语言景观视角下当代日本社会的语言问题--以东京为例

Language Issues in Today's Japan from the Perspective of Linguistic Landscape: The Case of Tokyo

本文试分析日本社会当前的语言生活状况,以语言景观为视角,以东京为参照点,通过对现有研究及相关文件的分析,发现由于成本等社会因素的制约,目前东京的语言政策及实施和语言景观研究处于一个追求"平等"却又不得的状态之中。如不及时处理,会对市政管理及学术研究产生一定的负面影响。

Since the beginning of the current century, Japan has seen a dramatic increase of foreign population and various social problems have emerged in society. To deal with the large population from abroad, not only the local authorities, but many non-government organizations get involved in relevant activities. To provide a general picture of multilingual life in a traditional homogeneous society, this study attempts to analyze the language use in today＇s Japan with Tokyo as a reference point. As a cosmopolitan city, the linguistic landscape under the control of municipality of Tokyo faces the question of how to address the needs of its large number of foreign res- idents. My investigation into the research literature and the official documents shows that while the relevant authorities are fully aware of their responsibilities to provide service including more languages in the official linguistic landscape, particularly the languages of ethnic minorities, they can hardly fulfill their objectives of creating equal environment for different ethnic groups in terms of language service due to financial constraints. The article concludes that if the current situation continues, the problem is bound to result in negative impact on both municipality administration and academic research.