Japanese Language Education in the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere and the Kokuji Mondai (National Script Problem)

Abstract

Since the early Meiji period, people of different ideological and social backgrounds have proposed the simplification of the Japanese writing system on various grounds, such as spread of education, the advancement of civilisation, and industrial efficiency. This chapter examines script reform advocates’ arguments for script simplification in the wartime period and their responses to the popular discussions about the need to spread Japanese in the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. It demonstrates that reform advocates saw the expansion of the Japanese empire as an opportunity to renew and reinvent their pro-reform position, arguing that script reform would make Japanese more universal and more attractive to learn, which could generate soft power for Japan.