoid public embarrassment resulting from vocal protests over infractions.

Language and Politics: The Reversal of Postwar Script Reform Policy in Japan

The period since the end of the Allied Occupation of Japan has seen a number of attempts to reverse several Occupation policies. Some, such as the revoking of administrative decentralization of education and the police force, have been successful, while others, such as constitutional revision, have not. In general, the period since the 1950s has seen a pattern of conservative social change backed by the Liberal Democratic Party. An area that illustrates this trend is that of language policy, specifically the policy toward script. The partial revision of the immediate postwar script reforms that occurred over a twenty-year period from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s, most notably the revision of the 1946 list of recommended characters, is an example of a policy that, while not imposed by the Occupation authorities, had been arrived at during the Occupation and was later reversed to some extent in a conservative direction through direct LDP intervention.

The Rōmaji movement in Japan

The alphabet (rōmaji) has never been considered a serious contender for the national script in Japan, although at several points since the countrys modern period began in 1868 supporters have made a case for its adoption on varying grounds, most notably those of education, democracy and office automation. Although such advocates have included influential scholars and bureaucrats, their combined intellectual gravitas has never been sufficient to allow their arguments for romanisation to outweigh the strong cultural traditions and ideologies of writing centred on the existing three-script writing system. Even today, in the face of pressures imposed by modern keyboard technology, discussion of the issue is not on the national agenda. This article considers the place of romanisation in Japan today and offers a short history of the rōmaji movement since the late nineteenth century.

Language, citizenship, and identity in Japan

The relationship between language and citizenship in Japan manifests itself in different ways. While the belief on the part of mainstream Japanese citizens that native-speaker proficiency in the national language is a primary marker of citizenship remains strong, naturalized citizens from other countries may not speak Japanese well at all, and for other older japanese citizens such as those living in the once US-administered Ogasawara Islands the effects of earlier historical developments continue to manifest themselves in language practices different from the norm. The relationship between migration and citizenship has been a focus of recent scholarly attention, but the highly significant factor of language, the key to full participation in public life as an engaged citizen, has yet to be properly addressed. This book therefore investigates the relationship between language and citizenship in Japan today, taking as its premise the assumption that as language functions as a multidirectional indicator for social capital, marking both inclusion and exclusion (Lo Bianco 2007, 13), its importance in the lives of both present and future citizens cannot be overstated. [extract]

Review of Mary Elizabeth Berry, Japan in Print: Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. xvii + 325pp. ISBN 978-0-520-25417-6 pb

natural sciences, agricultural science ideally studies human interaction with nature, thus offering a means to develop an agriculture based on ‘comprehensive values’. The argument is based on a survey of an eclectic selection of works, ranging from Kant and Heidegger to a Japanese book with the translated title Happy Lives that Dogs Want, but there is no attempt to come to grips with more recent (post Kuhn) approaches to what scientists are doing when they do science, which might to some extent have undermined the contrast between the cold and disinterested natural scientist and the warm and human agricultural one. Having based much of the argument on the idea that agricultural science is privileged because it deals with living natural organisms that develop and change and have their own ways of being, we finally reach (259) a referBook Reviews 209

Publications briefly noted

SHARON KINSELLA. Adult Manga: culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. xii, 228 pp. £12.99, paper. STEPHEN ESKILDSEN. Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York, 1998. vii, 229 pp. US

Postgraduate studies on Japan: A reflection

19.85, paper. H. A. J. KLOOSTER. Bibliography of the Indonesian Revolution, Publications from 1942 to 1994. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1997. Bibliographical Series no. 21. 666 pp. J. E. HOARE (ed). Britain and Japan: biographical Portraits, Volume III. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. xviii, 397 pp. £45.00, hardcover. AYAKO HOTTA‐LISTER. The Japan‐British Exhibition of 1910: gateway to the Island Empire of the East. Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999. xvi, 256 pp. £45.00, hardcover. JACQUES GERNET. Buddhism in Chinese Society: an Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries (trans. by Franciscus Verellen). New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. xvii, 441 pp. US

Language and Society in Japan

21.00, paper. GREGORY M. PFLUGFELDER. Cartographies of Desire: male‐male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600–1950. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xi, 399 pp. US