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The impact of information andcommunication technology on scriptpolicy in JapanDilhara D. Premaratne aa Faculty of Asian Studies , College of Asia and the Pacific,Australian National University , Canberra, AustraliaPublished online: 20 Apr 2010.

To cite this article: Dilhara D. Premaratne (2009) The impact of information and communicationtechnology on script policy in Japan, Current Issues in Language Planning, 10:4, 387-404, DOI:10.1080/14664200903555005

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The impact of information and communication technology on scriptpolicy in Japan

Dilhara D. Premaratne�

Faculty of Asian Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University,Canberra, Australia

(Received 9 April 2009; final version received 18 November 2009)

Information and communication technology appears to have had a profound impact onlanguage use in Japan. An important issue arising from this is said to be the increase inthe use of Chinese characters (kanji) outside the official standard. This development hasmade a re-appraisal of the existing script policy necessary in order to accommodate thechanges in kanji usage. To determine the nature and extent of the changes, it is necessaryto compare the use of kanji in the information and communication technology era withthat in the past. However, not many longitudinal surveys of texts have been done makingit difficult to determine the extent to which kanji use has increased and deviated from theexisting standard after the development of information and communication technology.This paper is based on a longitudinal study carried out to determine the changes in theproportions of kanji use during the information and communication technology era andbefore, with a special focus on the use of kanji outside the Joyo List (the current guidefor kanji use in all public, non-specialist writing). The study examined the changes inkanji proportions by using topic-controlled news texts published in the Japanesenewspaper Asahi Shimbun from the 1940s to the 2000s. The study found that theproportion of non-Joyo kanji was minimal right across the period that wasinvestigated and that it remained stable after the development of information andcommunication technology. The study also found that the proportions of general kanjiused in the information and communication technology era was higher than that inthe past. However, there were also some unexpected results. Kanji use at the end ofthe era was lower than what it was at the beginning. Also, apart from an increaseduse in the 1980s, kanji use remained fairly stable from the 1960s to the 2000s.Although the findings in the study are limited to news texts written about a particulartopic, they were generally supported by past research based on other topics and othertypes of media.

Keywords: Japan; information and communication technology; script policy; kanji;Toyo List; Joyo List; character limitation

Introduction

The Joyo Kanji List,1 which is the current guide for kanji2 use in Japan, is in the process ofbeing revised. The revision is carried out to address technology-driven changes in the use ofkanji that have been observed in contemporary Japanese writing. The spread of informationand communication technology, particularly word processors and mobile phones, have had

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a significant impact on kanji use. The technology-mediated effect on kanji use is due to thegreater opportunity people now have of seeing many characters outside the Joyo List.Testing the adequacy of the Joyo List as a guide for kanji use is therefore considered astimely, more so, because information and communication technologies are advancingfurther (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2005, p. 1). The current revision is carried out byreviewing and updating the Joyo List to make it adequate for use in government andlegal documents, newspapers and magazines and in broadcasts (Agency for CulturalAffairs, 2009, p. 6). The revised list is tentatively called the new Joyo List (Agency forCultural Affairs, 2009, p. 1). The new list will be released in Autumn 2010 (The AsahiShimbun, January 27, 2009a).

The purpose of the present study is to determine the extent of the changes that havetaken place in kanji use during the information and communication technology era. Thestudy aims to do this by determining whether kanji used during this period has deviatedfrom the current Joyo standard, and if so, the proportions of non-Joyo kanji used duringthe period. The study will also determine the proportions of general kanji used duringthe information and communication technology era and compare this with kanji usedin the period before. The study will discuss the findings in light of the current revision tothe script policy. The period from 1980 onwards is taken as the information and communi-cation technology era.

Problems caused by kanji and the need for script reform

Script reform first came to be perceived as necessary in Japan during the Meiji modernis-ation movement. One of the main reasons was the use of kanji in the Japanese writingsystem. As learning kanji was difficult and time-consuming for the average person, kanjibecame a hindrance to mass literacy. Since then, characters have been criticised for anumber of reasons: the pressure their unlimited use impose on learners, the role theyplay in perpetuating homonyms, and the hindrance they present to office automation(Gottlieb, 1994, p. 1179) and for general computing (Hannas, 1997, pp. 258–276;Unger, 1987, p. 76).

The Toyo List with its 1850 kanji was introduced in 1946 as a close connection hadbeen perceived between script reform and the efficiency of education (Gottlieb, 1994,p. 1176). Although a moderate approach when compared with that of totally abolishingcharacters and using a phonetic script (kana or romaji), this was a significant attempttowards the reduction of kanji when compared with the repertoire of approximately 6000characters that were in use at the time. With the reversal of the post-war script policy,the number of kanji prescribed for general use was increased. At present, students areexpected to learn the 1006 Education Kanji (kanji selected from the Joyo List by policymakers on the basis of relative simplicity, relevance to daily life and ability to form com-pounds) by the end of elementary school, and the remaining 939 kanji on the Joyo Listby the end of the period of compulsory education (Gottlieb, 2008, p. 38). Gottlieb pointsout that although in theory students should master all 1945 characters by the end of theperiod of compulsory education, in practice not all students achieve this level of kanji lit-eracy. In addition, adult literacy is also hampered by the need to learn characters (Gottlieb,2008, p. 41).

It has been pointed out that Japan does not enjoy high levels of literacy as commonlybelieved, which is generally attributed to the difficulty in learning characters (Carroll, 2001,pp. 115–116; Gottlieb, 2008, p. 37; Neustupny, 1984, pp. 118–119; Unger, 1996, pp. 124–127). Neustupny observes that a literacy survey carried out in 1955–1956 revealed the

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phenomenon of ‘restricted literacy’. This means that there were groups of people who werenot competent in reading and writing and, therefore, had not attained full literacy. This isindicated by the fact that about 10–15% of the sample were considered to possess nocompetence in the use of the written language and were expected to experience seriousproblems, while about 50–60% of the sample lacked sufficient competence and wereconsidered as lacking ‘functional literacy’. Functional literacy is defined as the ability toperform basic operations such as reading/writing or simple calculations (Coppermancited in Neustupny, 1984, p. 121). Neustupny notes that although a high degree of indus-trialisation can be reached on the level of restricted literacy, it is not beneficial to modernsociety.

Gottlieb (2008, p. 37) refers to the United Nations Development Office HumanDevelopment Report for 2003 that assigned Japan an adult literacy rate of 99%. In thereport, adult literacy was defined as ‘the percentage of people aged between 15 andabove who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement relatedto their everyday life’. Gottlieb comments that the 99% literacy rate is unrealistic interms of Japan’s requirements for functional literacy. Carroll (2001, pp. 115–116) makesa similar comment in observing that while 99% of the population may be able to usekana, knowledge of kanji is variable and difficult to measure due to the vast numbers in use.

The use of kanji also causes problems for computer use. There has been frequentdiscussion about the complex process and related issues when computing with Chinesecharacters (Hannas, 1997, pp. 258–276; Lunde, 1999, pp. 8–11; Unger, 1987, p. 76). Com-puter inputting is more time-consuming with kanji as it involves a two-step process – firsttyping the pronunciation of Japanese words and then selecting the correct characters forthem on the computer screen or checking that the characters that come up are correct.This problem is likely to get aggravated in the future as rapid computer input becomes ahigh priority. The comment made by Umesao in 1993 at a conference about the problemsJapan is having with computing in an age of increasingly rapid information exchange andhis suggestion to switch to Romanisation is revealing (Carroll, 2001, p. 180).

Linguistic nationalism in Japan

Language has been an important element of modern nationalist movements, so much so thatthe slogan ‘language equals nationality and nationality equals language’ has applied outsideits initially European boundaries (Fishman, 1972, pp. 44–48). According to Fishman, themajor motivational emphases of modern nationalism have been the belief that the mothertongue protects the spirit or soul of nationality and that linking with the ethnic past providesa link to greatness. The above observation shows the close relationship between linguisticnationalism and the belief that the national language should be guarded from foreign influ-ences and protected in its pristine purity. Edwards (1985, p. 27) asserts that ‘the power oflanguage as a factor of nationalism is indisputable’ and that ‘the link between linguisticnationalisms and language purity and preservation is a strong one’.

A key concept of the Japanese perception of their language and one that has relevance tonationalism and national identity is kotodama – ‘the spirit or soul of the Japaneselanguage’. In Japan, this concept has largely contributed to linguistic nationalism, morespecifically to the ideology of linguistic purism. Miller cited in (Carroll, 2001, p. 36)traces the development of kotodama and the related concept of kotoage from their earliestappearances in the Man’yoshu in AD 759, through the kokugaku movement of theTokugawa period, their distorted use by the authors of Kokutai no Hongi in the late1930s, to their reappearance in the nihonjinron (theories of Japaneseness) of the 1970s.

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In the Japanese situation, language purism applies not only to the protection andpreservation of the lexicon but also to that of the writing system. Japan borrowedChinese characters (kanji) to begin its writing system over 1500 years ago. Although anumber of different scripts are used today to write Japanese, kanji have a special placein the writing system. While the ability to use kanji is considered a mark of erudition,the use of kanji whenever appropriate is seen as the correct way to write Japanese(Umesao, 1988, p. 238). In addition, kanji are perceived as a vehicle of the cultural heritageof Japan that links the past with the present (Gottlieb, 1995, pp. 24–25; Taylor & Taylor,1995, p. 341). Therefore, attempts to reduce the number of kanji in writing are seen asharmful to the cultural heritage of Japan (Gottlieb, 1994, p. 1176).

The paradox of reform

Most of the Japanese language policy and reform have dealt with issues relating to theJapanese writing system (Carroll, 2001, p. 14; Gottlieb, 2001, p. 33). Gottlieb attributesthis to ‘the nature of the Japanese writing system which requires considerable interventionto effect a compromise between the legitimate demands of tradition and the pragmatic needsof modern society’. Fishman (1972, pp. 79–80) observes that the conflict between languagemodernisation and language purity is not uncommon in language planning. Commenting onthe attempts to modernise the Turkish language, Fishman states that the conflict between thetwo was resolved by rationalising and legitimising language modernisation decisions viaauthenticity sentiments. For example, the massive European borrowings into the Turkishtechnical vocabulary was rationalised on the basis that all European languages were initiallyderived from Turkish. The vernacularisation and simplification of the Turkish non-technicalvocabulary were rationalised on the basis that the language of the Anatolian peasant was amodel of purity and authenticity as it had been the least influenced by foreign influence:

Such dialectic skill is by no means rare in the annals of language planning within highlynationalist contexts. On occasion, modernisation may appear to have the upper hand and, onoccasion, authentification is stressed. In the longer run, however, what needs to be graspedis not so much the seesawing back and forth as the need to retain both components and tofind a modus Vivendi between them. (Fishman, 1972, p. 80)

Japan had a golden opportunity to resort to the kana script in the years immediately fol-lowing the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, when nationalism promoted script reformand demands were made to abandon Chinese characters in favour of kana (Gottlieb,1995, pp. 86–88). The opportunity passed and the seesawing between modernisationand language purism continued through the immediate pre-war and post-war years. Thisseems to have halted, however, with the reversal of the post-war script policy that beganin the 1960s, and linguistic nationalism appears to have gained the upper hand over along period of time.

An examination of the history of script reform in Japan brings to light the conflictbetween the need to adapt the script for modern society and the nationalistic sentimentssurrounding the Japanese writing system.

Script reform prior to 1980

The written language reforms of this era took place across four main periods of time andwere driven by socio-political factors that dominated the particular period: modernisation

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in the late Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho (1912–1926) periods; imperialism in the immedi-ate pre-war years (1930s); democratisation in the post-war years (1946–1959); and conser-vatism in the period leading up to the 1980s (1960–1980). In keeping with the underlyingsocio-political factors, different language planning goals have been at the forefront duringthe different periods of time.

Meiji-Taisho modernisation

The late Meiji (1868–1912) and Taisho (1912–1926) periods, which are marked by a majorwave of language reforms, were influenced by attempts towards modernisation. This move-ment affected not only the Japanese language but also the Japanese society and Japaneseway of life in general. The prominent goals of language planning were standardisationand assimilation, both external and internal (Carroll, 2001, pp. 52–60). The need forreforming the writing system became an urgent need at this time, due to the policy oflinguistic assimilation inside and outside Japan. The main options considered to simplifythe script were using a phonetic script by resorting to kana or romaji or reducing thenumber of kanji used in writing.

The approach that was accepted was the reduction of kanji which was to beimplemented through a list of 1962 characters for general use introduced in 1923.However, the Kanto earthquake of 1925 put an end to this proposed reform.

Pre-war imperialism

The pre-war years in Japan were influenced by imperialism and expansionism. During thistime, ideological considerations outweighed pragmatic ones in relation to language policy.The prominent goal of language policy was purism. Wright (2004, p. 57) sees purism as aneed to carefully monitor and protect the language which arises from the nineteenth-century nationalists’ belief that each nation had ‘a singular history and destiny and aparticular idiom for their expression’ Carroll (2001, p. 32) sees language purification as‘one of the most pervasive ideologies underlying attitudes towards the Japanese languageand language planning’ and observes that Japan has pursued different kinds of purism atdifferent times. Archaic purism, which arises from a reverence of the past, was a dominantideology in Japan in the pre-war years. All moves towards limiting the use of kanji, orreplacing kanji by kana or romaji, were firmly put to an end at this time, althoughJapan’s expansion into Asia had created a need to teach the Japanese language overseasand to educate recruits to handle weapons safely. Instead, the role that kanji played asthe vehicle of Japan’s history, culture, and identity that linked the generations was usedas a reason for retaining Chinese characters. This mood is reflected in the replacementof the limited character list proposed in 1923 by one that contained a total of 2669characters with approximately 700 additional characters. The pre-war years are thereforecharacterised by a climate that necessitated policy measures to make reading and writingJapanese easier, but one that also suppressed the adoption of such measures for fear ofharming Japanese culture (Gottlieb, 1995, p. 23).

Post-war democratisation

The immediate post-war years in Japan, which are marked by a second major wave oflanguage reforms, were influenced by democratisation. As political power came to bevested in the people under the new constitution, the high number of kanji used in

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contemporary writing was perceived as an impediment to mass literacy, because kanji weredifficult for people to remember and reproduce. Discussion and debate took place abouthow to simplify the script to make it accessible for the general public. Of the three strategiesproposed to solve this language problem – using romaji, using kana, and reducing thenumber of kanji – the one that was eventually chosen was reducing the number of kanjiused in writing. This strategy was implemented by introducing an official list of characterscalled the Toyo Kanji List in 1946 (Gottlieb, 1995, pp. 23–24).

The Toyo Kanji List

The Toyo Kanji List contained only 1850 characters. Furthermore, the list was introducedas the prescribed maximum for government documents and school text books. This meantthat characters not on the list were proscribed from use in government publications(Hannas, 1997, p. 216). In addition, a list of kanji containing only 881 characters was intro-duced in 1948 as the limit to be taught in schools. The list of education kanji (Toyo KanjiBeppyo) was introduced as a recognition of the fact that the characters specified on the listwere adequate for an individual to function effectively in day-to-day life (Gottlieb, 1995,pp. 143–144). While the new character limits were not imposed on the media or privatecitizens, it was hoped that they would comply with the official character limits (Gottlieb,1995, p. 15). Although a radical move when compared with the pre-war years, reducingthe number of kanji is the least radical of the measures that were initially proposed tosimplify the script. Therefore, the idea that kanji acted as the link between Japan’s pastand present was still present, running as a strong undercurrent beneath the reforms thatwere taking place.

Optimism and conservatism after the economic boom

The years that led up to the 1980s, during which the post-war script reforms were critiquedand reviewed, were dominated by a mood of optimism and conservatism. This began to takeplace in the 1960s triggered by increased economic and political stability. The new climate,along with nationalistic writing (Nihonjinron) that was flourishing at the time, generatednationalistic sentiments in the Japanese people. As part of the nationalistic mood thatwas building up, the age-old attachment people had to kanji was also revived, and as aresult, the earlier post-war movement to reduce the use of kanji began to receive much criti-cism. This is because, apart from being a tool for daily communication, kanji serve as a‘repository of the long and rich cultural heritage of Japan’ (Taylor & Taylor, 1995,p. 341) and are perceived by the Japanese people as ‘icons of the essence of Japaneseculture’ (Gottlieb, 2008, p. 16), and as a link between their past and future culture (Gottlieb,1995, pp. 24–25). It was argued, therefore, that limiting the number of kanji for general usecontributed to a number of adverse effects, such as lower literacy levels and lower academicperformance; reduced power of expression of the language; and disorder in the writtenlanguage as common compounds were written half in characters and half in kana in a prac-tice called mazegaki (Gottlieb, 1995, pp. 186–187). As a result, a re-examination andevaluation of the post-war script reforms began, leading to a ‘backpedalling in languagepolicy’ (Gottlieb, 1995, p. 186). This resulted in the introduction of a revised scriptpolicy, reversing the attempts that had been hitherto made to reduce the use of kanji incontemporary writing (Gottlieb, 1994, p. 1176). The new policy was implemented byrecommending a new official list of characters in 1981, called the Joyo Kanji List, inplace of the Toyo Kanji List that had been in force since 1946.

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The Joyo Kanji List

The Joyo Kanji List contained a total of 1945 characters, which was an addition of 95characters to the old list. The change in the policy, however, was not so much in thescope of the list, but rather in the nature of the list. Whereas the old list had beenimposed as a prescribed maximum for all government documents and school text books,the new list was introduced as a guide, relaxing the previous strict limits placed on theuse of kanji. Also the new policy did not specify the number of kanji to be taught inschools whereas the old policy had specified 881 kanji, called education kanji (KyoikuKanji), as the limit to be taught for reading and writing during the period of compulsoryeducation (Gottlieb, 1995, pp. 15–16). In addition, the use of furigana (kana used to anno-tate kanji to indicate their sounds (Taylor & Taylor, 1995, p. 383) which was proscribed bythe previous policy was to be recognised, which meant that writers could now use kanji thatwere not on the official list.

Script reform after 1980

This period is marked by the influence of information and communication technology andthe new Joyo List that was introduced at the beginning of the period.

Development of information and communication technology

Modern technological innovation made its first impact on language use in Japan in the early1980s. The year 1984 marked an explosion in word-processor sales in Japan (Gottlieb,1998, p. 153) and can therefore be taken as the beginning of the personal word processorage (Seeley, 1990, p. 186). The word processor made a revolutionary change in writingJapanese as it facilitated the process of converting Japanese characters (kana) to kanji.To produce a document using the word processor, words had to be inputted in kanausing the keyboard and converted to kanji by pressing the space bar. If more than onekanji came up on the computer screen, the user had only to choose the one appropriatefor the specific context. This meant that people were now in a position to use kanji theyhad not committed to memory or had never even seen before. This is in stark contrast tothe days when people could only use kanji that they were familiar with when writing atext, unless they looked them up in a dictionary.

It is commonly believed that the use of the word-processor boosted the use of kanji(Gottlieb, 2000, p. 80). This was mainly because word-processors had the ability toproduce a large number of kanji, far greater than what was required to produce ordinarytexts. Today’s word processors can print out all the kanji identified in the Japan IndustrialStandards (JIS). The JIS list consists of two sets of characters – 2965 characters in LevelOne and 3384 characters in Level Two. Although Level One contains basic characters,Level Two contains relatively uncommon kanji (Seeley, 1990, p. 186; 1994, p. 90). Theoveruse of kanji is also attributed to the ease with which the word processor couldconvert kana into kanji (Kanda cited in Gottlieb, 2000, p. 80), and the belief ingrained inpeople during school years that using kanji whenever appropriate is the correct way towrite in Japanese (Umesao, 1988, p. 238). In addition, the overuse of kanji is also attributedto laziness on the part of users which made them accept as their first choice the kanji offeredby the word processor for native Japanese words usually written in kana (Tanaka cited inGottlieb, 2000, p. 83). Tanaka observes that this could increase the proportion of kanji ina text to between 60% and 70%.

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Another effect on language use brought about by the word-processor was a revival ofthe non-modern use of kanji. For example, native Japanese words such as arigato (thankyou), ashita (tomorrow), kino (yesterday), and ototoi (the day before yesterday) came tobe written in kanji (Gottlieb, 2000, p. 82). Also, a revival of very complex kanji whichhad been proscribed from use in the post-war period took place as a result of word-processor use. The second character of the word yuu’utsu (melancholy) which has alarge number of strokes, and which is normally written in hiragana as , and theword kirei meaning beautiful, normally written in hiragana as , are examplesof very complex kanji that began to appear in word-processed documents, although theywere not on the official list (Gottlieb, 2000, p. 86, 2008, p. 20). Gottlieb further observesthat due to the officially sponsored character limits that were in force in the post-warperiod, people had been writing such words half in kanji and half in kana, when the requiredkanji was not one that was officially acceptable. This practice known as mazegaki ‘mixedwriting’ was not appealing to many, and so the ability of the word processor to providecharacters for both halves of the compound was seen as a helpful change.

The information and communication revolution of more recent times strengthened thenew trends in Japanese written culture set by the word processor. While Internet use facili-tated the rapid and wide-spread dissemination of word-processed texts, email and mobiletext-messaging facilitated the rapid and instant transmission of word-processed messagesbetween individuals. This gave rise to a new culture of digital writing which did notrequire writers to rely on individual knowledge and memory of characters as they hadbeen required to before. The new technology exposed people to a large number of kanjiin daily life to which they had never had access before. Gottlieb (2008, p. 20) notes thatthis ‘technology-mediated aspect’ of written culture has definite implications for scriptpolicy in Japan.

The level of popularity that these digital media enjoy in the Japanese communicationsarena shows the extent of their potential implications for script usage. For example, the useof the mobile phone which is known as the keitai (portable), has become so widespread inJapanese society that Japan is perceived today as ‘defining the future of the mobilerevolution’ (Ito, Okabe, & Matsuda, 2005, pp. 1–2). Mobile phone usage and the practiceof text-messaging which was at first popular with Japanese youth, later evolved into acommunication culture that spanned ages and genders. This is attributed to mobile internetusage as it enabled users to text messages across different terminal types or service provi-ders (Ito, 2004, p. 4; Ito et al., 2005, pp. 68–69). Mobile internet usage started in Japan in1999, with the rolling out of i-mode (Internet mode, a service that allows users to access theinternet through mobile phones) by NTT DoCoMo (Japan’s leader in wireless technology)(Negishi, 2003, p. 58). Also, Japan’s social and cultural norms discourage disruptions inshared spaces and have boosted the use of text-based communication modalities in Japan(Ito et al., 2005, pp. 205–217).

To summarise, the wide-spread use of information and communication technology isbelieved to have had an impact on the use of kanji during this period. As a result, whilethe number of kanji used in texts is said to have increased, the use of kanji outside theJoyo List is also said to have increased.

A second revision to the policy is being considered at present by further increasing thenumber of kanji, as new demands have been placed on the writing system by the widespreaduse of information and communication technology (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2009,p. 2). The revision will be implemented through a new official list of characters in 2010,called the New Joyo Kanji List, replacing the current Joyo List that had been in forcesince 1981.

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The new Joyo List

The New Joyo Kanji List, which is still in draft form, is available on Bunkacho, the Agencyfor Cultural Affairs website. The new list contains a total of 2131 characters (The AsahiShimbun, January 29, 2009b). The list has been revised by deleting five characters fromthe old Joyo List and adding 191 characters that were previously not on the List. Whilethe goal of the Joyo List revision is to make written communication easier for people, therationale for increasing the number of kanji on the list is to introduce people to the non-Joyo kanji that is being used in contemporary texts (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2009,p. 3). Owing to the revision of the current Joyo List, the new list may contain some verycomplex kanji such as utsu (depression/low spirits). The draft list was compiled by con-ducting textual surveys covering a variety of sources such as newspapers, textbooks,family registers, and websites (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2009, pp. 7–13).

Similar to the old Joyo List, the new Joyo List is intended to be used as a guide for thegeneral public to read newspapers, magazines, government documents, law texts, andbroadcasts. It is not intended as a guide to read specialist texts such as those in the areasof science, technology, and art (Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2009, p. 6).

Public opinion about the draft list was obtained in March 2009. The opinion surveyshowed that people were not in favour of complex kanji and also low-frequency kanjiwith difficult readings. Of the new characters that are going to be added to the new list,32 characters were identified by more than five people as ones that should be deleted.Utsu (depression/low spirits) identified by 11 people, and ago (jaw/chin) identifiedby 10 people were complex characters that received the most disapproval. Habakaru(hesitate) and hei (engage, invite, summon) are examples of low-frequency charactersthat are difficult to read that are among the thirty two identified characters. After furtherrevision, the public will be asked to comment on the list again in September 2009 (TheYomiuri Shimbun, 13 May 2009). The list will be implemented in Autumn 2010 (TheAsahi Shimbun, January 27, 2009a).

Research on kanji use in Japanese

When investigating the changes that have taken place in script usage due to languageplanning, textual surveys play an important role because they provide information aboutthe actual use of a script at a specific point in time. Longitudinal studies are valuable inthis respect as they also provide information about trends in script usage, including thetime of emergence of a new trend or the end of an existing one. However, not manystudies investigated the use of kanji by means of textual surveys, and fewer still did thison a longitudinal basis.

Studies that focused on proportions of non-official kanji

Shimomura (1989) and Aizawa and Ogura (2007) are short-term studies that comparedkanji use in texts against official standards of kanji. Shimomura (1989) analysed the char-acters used in Kukai’s Shoji-Jisso-gi (The Meaning of Sound, Word, and Reality), a textwritten in the ninth century. Shimomura found that 92.8% of all the varieties of charactersin the text fell within the first-level set of the JIS and 7.3% within the second level set,respectively. Shimomura also found that 82.1% of all the characters in Kukai’s work fellwithin the list of Chinese characters in common use and that 80.7% fell within the list ofChinese characters for daily use. These are important findings as they show the adequacy

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levels of the current standards with respect to an ancient text that was written entirely inChinese characters.

Aizawa and Ogura (2007) did a similar study on contemporary writing by analysing theproportion of Joyo and non-Joyo kanji used in magazines. This study is based on the data ofan earlier study, the Linguistic Survey of Contemporary magazines conducted in 1994,which examined the patterns of kanji use in 70 contemporary magazines. Aizawa andOgura analysed the usage frequency of Joyo and non-Joyo kanji observed in the 2000most frequent kanji identified in the previous study. They found that Joyo kanji mostly ful-filled their function as the standard of kanji use in 1994, as only 1.9% of the kanji found inthe most frequently occurring 2000 kanji were non-Joyo kanji. This is a useful study thatagain sheds light on the adequacy of the Joyo List in relation to the magazines studied.

Miyajima (1989) is a longitudinal study that aimed to determine the proportion of Joyocharacters as well as the proportion of general kanji used in selected texts between 1906 and1976. This was done by examining samples taken from the monthly magazine, ChuoKoron, at 10-year intervals. The findings revealed that the proportion of non-Joyo kanjisteadily decreased over the years examined, from 25.5% in 1906 to 14.4% in 1976. Thestudy also found that general kanji proportions in the texts declined up to 1956 and slightlyincreased from then onwards.

Studies that focused on proportions of general kanji

Some of the textual surveys conducted to determine kanji proportions in texts focused onlyon general kanji proportions. Of these, not all were longitudinal studies. Nomura (1980)examined the proportions of kanji used in 27 general magazines published in 1979.He divided the magazines into six categories based on subject matter and examined 100sentences per magazine. He found that magazines within the same category had a similarproportion of kanji. Magazines in the area of politics and economics had the highestproportion of kanji while women’s and men’s magazines had the lowest proportions ofkanji.

Although short-term studies reveal the proportions of kanji used in texts, they do notreveal the changes in the proportions of kanji used over time as they are conducted on ashort term basis. Longitudinal studies are valuable in this respect as they shed light ontrends in kanji use that take place in different periods of time. Yasumoto (1963) is a longi-tudinal study that examined the use of kanji in novels published between 1900 and 1954.This was done by examining 1000 characters each from a total of 100 novels written bydifferent authors. The study found that the proportion of kanji used in the novels progress-ively declined during the period studied. Miyajima (1988) is also a longitudinal study thataimed to determine the change in kanji proportions between 1935 and 1985. In order to dothis, Miyajima used a sample of 1000 characters from 100 novels written between 1935 and1985. The findings revealed that the proportion of kanji used in the novels declined between1936 and 1960. However, Miyajima notes that kanji use did not decline after this point.Tomoda (2005) examined the use of kanji in white papers between 1960 and 1997. Thiswas done by selecting four white papers written about labour and examining the sectionwritten about the living conditions of workers in each white paper. It was found that theproportion of kanji increased between 1960 and 1997, but that the increase was relativelysmall. Tomoda noted that this trend was in accordance with the Chuo Koron study thatpointed to an increase in kanji use after the 1950s. Tomoda conducted a chi-square testof independence and found that there was a significant increase in the use of kanji acrossthe four samples.

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The longitudinal studies discussed above provide useful information about trends inkanji use observed in the past. These studies, however, are few in number. Also, thestudies cover different periods of time and therefore cannot be used together to drawvalid conclusions about trends in kanji use over a continuous period of time. In addition,apart from Tomoda (2005), these previous studies examined kanji use only up to theearly 1980s. As such, they do not provide any information about trends in kanji use inthe information and communication technology era. Therefore, studies conducted on thesame text type that cover the information and communication technology era and beforeare necessary to determine changes in kanji proportions that have occurred due tomodern technological innovation.

About this study

Purpose of the study

The purpose of the current study is two-fold. First, the study aims to find out whether theuse of kanji in newspaper samples exceeded the limits specified in the Joyo List at any time.Secondly, the study aims to compare the proportion of kanji used during the informationand communication technology era with that in the period before, to find out whichperiod used a higher proportion of kanji. In order to accomplish the above purpose, thestudy examined a series of newspaper samples extracted from various issues of the samenewspaper from the 1940s to the 2000s. Newspapers were used in the study for anumber of reasons.

Newspapers are an excellent medium for the longitudinal comparison of texts. This isbecause texts written over a long period of time are available in newspapers. This allows theexamination and comparison of text samples across different periods of time. Also, textswritten on the same topic are available for study in newspapers over many years. This isvery important for longitudinal studies. Controlling the topic or subject matter of texts isparticularly important when comparing kanji use across different periods of time,because the topic can affect the proportion of kanji used in a text. In addition, newspapersare a good medium to test the changes in kanji use that are supposed to have taken placeduring the 1980s and after due to the use of information and communication technology.This is because newspapers began to use word-processor technology instead of movabletype in printing in the 1990s (Tanaka cited in Gottlieb, 2000, p. 57), thus removing theneed to manage with a limited set of kanji (Gottlieb, 2000, p. 119).

Hypotheses

The following two hypotheses were tested in the study:

H1: The proportion of non-Joyo kanji used during and after the 1980s will be higher than thatused before.

H2: The proportion of general kanji used during and after the 1980s will also be higher than thatused before.

Method

The study is based on news texts extracted from the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.The newspapers selected for the study covered an extended period of time from the1940s to the 2000s. The topic of the texts was controlled by selecting only news texts

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written about the single topic of the Japanese script reform. This topic was chosen as it wasassumed that a considerable number of news texts written about the script reform would beavailable as it has been a popular topic in newspapers over the years.

First, news texts written about the script reform were identified by searching the AsahiShimbun pre-war and post-war newspaper databases. A news text was selected every fifthyear depending on the availability. When the interval was greater than five years, a text wasalso selected from the year that fell at mid-point of the interval. When more than one newstext appeared in a year, the very first news text written in that year was extracted. This wasdone to limit the data to a manageable proportion while not losing information aboutchanges in script usage that would have occurred from year to year. A total of 16 newstexts were selected using the above selection method.

Next, a random sample of 30% of the lines was chosen from each selected text, with aminimum of 10 lines chosen from shorter texts. Although examining the entire text wouldhave been the ideal strategy, it was not practical when considering the number and thelength of news texts investigated. Random sampling of lines was preferred to extractinglines from a continuous chunk of the text, because when random sampling is used, eachline has an equal chance of inclusion in the sample. This was considered to be importantas the number of kanji could be influenced by the organisation of the text. For example,a higher number of kanji could occur in the introduction of the text than in the body orconclusion of the text.

Kanji, kana, and other types of script in the selected lines were extracted from eachsample. Punctuation marks and other symbols were not extracted. The different types ofscript were counted separately for each sample.

Results

The purpose of this study was to compare proportions of kanji use across two periods oftime – from the 1940s to the 1970s and from the 1980s to the 2000s. The former willbe referred to hereafter as Period 1 and the latter as Period 2. Data obtained for the twoperiods were compared in terms of the following: proportions of script usage; proportionsof Joyo kanji versus non-Joyo kanji usage; and proportions of general kanji usage.

Proportions of script usage

The total number of kanji, kana and other script types extracted from each sample was notuniform across the samples. Proportions were therefore calculated for each script type foreach sample and expressed as percentages. Table 1 displays a summary of this information.

The data show that in Period 1, the average kana proportion is higher than kanji and thedifference is approximately 13.12%. In Period 2, the gap closes and the average kanjiproportion is slightly higher than kana. The data also show that the average kanji proportionin Period 2 is higher than that in Period 1. However, before any conclusions can be drawn, it

Table 1. Proportions of script usage.

Script type Period 1 (%) Period 2 (%)

Kanji 43.27 49.98Kana 56.39 49.60Other 0.34 0.42

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is necessary to find out whether the difference observed between the two periods did notoccur by chance alone. In order to accomplish this, a chi-square test was performed tofind out whether the difference is statistically significant. The results (x2 ¼ 33.292, df ¼1, p ¼ 0.000) of the chi-square test showed that there is a significant difference betweenthe two periods.

Proportions of Joyo and non-Joyo kanji usage

Kanji use was first compared in terms of the average proportions of Joyo kanji versus non-Joyo kanji used in the two periods. In order to do this, proportions were calculated for Joyokanji and non-Joyo kanji for each sample and expressed as percentages. Table 2 displays asummary of this information.

The data in Table 2 show that the proportion of Joyo kanji in Period 1 is slightly lowerthan that in Period 2. The data also show that in Period 2, the proportion of non-Joyo kanji iscorrespondingly lower than that in Period 1. A chi-square test was performed to find outwhether the difference is significant. The results (x2¼ 0.143, df ¼ 1, p ¼ 0.706) of thechi-square test showed that there is no significant difference between the two periods.

Proportions of general kanji usage

Kanji use was next compared in terms of the average kanji proportions used in the twoperiods. This was done by first averaging kanji proportions for the different years withineach decade for ease of comparison. Figure 1 shows the average kanji proportion foreach decade, spanning from the 1940s to the 2000s.

As shown in Figure 1, the highest proportion of kanji use observed during Period 1 is53.15% in the 1940s, and the lowest proportion observed is 34.13% in the 1950s. Thehighest proportion of kanji use observed during Period 2 is 60.15% in the 1980s and thelowest proportion observed is 42.3% in the 1990s. While the highest proportion observed

Table 2. Proportions of Joyo and non-Joyo kanji usage.

Kanji type Period 1 (%) Period 2 (%)

Joyo kanji 99.23 99.61Non-Joyo kanji 0.77 0.39

Figure 1. Proportions of general kanji usage.

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in Period 2 is higher than the highest proportion observed in Period 1, the lowest proportionobserved in Period 2 is also higher than the lowest proportion observed in Period 1. However,the results also show that there is a general decline in kanji use in Period 2. After the dramaticincrease in kanji use observed in the 1980s, kanji use drops and remains fairly stable till theend of the period. This trend appears to begin in the 1960s.

Summary of results

The first hypothesis tested in the study was that the proportion of general kanji will behigher in Period 2. This hypothesis proved to be correct. The second hypothesis tested inthe study was that the proportion of non-Joyo kanji will also be higher in Period 2. Thishypothesis did not prove to be correct.

Discussion

Data obtained from the study showed a mix of expected and unexpected results. Apart fromthe fact that one of the two hypotheses proved to be incorrect, there were other findings thatcame as a surprise.

Use of non-Joyo kanji

Data obtained from the study revealed that the proportion of non-Joyo kanji was minimalfor both periods. In addition, the occurrence of non-Joyo kanji was mainly due to personalnames for both periods, and often to express part of a name. This meant that writers resortedto kanji outside the Joyo List for a very specific purpose. This was an unexpected result. Itwas also an important finding, especially because it showed that non-Joyo kanji did notincrease when general kanji increased. For example, the news text samples in the 1940swere written at a time before any official limits had been imposed on the use of kanji.General kanji use was 53.15% at this time. However, the occurrence of non-Joyo kanjiwas comparatively low. Similarly, the samples in the 1960s and the 1970s were writtenat a time when there was a renewed interest in the use of kanji. General kanji use was45.73% in the 1960s and 43.37% in the 1970s. Again, the occurrence of non-Joyo kanjiwas very low. Finally, the samples in the 1980s were written at a time when the limitationsplaced on the use of kanji were relaxed, and people were being exposed to JIS charactersthrough wide-spread use of the word-processor. General kanji use was 60.15% at this time.However, the use of non-Joyo kanji was again very low.

The data also revealed that although the use of non-Joyo kanji was very low in bothperiods, the use was lower in Period 2 than in Period 1. This was also an unexpectedresult, as the expectation was that non-Joyo kanji use would be higher in Period 2 due topeople being exposed to JIS characters during this time, and due to the liberal nature ofthe Joyo List. This was also the time when word-processor technology came to be usedin printing newspapers, reducing the difficulty of printing complex or unfamiliar kanji.

The findings about Joyo and non-Joyo kanji were partially supported by past research.Miyajima (1989) found that the proportion of non-Joyo kanji was high between 14% and25% in the magazine publications that he examined from 1906 to 1976. The data alsoshowed that therewas a gradual decrease in non-Joyo kanji in the period observed. In contrast,the proportions of non-Joyo kanji in the present studyweremarginal. Also the use of non-Joyokanji remained fairly stable throughout the observed periods. Similar to the present study,Aizawa and Ogura (2007) also found a fairly low proportion of non-Joyo kanji in the 1994

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magazine publications they examined. Only 1.9% of the kanji found in the most frequentlyoccurring 2,000 kanji extracted from the magazines were non-Joyo kanji. Data obtainedfrom the 1990s samples in the present study show similar results - the proportion of non-Joyo kanji observed for this decade is very low. The average proportion of non-Joyo kanjiobserved is 0.39% which is even lower than that observed by Aizawa and Ogura.

Given the low and stable use of non-Joyo kanji observed in both Periods 1 and 2, it canbe said that the Joyo List was an adequate standard for the news texts examined in the study.It can also be said that the Joyo List is based on sound principles as it reflected the contem-porary use of kanji in relation to the periods that were investigated. It should be noted,however, that these findings are limited to news texts written on the topic of scriptreform and cannot be applied to all news texts in general.

Use of general kanji

Data obtained from the study revealed that average kanji proportions were high in the 1980swhen compared with the previous decades. However, this was only partially supported bypast research. While Tomoda (2005) observed an increase in kanji use in the 1986 WhitePaper when compared with the 1976 White Paper, Miyajima (1988) did not observe anincrease in kanji use in the 1980s when compared with the 1970s.

As different studies that examined kanji use in the 1980s produced conflicting results,data obtained from news text samples from the 1980s to the 2000s were subject to furtheranalysis. This was necessary to ensure that the high kanji proportion in the 1980s sampleswas not due to a high number of numerals or personal and place names, as these are gen-erally written in kanji. The further analysis was done by removing all numerical kanji andkanji for personal and place names from the samples and counting the remaining kanji. Thedata obtained from this count showed that the average proportions observed earlier droppedfor all three decades – from 60.15% to 54.09% in the 1980s, from 42.3% to 41.28% in the1990s and from 45% to 41.2% in the 2000s. However, the proportion observed in the 1980swas still considerably higher than that in the following decades.

In spite of the high kanji use observed in the 1980s in the present study, a stable trend inkanji use was observed in the latter part of Period 2. This is because kanji use declined con-siderably in the 1990s and remained stable till the end of the period. This was an unexpectedresult as the expectation was that kanji use would increase in the 1980s and remain so, orincrease further in the following decades. It can be said that the stable trend that wasobserved after the 1980s actually began in the 1960s and continued till the 2000s, if notfor the notable increase observed in the 1980s. A stable trend in kanji use was also observedfrom the 1960s onwards in other longitudinal studies (Miyajima, 1988, 1989; Tomoda,2005). However, only Tomoda observed kanji use up to 1997. Miyajima (1989) examinedkanji use only up to 1976, and Miyajima (1988) only up to 1985.

Summary of discussion

The present study revealed that the use of non-Joyo kanji was low and stable throughout theperiod that was investigated – from the 1940s to the 2000s. This means that when the use ofkanji increased, it increased only within the Joyo List, except on very rare occasions. Thesewere also surprising findings as the expectation was that the use of non-Joyo kanji wouldalso increase from the 1980s onwards.

The study also revealed that the average proportion of general kanji was higher inPeriod 2 than in Period 1. However, the proportion of kanji observed at the end of

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Period 2 was lower than the proportion observed at the beginning of that period. In fact,apart from the dramatic increase observed in the 1980s, kanji use was fairly stable fromthe 1960s to the 2000s. This was a surprising finding as the expectation was that kanjiuse would increase in the 1980s and would remain so, or increase further in the followingdecades.

The findings of the present study are based on newspaper samples written about thetopic of script reform. Therefore, further longitudinal research needs to be done on differenttopics in different media in order to determine changes in kanji proportions that have takenplace over the years.

Conclusion

The present study and the past research indicate that the Joyo List is adequate for currentusage. Both the present study and Aizawa and Ogura (2007) found that non-conformancewith the Joyo List was minimal. In the present study, the occasional occurrence of non-Joyocharacters turned out to be those that were required to write personal names. In addition,non-Joyo characters remained low and fairly stable from the 1940s to the 2000s. The longi-tudinal study of Miyajima (1989) revealed that the proportion of non-Joyo kanji steadilydecreased over the years, from 1906 to 1976. The studies were based on newspapers andmagazines, respectively. The present study and past research show that the proportion ofkanji in general has also been declining. The present study showed a gradual decline inkanji over the years, apart from the increase observed in 1980. This was supported byother longitudinal research discussed in the study.

The textual surveys on which the latest policy revision is based found only 220instances of non-conformance with the Joyo List out of approximately 4000 most frequentcharacters identified from over a billion characters. Further, while the survey covered acombination of text types, the draft new Joyo List does not state in which text type(s)the non-conformances mostly occurred. If these were confined to one or two text types,adding more characters to the list to generally apply across all text types would be over-shooting the mark. In addition, the textual surveys were not carried out over a longperiod of time. Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether the proportion of non-Joyo kanji that was observed was a chance occurrence or a part of an increasing ordecreasing trend. Without this type of information, it is not possible to estimate thegravity of the situation in relation to non-Joyo kanji. Therefore, longitudinal studies needto be carried out before more characters are added to the list.

In the absence of adequate longitudinal research, it is not possible to confirm that infor-mation and communication technology has had a significant impact on the proportions ofkanji used in texts. In this context of uncertainty, expanding the Joyo List will only placeadditional pressure on school children and other learners of the language. This is especiallyso, because not everybody is able to attain mastery of the 1945 kanji on the current Joyo List(Gottlieb, 2008, p. 41). Expanding the Joyo List will also have further adverse effects on therates of functional literacy in Japanese society. In order to meet the demands of the infor-mation society which is largely print-based, and to be on par with other developed nations,Japan needs to aim for a higher rate of functional literacy than what is observed at present.The introduction of the Joyo List in 1981 with its recommendations to liberalise the use ofkanji did not take into account this national need. Neustupny (1983, p. 30) perceived theintroduction of the Joyo List as a measure that ‘did not mean anything beyond the acknowl-edgement of present-day middle-class usage’. Adding more characters to the Joyo List cantherefore be considered as a step taken further in the same direction. As Japan enters what

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Neustupny (1984, 120–122) describes as the stage of ‘contemporary literacy’ in his devel-opmental typology of literacy, it will no longer be possible to disregard the literacy issues ofthe Japanese society. Expanding the Joyo List cannot be seen as an appropriate measure as itdoes not appear to reflect actual need and will add to the literacy issues of Japan.

Notes1. The Joyo Kanji List is the current guide for kanji use in all public, non-specialist writing.2. The Japanese writing system uses a variety of scripts: Chinese characters called kanji, two forms

of a syllabary called Hiragana and Katakana, letters of the Roman alphabet called Romaji, andArabic numerals. Kanji are generally used to write morphemes that convey meaning; Hiraganato write syntactic elements; Katakana to write foreign loanwords, onomatopoeic words and col-loquialisms. Romaji are used for European words and Japanese acronyms (Hannas, 1997, p. 38;Taylor & Taylor, 1995, p. 374).

Notes on contributorDilhara Darshana Premaratne (Bachelor of Asian Studies, Hons, ANU) is currently doing his PhD incombined Japanese and Chinese Linguistics at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. His PhDresearch is in the area of script reform in Japan and China. His research interests are languagechange, language planning and script reform, and contrastive rhetoric.

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