In the chapters of this book, we have seen the many levels on which language in Japan functions today and has functioned in the past: to include and to exclude, to confirm national identity and to impose it on others, to encapsulate both prewar and postwar ideas of what it is to be Japanese, and to mediate a personal identity in a multitude of different ways. The widespread belief that only one language is spoken in Japan is confounded by the diversity of other languages used within the borders of the archipelago, a diversity long ignored, denied or unrealized.

We are now beginning to see a delayed but nevertheless deeply encouraging recognition that Japan has become a multicultural society through both the specifics of its history and the effects of globalization. The presence of the established ethnic communities, the indigenous Ainu people, the many overseas students, scholars and business people and the large numbers of illegal immigrants working in the areas where Japanese themselves are not keen to work points to a rich and colorful linguistic fabric.

The question now arises, where to from here? The diverse sections of the community referred to above have special language needs which need to be addressed: the education of the children of migrants, both legal and illegal, for example, and the provision of Japanese language classes for their parents.