Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:27:00.117Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language and Politics: The Reversal of Postwar Script Reform Policy in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

Nanette Gottlieb
Get access

Extract

The period since the end of the Allied Occupation of Japan has seen a number of attempts to reverse several Occupation policies. Some, such as the revoking of administrative decentralization of education and the police force, have been successful, while others, such as constitutional revision, have not. In general, the period since the 1950s has seen a pattern of conservative social change backed by the Liberal Democratic Party. An area that illustrates this trend is that of language policy, specifically the policy toward script. The partial revision of the immediate postwar script reforms that occurred over a twenty-year period from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s, most notably the revision of the 1946 list of recommended characters, is an example of a policy that, while not imposed by the Occupation authorities, had been arrived at during the Occupation and was later reversed to some extent in a conservative direction through direct LDP intervention.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , November 1994 , pp. 1175 - 1198
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Masatsugu, Andō. 1975. Gengo Seisaku Ronkō [A Study of Language Policy]. Tokyo: Yūzankaku.Google Scholar
Eastman, Carol. 1983. Language Planning: An Introduction. Novato, Calif.: Chandler and Sharp.Google Scholar
Editorial Staff of Kotoba no Kyōiku. 1961. “Kokugo Shingikai no Kūdetaa” [Coup d'Etat in the National Language Council]. Kotoba no Kyōiku 132:10–18.Google Scholar
Fujll, Tsuguo. 1968. “Shinbun to Kokugo Seisaku” [Newspapers and Language Policy]. Gengo Seisaku 10:8–12.Google Scholar
Tsuneari, Fukuda and Tomizō, Yoshida. 1965. “Kokugo Shingikai o Shikaru” [Chiding the National Language Council]. Shio 63:220–30.Google Scholar
Seiichi, Funabashi. 1975. “Sengo Sanjūnen no Kokugo Seisaku” [Thirty Years of Postwar Language Policy]. Kokugo Kokuji 86:19–24.Google Scholar
Japanese Education Reform Council. 1950. Education Reform in Japan: The Present Status and Problems Involved. Tokyo: Japanese Education Reform Council.Google Scholar
Jiyū Minshutō Seimu Chōsakai Bunkyō Seido Chōsakai. 1968. Tokusbū: Kokugo no Shomondai [Special Release: Language Problems]. Tokyo.Google Scholar
Hirokuni, Kitta. 1989. Nippon no Rōtnazi Undō 1789–1988 [The Romanization Movement in Japan, 1789–1988]. Tokyo: Nippon no Rōmazi-sya.Google Scholar
Koizumi, Tamotsu. 1981.“Nihon no Moji Seisaku” [Japan's Script Policy]. Gengo 10 (11):20–27.Google Scholar
Shingikai, Kokugo. 1952. Kokugo Shingikai no Kiroku [Proceedings of the National Language Council]. Tokyo: Monbushō.Google Scholar
Minoru, Koshimizu. 1976. “Sengo Kokugo Seisaku no Risō to Genjitsu” [Postwar Language Policy: Ideal and Reality]. Asahi Jaanaru 9/4/1976: 90–93.Google Scholar
Tadanori, Matsusaka. 1962. Kokugo Kokuji Ronsō: Fukkoshugi e no Hanron [The Language and Script Debate: The Argument against Reactionism]. Tokyo: Shinkyo Shuppan.Google Scholar
Tadanori, Matsusaka. 1970. “Jidai Gyakkō no Kokugo Shingikai” [The National Language Council: Out of Step with the Times]. Seikai Ōrai 36(9):64–69.Google Scholar
Tadanori, Matsusaka. 1978. “Shinkanjihyō ni Jisshi o Kuitomenakereba Naranai” [We must not Allow the New Character List to come into Effect]. Sakubun to Kyōiku 1978:42–45.Google Scholar
Miller, Roy Andrew. 1982. Japan's Modern Myth: The Language and Beyond. New York: Weatherhill.Google Scholar
Chihiro, Momose. 1980.“Kokugo Seisaku o kaeru Riyū wa Nanika” [Why Change Language Policy?]. Kana no Hikari 695:3–7Google Scholar
Gakkai, Nihon Onsei. 1980. “Kasekika shita Kokugo Seisaku: sono Konponteki Hansei to Shinkyōiku Seisaku e no Tenkan” [Fossilized Language Policy: A Thorough Reconsideration and the Implications for Education]. Onsei Gakkai Kaihō 163:22–23.Google Scholar
Nomura, Masaaki. 1981. “Jōyō Kanjihyō no tōjita Mono: Masukomi no Hankyō o otte” [Media Reaction to the List of Characters for General Use]. Gengo Seikatsu 355:32–39.Google Scholar
Tadatoshi, Ōkubo. 1978. Ichiokunin no Kokugo Kokuji Mondai [The Language and Script Problems of a Hundred Million People]. Tokyo: Sanseidō.Google Scholar
Susumu, Ōno. 1962. “Shin Kokugo Shingikai no Kadai” [Problems with the New National Language Council]. Sekai (193):243–250.Google Scholar
Susumu, Ōno. 1977. “Shinkanjihyō wa Moji no Katsuryoku o Kaifuku saseru ka” [Will the New Character List Restore the Vitality of Characters?]. Asahi Jaanaru 11/2/1977:106–111.Google Scholar
Seeley, Christopher. 1984. “The Japanese Script since 1900.” Visible Language XVIII (3):267–301.Google Scholar
Seeley, Christopher. 1991. A History of Writing in Japan. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryōhei, Shioda. 1965. Kokugo Zuihitsu. Tokyo: Sekkasha.Google Scholar
Nagahide, Sugimori. 1983. “Kokugo Kaikaku no Rekishi (Sengo)” [The History of Language Reform: Postwar]. In Saiichi, Maruya, ed., Nihongo no Sekai 16: Kokugo Kaikaku o Hihan suru [The World of Japanese Language 16: Criticisms of Language Reform]. Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, pp. 95–168.Google Scholar
Yasuyuki, Suzuki, ed. 1977. Kokugo Kokuji Mondai no Riron [The Theory of Language and Script Problems]. Tokyo: Mugi Shobō.Google Scholar
Akiyasu, Tōdō. 1982. Kanji no Kako to Mirai [Characters: Their Past and Future]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar
Zenmaro, Toki, Kinji, Sawada, Kyōsuke, Kindaichi, Motoki, Tokieda, Muneo, Nakamura, and Minoru, Nishio. 1952. “Kokugo Shingikai wa dō iu koto o shite iru ka” [What is the National Language Council Doing?]. Gengo Seikatsu, March 1952:2–24.Google Scholar
Trainor, Joseph. 1983. Educational Reform in Occupied Japan: Trainor's Memoir. Tokyo: Meisei University Press.Google Scholar
Twine, Nanette. 1991. “Language and the Constitution.” Japan Forum 3.1:125–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twine, Nanette. 1991a. Language and the Modern State: The Reform of Written Japanese. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Uemae, Junichirō. 1975. “Shōwa Nijūichinen: Kokugo Shingikai” (1946: The National'Language Council). Shokun 7 (7): 156–80.Google Scholar
Unger, J. Marshall. 1987. The Fifth Generation Fallacy: Why Japan Is Betting Its Future on Artificial Intelligence. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Uno, Seiichi. 1977. “Sengo no Kokugo Kaikaku—Watashi no Taiken o Chūshin toshite” [My Experiences with Postwar Language Reform]. Kokugo no Kenkyū 10:33–42.Google Scholar
Yabe, H. 1968. “Jimintō no Kokugo Seisaku ni miru Handōsei” [Reactionism in the LDP's Language Policy]. Gekkan Shakaitō 140:136–38.Google Scholar