Abstract
In order to address labor shortages, starting April 2019 the Japanese government introduced two new visa categories, and it can be expected that the growing number of foreign residents living and working in Japan will be increasing further in the foreseeable future. Within this context, the notion of Yasashii Nihongo or Simplified Japanese has been gaining attention over recent years. Originally designed as a tool for transmitting information in disaster-related situations and proposed for disaster mitigation purposes, at present it is being advocated as a means of communication to be used in non-disaster situations as well. The authors argue that ultimately Yasashii Nihongo for non-disaster situations may be just a means to an end. Seen from the perspective of “reasonable accommodation”, a concept prevalent in the domain of disability studies, they assert that by de facto creating a new linguistic category making it a tacit prerequisite to communicate in “Japanese only”, Yasashii Nihongo is but a concept geared towards the language majority (speakers using Japanese as their first language) and is potentially serving no other purpose than to alleviate the psychological burden of having to speak in a language other than Japanese, thus potentially leading to a new form of discrimination towards language minorities. Offering an alternative approach for improving multicultural communication aimed at establishing a communicative space based on openness, equality, and mutual respect for each other’s cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities, the authors propose the introduction of language education based on the notion of plurilingualism, as outlined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) by the Council of Europe.
Highlights
In order to address labor shortages, starting April 2019 the Japanese government introduced two new visa categories, and it can be expected that the growing number of foreign residents living and working in Japan will be increasing further in the foreseeable future
Similar to the assimilation bias found in the data by Ito et al (2020), with regard to category II, it is possible that one of the main reasons for Yasashii Nihongo among speakers using Japanese as their first language could be the wish to reduce the psychological burden of communicating in a language other than Japanese
We have devoted our attention to the communication between the language majority and language minority in contemporary Japanese society
Summary
Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Plurilingualism-based education approaches As has been stated in the previous sections regarding the use of Yasashii Nihongo for non-disaster situations in a multicultural and multilingual society, the authors believe the currently predominating focus on the philosophy of “Japanese-only” to be a rather suboptimal solution, especially if seen from the standpoint of reasonable accommodation. The authors argue that in the near future young professionals who will have had the chance to experience, learn about, and learn from cultural and linguistic minorities will become an indispensable source of human potential, regardless of their nationality or the fact that Japanese has been their first language or not To foster such positive awareness of diversity, the authors believe it is essential to take full advantage of the learning opportunities found within formal school education and community-based regional Japanese language classes and create further opportunities for young people to become more engaged in learning about and getting acquainted with various foreign languages. At least with regard to contexts occurring in daily life, it would be crucial for the future Japanese society if communication were to be carried out in such a way that all parties involved would share the weight of the linguistic and psychological burden of communicating in a foreign language while respecting the diversity of each other’s languages and cultures by having the chance to learn and get acquainted with each other’s respective languages
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