Table of Contents

Foreword Florian Coulmas Preface 1. Modern and late modern perspectives on language life in Japan Patrick Heinrich and Christian Galan 2. Language rights in Japan: what is it good for? Goro Christoph Kimura 3. Difficulties of establishing heritage language education in Uchinaa Patrick Heinrich 4. The emerging borderless community in the local radio in Uchinaa Yuko Sugita 5. Out of this world, in this world, or both? The Japanese school at the threshold Christian Galan 6. Japan’s literacy myth and its social functions Hitoshi Yamashita 7. Standardization and de-standardization processes in spoken Japanese Fumio Inoue 8. Constraints on language use in public broadcasting Takehiro Shioda 9. Technology and writing system in Japan Nanette Gottlieb 10. Modernity rewritten: linguistic landscaping in Tokyo Peter Backhaus 11. Language, power and politeness in business meetings in Japan Hiromasa Tanaka and Aya Sugiyama 12. Japanese as an international language Tessa Carroll 13. Prospects and prerequisites for a Japanese third way policy Takao Katsuragi Bibliography

About the Author

Patrick Heinrich is a Researcher at the University of the Ryukyu's, Japan. Christian Galan is a Researcher at the University of Toulouse-le Mirail/Center of Japanese Studies (INALCO, Paris), France.