Metrolingualism in transitional Japan

Otsuji, E

Metrolingualism in transitional Japan

Otsuji, E

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Publisher:: Routledge
Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics, 2019, pp. 143-157
Issue Date:: 2019

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Otsuji, E https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3318-0995
dc.date.accessioned	2020-05-04T23:37:44Z
dc.date.available	2020-05-04T23:37:44Z
dc.date.issued	2019
dc.identifier.citation	Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics, 2019, pp. 143-157
dc.identifier.isbn	9781315213378
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/140472
dc.description.abstract	There has been a sharp increase in the number of foreigner registrations in Japan with a record of 2.5 million at the end of 2017, which is an increase of 7.5% on the previous year. Japan is going through a rapid transition politically, socio-culturally and economically, and this has inevitably had an impact on everyday language life and landscapes in Japan. Drawing on everyday interactional data from Tokyo, a site which has increasingly become socio-culturally and linguistically diverse due to the incoming flow of people, goods, ideas, practices and language, this chapter shows that in order to understand everyday linguistic diversity in the city (in this case Tokyo), or what we call “metrolingualism”, we have to explore both the idea of space and of diversity in greater depth. This chapter argues how metrolingualism’s enquiries into everyday language use from a local perspective and its focus on the dynamic relations between semiotic resources, activities, artifacts and space (i.e., special repertoires, metrolingua francas and metrolingual assemblages) as people go about their daily lives, provide a new way of understanding multilingualism in the city and the sense of affordance brought about by multilingual practices. This approach is particularly important where people are left in an ambivalent space between the Japanese government’s animosity towards the proliferation of cultural diversity and the everyday reality of cultural and linguistic diversity, and argues that metrolingualism can offer Japanese sociolinguistics a new perspective during this critical time of transition.
dc.format.extent	28
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Routledge
dc.relation.ispartof	Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.4324/9781315213378-9
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
dc.title	Metrolingualism in transitional Japan
dc.type	Chapter
utslib.for	2004 Linguistics
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	true
dc.date.updated	2020-05-04T23:37:39Z
pubs.place-of-publication	London
pubs.publication-status	Published
utslib.start-page	143
dc.location	London

Abstract:

There has been a sharp increase in the number of foreigner registrations in Japan with a record of 2.5 million at the end of 2017, which is an increase of 7.5% on the previous year. Japan is going through a rapid transition politically, socio-culturally and economically, and this has inevitably had an impact on everyday language life and landscapes in Japan. Drawing on everyday interactional data from Tokyo, a site which has increasingly become socio-culturally and linguistically diverse due to the incoming flow of people, goods, ideas, practices and language, this chapter shows that in order to understand everyday linguistic diversity in the city (in this case Tokyo), or what we call “metrolingualism”, we have to explore both the idea of space and of diversity in greater depth. This chapter argues how metrolingualism’s enquiries into everyday language use from a local perspective and its focus on the dynamic relations between semiotic resources, activities, artifacts and space (i.e., special repertoires, metrolingua francas and metrolingual assemblages) as people go about their daily lives, provide a new way of understanding multilingualism in the city and the sense of affordance brought about by multilingual practices. This approach is particularly important where people are left in an ambivalent space between the Japanese government’s animosity towards the proliferation of cultural diversity and the everyday reality of cultural and linguistic diversity, and argues that metrolingualism can offer Japanese sociolinguistics a new perspective during this critical time of transition.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/140472