Language and Identity in
Contemporary Japan
National Sentiment Expressed through
Public Attitudes towards Western Loanwords
Naoko Hosokawa
University of Oxford
1
Agency for Cultural Affairs Survey (2007)
 Is the Japanese language in disarray?
Yes
No
I don’t know
79.5％
16.2％
4.3％
Reasons: honorifics, loanwords, language of youth, neologisms, etc.
 Is the use of loanwords desirable?
Yes
No
Neutral
I don’t know
14.5％
39.8％
43.7％
2％
Source:
http://www.bunka.go.jp/tokei_hakusho_shuppan/tokeichosa/kokugo_yoronchosa/h19/
2
Introduction
 Theme: Language and national identity
 Case Study: Discussion on the use of Western loanwords
(gairaigo;外来語 or katakanago; カタカナ語) in
contemporary Japan
 Hypothesis: National language is conceptualised as a
source of national identity while certain foreign
loanwords are excluded from the perceptual framework
of national language
 Recent debates on the use of loanwords as a
particular manifestation of the on-going
(re)negotiation of national identity
3
Common Premises
 Gairaigo constitutes one of the three strata of
the Japanese lexicon of wago (native Japanese
lexicon), kango (Sino-Japanese loans), and
gairaigo (Western and recent loans)
 The recent debates on the use of gairaigo
express an opposition between nationalists who
maintain a puristic view on the use of language
and internationalists who oppose linguistic
purism
4
Qualifications Contributed
 The term gairaigo is commonly employed in public
discourse as a symbolic term to express a particular
otherness in relation to the Japanese language and
society
 Even though gairaigo is part of the Japanese
vocabulary, there is a persistent psychological
demarcation between gairaigo and nihongo
(Japanese language), the former of which
symbolizes ‘Other’ whereas the latter symbolizes
‘Self’
5
Linguistic Purism and Nationalism
 National standard language: Key in building a strong
national community / nationalistic discourse
 George Thomas (1991)
Dualism in linguistic purism
 Standard and non-standard
 Pure and impure
 Domestic and Foreign
 Desirable and non-desirable
 Comparable to nationalism
6
Wartime Linguistic Nationalism
Cigarette renamed as ‘Kinshi’ (Golden Bat)
But not all words
were replaced!
Pencil adverts during the Pacific War
7
Contemporary Japan
 Increasing awareness of diversity
 Nanette Gottlieb (2006): Minority populations as
‘outsiders within’
“By defining others as what we are not, we emphasize
what it is that we think we are, at both the personal and
social level, often without actually spelling it out”(Gottlieb
2006:4)
 In order to construct the image of the homogeneous
‘mainstream’ group (for which there is no agreed
definition), minority groups are labelled as ‘undesirably
different’
 Gairaigo: ‘Outside within’ the Japanese language?
8
Method of Analysis
 Textual Analysis: Letters to the editor found in Asahi
and Yomiuri newspapers published between 1991
and 2010 on the subject of gairaigo
 Metalanguage reveals shared norms and
beliefs about language in a given society
(Niedzielski and Preston 2000)
 Focus: Recurrent expressions used with ‘gairaigo’
 Metaphors / Adjectives
 Synonyms (parallel)
 Antonyms (contrast)
9
For and Against: Absorption and Inundation
 Against
 Inundation (hanran) by gairaigo
 Abuse (ran’yô) of gairaigo
 Overflow (afureru) of gairaigo
 Expulsion (tsuihô) of gairaigo
 For
 Absorption (kyûshû) of gairaigo
 Gairaigo take root (nezuku) in Japanese
 Japanese adopts (toriireru) gairaigo
 Japanese accept (ukeireru) gairaigo
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Inundation (hanran) by …
 Counterfeit products
 Child pornography
 Information
 Advertisement
 Colours
 Images
 Sounds
 Negatively connoted objects
 Things that can be dangerous or misleading if not
well-controlled
11
Absorption (kyûshû) of …
 Nutrition
 Wisdom
 Knowledge
 Culture(s)
 Company or country name(s)
 Increase of costs, decrease of sales, financial losses
 Shock, noise
 Ultraviolet, CO2
 The impact of the negative objects is mitigated or cancelled out
 The positive effect of the positively connoted objects are taken in
 The subject of the ‘absorption’ takes control of the neutral
objects
12
Adjectives (Opponents)
Gairaigo are…
 Incomprehensible
 Difficult
 Halfway
Nihongo is…
 Correct
 Beautiful
 Appropriate
 Standard
 Splendid
 Sophisticated
13
Adjectives (Proponents)
 Gairaigo are …
 New
 Convenient
 Nihongo is …
 Excellent
 Energetic
 Vigorous
 Broad-minded
 Flexible
14
Synonyms and Antonyms (Common)
 Synonyms
 Katakanago, katakana
 Gaikokugo (foreign language)
 Yokomoji, yokogaki (horizontally written letters)
 Foreign (Western) culture, civilisation
 Antonyms
 Nihongo
 Wago, yamatokotoba, hiragana
 Kango, kanji,
 Japan, Japanese people
 Japanese culture
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Sample Extracts (Against:1)
 In particular, I lament the fact that the
abuse of katakanago is accelerating as if
people are ignoring the beautiful and
splendid nihongo established by the
sophisticated Japanese culture, and I fear
that it will exceed the limit and it may one
day become a stateless language. (Asahi,
4 July 1995)
16
Sample Extracts (Against:2)
 Although recently katakanago are
inundating, I would like to properly use
correct nihongo. Terebi [television] is fine
but I would like to learn the correct
language by reading more newspapers
and books. (Yomiuri, 6 December 2000)
17
Sample Extracts (Against:3)
 Although nowadays the inundation by
yokomoji, abbreviated, and coined words
has been pointed out, I would at least like
anaunsâ [announcers] of broadcasting
stations to be the first ones to show the
example of good standard nihongo. (Asahi,
27 March 2008)
18
Sample Extracts (For:1)
 Japanese culture has a diverse and broad-
minded characteristic and in the end it
absorbs everything including yokogaki and
gairaigo as part of its tradition. (Yomiuri, 2
February 1994)
19
Sample Extracts (For:2)
 Like America, Japan has a society full of
vitality. Japan has vigorously adopted
cultures and concepts from abroad,
creating neologisms in katakana. As a
result, there is a shared cultural
understanding that katakana refers to new
concepts. (Asahi, 5 June 1999)
20
Sample Extracts (For:3)
 I have difficulties in understanding the
boycotting of gairaigo. Nihongo has since
old times absorbed new knowledge and
concepts from abroad. (Asahi, 21 May
2003)
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Summary of Analysis
 Two water-related metaphors, ‘inundation’ and ‘absorption’,
express contrasting visions of the situation in which an
increasing number of gairaigo have been in use.
 Both opponents and proponents of gairaigo manifest national
sentiment and therefore the normative discussion on the use
of gairaigo itself is based on the premise that there are
‘domestic’ elements and ‘foreign’ elements in language
 The qualities associated with nihongo by opponents and
proponents are used to assert their respective visions of
‘Japaneseness’, while qualities associated with gairaigo are
used to delineate their respective visions of otherness
 Nihongo (Self) and Gairaigo (Otherness within)
 Language in disarray: Identity in crisis
22
References
 Gottlieb, Nanette. 2006. Linguistic Stereotyping and Minority Groups in
Japan. Abingdon: Routledge.
 Niedzielski, Nancy A. and Dennis R. Preston. 2000. Folk Linguistics.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
 Hosokawa, Naoko. 2015. “Nationalism and Linguistic Purism in
Contemporary Japan: National Sentiment Expressed through Public
Attitudes towards Foreignisms”. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism,
15/1, 48-65. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
 Thomas, George. 1991. Linguistic Purism. London and New York:
Longman.
o Asahi Shimbun Database on Kikuzo 01/01/1991-12/21/2010
o Yomiuri Shimbun Database on Yomidasu 01/01/1991-12/21/2010
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