Japanese Script Research Articles

Pengembangan Game edukasi berbasis Augmented Reality sebagai Media Pembelajaran Aksara Jepang

Common problems faced by students in learning Japanese script in Indonesia include difficulty constructing sentences, distinguishing between hiragana and katakana letters, speaking Japanese, and using vocabulary. To overcome this obstacle, research proposes the development of learning media based on Augmented Reality (AR) with the concept of educational games. Involving the SMUNEL Japanese Community at SMA Negeri 5 Makassar, the research used qualitative methods with discussion, observation and documentation. The research results identified internal factors, namely the decline in enthusiasm for learning, and external factors, namely the need for innovative media, as the main problem. The proposed solution is an educational game-based AR application to introduce Japanese characters. Application testing showed a positive response, with 90% of respondents agreeing that this application increases interest in learning and helps distinguish basic Japanese letters. It is hoped that this research will make a significant contribution in providing innovative and interactive Japanese language learning alternatives through the use of AR technology.

Exploring wordplay and humour in English usage within Japanese texts

English has been extensively integrated into various commercial contexts in Japan, infiltrating brand names, clothing, products, packaging (Dougill, 2008), shop signs (Backhaus, 2006; Inoue, 2005; MacGregor, 2003a), advertising copy (Seargeant, 2011; Takashi, 1990a, 1990b), television commercials (MacGregor, 2003b; Stanlaw, 1992), television programs (Jinnouchi, 2007), and Japanese popular music (Moody, 2001; Moody, 2006; Pennycook, 2003; Stanlaw, 2021). Scholars attribute this phenomenon to English's attention-catching effects (Bhatia, 2009) and its ability to stand out amidst predominantly Japanese scripts (Takashi, 1990b). While some argue that English is primarily used for decorative purposes, conveying positive imagery without necessarily prioritising communication (Dougill, 2008; Haarmann, 1989; Seaton, 2001), others contend that marketers capitalise on the public's superficial knowledge of basic English to achieve both decorative and communicative goals (Daulton, 2008). Previous studies have focused on English-based loanwords in the Japanese language system, overlooking the creative use of English wordplay in Japanese advertising texts (Inagawa, 2015; Scherling, 2016). This study aims to fill this gap by examining five instances of English wordplay in Japanese commercial texts that go beyond basic usage.

Roles of Japanese scripts in Western fashion: Fusion and New Orientalism

This paper examines the use of Japanese scripts on fashion items. The use of English on fashion items (e.g. t-shirts) has been observed across the globe and examined in the field of sociolinguistics. In recent years, fashion brands such as Gucci, Coach, Adidas, and Nike have printed Japanese scripts on their clothes alongside their original brand names. A UK fashion brand, Superdry, employ Japanese in their brand name and logos. However, the use of languages other than English has not yet been analysed in the fields of sociolinguistics or fashion. The adoption of different cultural norms is often discussed as a form of cultural appropriation. This paper challenges that view by comparing the use of English and Japanese as well as by discussing possible explanations and the roles of Japanese scripts in fashion. It emerges that Japanese scripts are used due to the symbolic, cultural, and linguistic capital that they hold, as well as with a view to enabling brands to express uniqueness. The paper argues that printing Japanese scripts on fashion items is not a simple representation of Japonisme, but rather a form of cultural and linguistic appreciation. It also asserts that the New Orientalism that has been observed in the adaptation of Japanese scripts to fashion has no connotation of otherness. Instead, it represents an active acceptance of the East and the generation of new cultures. Transcultural flows are observed in the field of fashion in the era of globalisation. This paper presents a new perspective on studies on Orientalism and the use of languages and scripts.

Script-switching in Japanese pop culture: a social semiotic multimodal approach

This article explores the nature of multimodal meaning-making in writing by analyzing the script-switching used in Japanese pop culture. Japanese intermixes multiple script systems in one text. Although official and public documents follow standard orthographic conventions, creative works in pop culture texts freely and regularly break these norms by switching script types to create new meanings. However, while many previous works recognize the semiotic effects of script-switching, to this day, there is no systematic account for how and why such meaning-making operates. Notably, script-switching triggers meanings independent of linguistic meaning. Yet, scripts are a visual manifestation of language, so one cannot say they are independent of language. Accordingly, this work attempts to resolve this dilemma by exploring a social semiotic multimodal approach (see Van Leeuwen ‘Typographic meaning’, 2005, and ‘Towards a semiotics of typography’, 2006, and Stöckl ‘Typography: Body and dress of a text’, 2005), which claims the semiotic independence of typography and its interdependency with language. By recognizing the basic unit of the writing system as graphemes, the author argues that the Japanese script systems are categorized into four types of graphemes depending on the linguistic unit they relate to and she demonstrates how the visual unit of the grapheme and the linguistic unit interact in meaning-making. In this analysis, script-switching occurs when grapheme types are intentionally changed to foreground a visual meaning associated with each script system. This article shows that such a meaning reflects the historical development and discursive social practices of writing with multiple script systems throughout the history of the Japanese writing system.

Kawaii: fenomén roztomilosti v japonské kultuře a společnosti

The main objective of this study is to introduce the Czech reader to the hitherto unexplored phenomenon of cuteness (kawaii) in Japanese culture and society. The term kawaii, which is used to describe cute objects (toddlers, animals, mascots, toys), represents one of the most culturally persuasive aesthetics of the new millennium and is a significant economic driver of Japan’s cultural industry (manga, anime, fashion, music). In other words, kawaii is not a temporary fashion trend – it is virtually a ‘standard aesthetic’ that has permeated all areas of Japanese everyday life. In this study, I focus on three thematic units, namely psychology, aesthetics, and history of cuteness. Within psychology, I analyze kawaii as an intense emotional response to some significant stimulus that triggers a ‘maternal’ desire. Within aesthetics, I firstly focus on the stylized Japanese script, which started the kawaii fever in 1970s. Secondly, I point out the main specifics of Japanese product design with kawaii features and explain how kawaii aesthetics permeated the field of Japanese fashion. Thirdly, I focus on various mascots and animal characters that represent the main platform of kawaii aesthetics today, and demonstrate how Japanese authorities and institutions utilize this aesthetic to maintain the status quo. Finally, I offer a brief history of Japanese cuteness, which began in court literature of the 10th century and culminated in the second half of the 20th century.

Mapping Late Hokusai Research: Digitizing and Publishing Bilingual Research Data

The initiative “Late Hokusai: Thought, Technique, Society” took place at the British Museum (BM) and SOAS, University of London (2016–2019). As part of its activities, it built a linked-data platform prototype on ResearchSpace. The prototype offers a redesigned process for how museum researchers and users find, research with, discuss and expand bilingual data about early modern Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) and instigated a discussion about what a collaborative research platform for the Hokusai research community could look like. While Japanese resource specialists have long recognized the complexity of Japanese script as a challenge for multilingual research and collection platforms, the processes for and results of integrating Japanese source data into bi- or multilingual museum databases remained unsatisfactory.This paper revisits the challenges posed by “non-Latin script” (NLS) in museum databases in the case of the Hokusai research platform at the British Museum, which integrated Japanese and English languages. It localizes the issues arising from working with Japanese source data in the Latin script project environment and accompanies the museum researchers’ tasks regarding the correct input, rendering and display of the source script at each step: 1) object analysis, 2) registering NLS metadata, 3) processing NLS information and 4) visualizing LS and NLS information for general and specialist audiences. After assessing these practices, the paper critically reflects on selected approaches, successes, and shortcomings experienced while creating such a prototype. By sharing its experiences, the project hopes to aid prospective research projects on a similar path regarding project setup and documentation. Furthermore, it advocates the sustainability of research practices according to data reusability parameters.L’initiative « Late Hokusai : Thought Technique and Society » (Hokusai tardif : Pensées techniques et société) a eu lieu au British Museum (BM) et SOAS, l’Université de Londres (2016-2019). Dans le cadre des activités, cette initiative a produit une plateforme prototype de Web des données sur ResearchSpace. Le prototype offre un processus redessiné aidant les chercheurs de musée et les usagers à trouver, à faire de la recherche, à discuter et à étoffer les données bilingues concernant l’artiste Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), du début de l’ère moderne japonaise. Cela a déclenché une discussion sur l’apparence possible d’une plateforme de recherche collaborative dédiée à la communauté de recherche sur Hokusai. Tandis que les spécialistes de ressources japonaises reconnaissent depuis longtemps la complexité de l’écriture japonaise comme un défi pour la recherche multilingue et pour les plateformes de collection, les processus et les résultats de l’intégration des données sources japonaises dans des bases de données de musées bi- ou plurilingues demeurent insatisfaisants.Cet article réexamine les défis liés à des « écritures non-latines » (NLS, non-Latin script) dans des bases de données de musée dans le cas de la plateforme de recherche sur Hokusai au British Museum, ce qui a intégré les langues japonaise et anglaise. L’article localise les questions qui se posent durant le travail avec les données sources japonaises dans un environnement de projet en écriture latine et accompagne les tâches des chercheurs de musée concernant l’entrée correcte, le rendu et l’affichage de l’écriture source à chaque étape : 1) les analyses d’objet, 2) les enregistrements de métadonnées NLS, 3) le traitement de l’information NLS et 4) la visualisation de l’information LS (écriture latine, Latin script) et NLS pour des audiences générales et spécialistes. Cet article présentera une évaluation de ces pratiques et, ensuite, considérera de façon critique les approches sélectionnées, les succès et les défauts rencontrés pendant la création d’un tel prototype. En partageant ces expériences, ce projet vise à aider des projets de recherche prospectifs qui se trouvent dans un cas similaire, considérant la configuration de projets et la documentation. En outre, ce projet promeut la viabilité de pratiques de recherche conformément à des paramètres de réutilisation de données.

The relational dynamics of anger and shame: scripts for emotional interactions in Germany and Japan

This study explored German and Japanese scripts for anger and shame interactions between romantic partners. We started from the idea that emotion scripts structure people’s knowledge about emotional interactions and should vary systematically between cultures in line with the cultural significance of the emotion that the script organizes. Specifically, we expected that emotions that are consistent with culturally dominant relationship ideals (anger in Germany, shame in Japan) compared to those that are inconsistent (anger in Japan, shame in Germany) are experienced more commonly and that scripts for culturally consistent compared to inconsistent emotions should represent more knowledge about interpersonal contingencies. German and Japanese participants (N = 344) indicated for eight anger (or shame) situations how frequently they encounter similar situations, how intensely they would respond with anger/shame, how their partners would react, and how angry/ashamed they would feel after the interaction. In line with our expectations, we found that people encounter shame situations with their partners frequently to the extent that they lead to culturally consistent emotions; this was partially also the case for anger situations. Moreover, we found that, overall, participants took imagined partner responses more into account when imagining interactions around culturally consistent compared to inconsistent emotions, supporting the idea that these scripts represent more interpersonal influence.

‘Chinese ideographs belong to a childhood age […] but Japan has now become a man’: graphic ideologies and language reform in The Japan Times

This study is a diachronic investigation into how coverage of writing reform in The Japan Times used, manipulated, and discarded graphic language ideologies between 1897 and 1981. Through this novel data set and analytical focus, the study expands on extant understandings of Japanese debates over the script, utilizing a newspaper known for hosting voices and concerns absent in many other Japanese presses to evidence how ideologies about language use(rs) evolved in response to social concerns surrounding over a century of the reform debate. Ultimately, analysis of 469 articles shows that while The Japan Times generally advocated for romanization, the ideologies surrounding its coverage of script debate were not singular or static. Beliefs that scripts are ‘progressive’, ‘barbaric’, ‘Japanese’, and ‘foreign’ were used to both support and attack kanji, kana, and romanization, and the power of individual ideologies changed rapidly in response to fluctuating social conditions and power structures. As a result, we see that graphic ideologies about script were a highly flexible and important element of Japanese script discussions, with framings rapidly borrowed, reformed, and discarded by all sides of the debate to participate in changing dialogues on what made a writing style best for the future of Japan.

Context-Dependent Script Choice in Emails: The Case of Sumimasen

ABSTRACT This study examines how pragmatic factors influence Japanese script choice by focusing on the representation of ‘sumimasen’ – a phrase used to express apology and gratitude. In standard Japanese, this term is written in hiragana, but use of katakana for the term has been observed. Through a quantitative survey targeting 200 undergraduate Japanese-L1 students and investigating their impressions of different representations of sumimasen in Japanese emails, this study examines how context influences reader impressions of sumimasen representations. Here, ‘context’ specifically refers to three pragmatic factors of communication: situation, writer-reader relationship, and purpose. Through examining how alterations to the situation and relationship factors influence survey responses, the study reveals that reader impressions of katakana sumimasen differ depending on the respondent’s preferred politeness strategy. In focusing on this understudied question of how L1 readers respond to orthographic variation in context, the study expands on existing accounts of how katakana creates meaning by recognizing that interpersonal factors can influence the intent and reception of script variation. Additionally, the study finds that the social meaning of a given script variant can be dependent on the word it represents, with terms like sumimasen becoming active and accepted vehicles for meaning negotiation.

The Insertion of Person References Motivated by Pragmatic Differences in Estonian-English-Japanese Facebook Communication

Sociopragmatic differences have been examined between many languages and cultures, including English and Japanese. However, Estonian and Japanese have yet to be compared, and thus this data of EstonianEnglish-Japanese communication on Facebook offers a look at a type of code-switching that is caused by the sociopragmatic differences between Estonian and Japanese – i.e. the insertion of person references from Japanese to Estonian and English utterances by native Estonians. I am using the Estonian-English-Japanese Facebook communication dataset from Kilp (2021) with new added conversations. The data consist of synchronous private Facebook messages between 2015 and 2021: a total of 7 informants, 50 conversations and 14,681 tokens. A usage-based approach and a qualitative analysis are applied to the data from individual informants and particular cases. These data show that a perception of pragmatic differences causes the insertions of the Japanese person references, senpai ‘senior’ and sensei ‘teacher’, in various forms (affixed to the name, replacing the name, elongated, capitalised, in the Latin alphabet, in Japanese script) in Estonian and English utterances, while factors such as vertical hierarchy, horizontal solidarity and (situational) salience play an important role in facilitating insertion. Keywords: deixis, code-switching, vocative, usage-based approach, contact linguistics, computer-mediated communication, salience, Estonian, English, Japanese

Mouldy Matriarchs and Dangerous Daughters

Mouldy Matriarchs and Dangerous Daughters

A social semiotic multimodal analysis of ateji translation in manga

ABSTRACT Ateji (当て字) pertains to one of the unique uses of language in the manga that is constructed with two types of Japanese scripts. Its one-of-a-kind structure presents challenges in translation, but feasible solutions have hardly been explored. Drawing on ateji categories, social semiotic multimodal approach and translation procedures, this study performs qualitative content analysis to identify practical ways to reconstruct the closest meaning of ateji. It finds that most of the adopted translation procedures reflect partial meaning transformations because of the target language’s lack of semiotic resources that can be used to convey ateji’s complex meanings. Nevertheless, translations published in the 2010s have shown that a smaller font size – the semiotic resource of the typography mode – is used in glosses to produce the closest meaning transformation of ateji into the target text. This finding has also revealed that writing and typography are effective modes of ateji translation.

Effects of orthography in the picture-word task: Evidence from Japanese scripts

The picture-word task presents participants with a number of pictured objects together with a written distractor word superimposed upon each picture, and their task is to name the depicted object while ignoring the distractor word. Depending on the specific picture and word combination, various effects, including the identity facilitation effect (e.g., DOG + dog) and the semantic interference effect (e.g., GOAT + cow), are often observed. The response patterns of the picture-word task in terms of naming latencies reflect the mechanisms underlying lexical selection in speech production. Research using this method, however, has typically focused on alphabetic languages, or involved bilingual populations, making it difficult to specifically investigate orthographic effects in isolation. In this paper, we report five experiments investigating the role of orthography in the picture-word task by varying distractor script (using the multiscriptal language Japanese, and pseudohomophonic spellings in English) across three different populations (Japanese monolinguals, Japanese-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals), investigating both the identity facilitation effect and the semantic interference effect. The results generally show that the magnitude of facilitation is affected by orthography even within a single language. The findings and specific patterns of results are discussed in relation to current theories on speech production.

The Development of a Multimedia Application in Learning Japanese

The Look East Policy Programme in Malaysia, that was rejuvenated recently by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, focuses on a few key areas, namely, education, training and investment, consequently, making the learning of Japanese as a third language fundamental for Malaysian undergraduates as a key point to set them apart from others, especially in multicultural or intercultural competency atmospheres. On the global sphere, the emergence of Japan as a rising force in industrialisation has also made the learning of Japanese essential for non-native speakers. Hence, it has become relevant and necessary to pay more attention to the learning of the Japanese language in all corners of the globe. However, for many, it is a daunting task, mainly because of unfamiliarity with the Japanese script and the vast number of characters in the language. This paper outlines an initiative taken by the researchers in developing and testing a multimedia application for Japanese language learning using sensory learning and Tangible User Interface, adopting the five-step ADDIE model. The paper maps out the detailed step-by-step process in developing this application, named ATAMJHS for the learning of the Hiragana syllabary, using Malay language mnemonics as the learning guide, thus, making it a truly novel application for use by any Malay-literate learner in South East Asia and anywhere beyond, ensuring a more rewarding and sustainable partnership with Japan in the future, through quality education (SDG 2030: Goal 4), specifically in upholding and realising the Look East Policy in the Malaysian context.

SVM and HMM Classifier Combination Based Approach for Online Handwritten Indic Character Recognition

Background: The growing use of smart hand-held devices in the daily lives of the people urges for the requirement of online handwritten text recognition. Online handwritten text recognition refers to the identification of the handwritten text at the very moment it is written on a digitizing tablet using some pen-like stylus. Several techniques are available for online handwritten text recognition in English, Arabic, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scripts. However, limited research is available for Indic scripts. Objective: This article presents a novel approach for online handwritten numeral and character (simple and compound) recognition of three popular Indic scripts - Devanagari, Bengali and Tamil. Methods: The proposed work employs the Zone wise Slopes of Dominant Points (ZSDP) method for feature extraction from the individual characters. Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) classifiers are used for recognition process. Recognition efficiency is improved by combining the probabilistic outcomes of the SVM and HMM classifiers using Dempster-Shafer theory. The system is trained using separate as well as combined dataset of numerals, simple and compound characters. Results: The performance of the present system is evaluated using large self-generated datasets as well as public datasets. Results obtained from the present work demonstrate that the proposed system outperforms the existing works in this regard. Conclusion: This work will be helpful to carry out researches on online recognition of handwritten character in other Indic scripts as well as recognition of isolated words in various Indic scripts including the scripts used in the present work.

Why can’t I speak in kanji?: Indexing social identities through marked script use in Japanese manga

Going beyond broad descriptions of kanji as “adult” or hiragana as “childish”, this study investigates how variant applications of these two Japanese scripts can play a role in indexing identity within written dialogue. Looking at differing standards for kanji and hiragana use throughout the dialogue in three Japanese manga (comics), the study examines the contexts where kanji-absent, kanji-light, and locally unmarked orthographic styles are used, modified, or abandoned in each text to identify the specific contexts that motivate each local orthographic style. For two of the manga, supplementary data is provided by an interview with the author. The findings show that while all three authors use kanji and hiragana in ways that reflect the scripts’ respective links to adults and children, the conventions serve to index features the author treats as defining of particular identities rather than character age. Furthermore, comparison of the orthographic practices across the three manga shows each author putting their own mark on broadly recognized orthographic styles, and in doing so participating in the maintenance, circulation, and development of language ideologies rather than just images of each script.

Reviewing reform

AbstractThe transformation of the contemporary Japanese writing system stemmed from the simultaneous political and cultural problematizing of so-calledkokugo(national language) andkokuji(national script). Debates surrounding the structure and function of the written form of Japanese played an ongoing role in Japanese language reform proposals and policy planning initiated between the mid-1860s and early 1990s. Despite the long history of the debates and the large body of literature treating them, a comprehensive review of the scholarship dealing with the various dimensions of Japanese script reform is currently unavailable. This article provides a detailed overview and analysis of studies of the Japanese script reform debates that utilise contemporary works describing the origins and development of language problems and language rights issues. The article subsequently considers the possibilities for future inquiries involving transnational and post-national aspects of script reform, whilst reflecting on the conspicuously gendered and ethnic dimensions of contemporary Japanese language policy-formulation itself.

Phonologically-based priming in the same-different task with L1 readers.

The present experiment provides an investigation of a promising new tool, the masked priming same-different task, for investigating the orthographic coding process. Orthographic coding is the process of establishing a mental representation of the letters and letter order in the word being read which is then used by readers to access higher-level (e.g., semantic) information about that word. Prior research (e.g., Norris & Kinoshita, 2008) had suggested that performance in this task may be based entirely on orthographic codes. As reported by Lupker, Nakayama, and Perea (2015a), however, in at least some circumstances, phonological codes also play a role. Specifically, even though their 2 languages are completely different orthographically, Lupker et al.'s Japanese-English bilinguals showed priming in this task when masked L1 primes were phonologically similar to L2 targets. An obvious follow-up question is whether Lupker et al.'s effect might have resulted from a strategy that was adopted by their bilinguals to aid in processing of, and memory for, the somewhat unfamiliar L2 targets. In the present experiment, Japanese readers responded to (Japanese) Kanji targets with phonologically identical primes (on "related" trials) being presented in a completely different but highly familiar Japanese script, Hiragana. Once again, significant priming effects were observed, indicating that, although performance in the masked priming same-different task may be mainly based on orthographic codes, phonological codes can play a role even when the stimuli being matched are familiar words from a reader's L1. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Relationships Between the Accuracy of Self-Evaluation, Kanji Proficiency and the Learning Environment for Adolescent Japanese Heritage Language Learners

This paper focuses on Japanese heritage language (JHL) learners in an Australian context. The paper reports on a research project in a hoshuu-koo institution, a Japanese supplementary school, and explores the experiences of a group of Year 7 students. This study was initiated by identifying to what extent JHL learners can recognise their own skills, especially in proficiency in kanji, one of the Japanese scripts. It was predicted that several elements could relate to the accuracy of self-evaluation. By exploring levels of self-evaluation skills and the elements concerned in Japanese learning, the aim of the research was to help develop differentiated curriculum in the future. Data were based on student performance on kanji tests and answers to questionnaires, and the Excel Correl Function was used to calculate correlation coefficients. Graphs were also used to analyse the data. It was found that students who had relatively high kanji proficiency, especially in higher year levels, recognised their own skills but an overall overestimation was found amongst other students. Specific areas of kanji learning, such as okurigana and radicals, were identified as areas that need to be enhanced for appropriate self-evaluation for most of the students. Learning environment related to evaluation skills was also identified. Concluding comments centre on implications for further teaching approaches and research on the enhancement of kanji self-evaluation skills.

Typicality or Fluency?

The modern Japanese writing system comprises different scripts, such as Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. These scripts differ greatly in both typicality and frequency of usage. In two experimental studies using names of cities or prefectures in Japan as target stimuli, we examined two hypotheses, the typicality hypothesis and fluency hypothesis, in order to assess effects of Japanese script on psychological processes. It was found that Kanji names induced typical thinking in a participant's description of a location, whereas Katakana names induced rather nontypical thinking. In contrast, we found that script differences did not affect distance estimations. We discuss these effects of Japanese script on psychological processes in terms of the typicality hypothesis (differences in typical usage habits between Kanji and Katakana that affect psychological processes).