Local Government Websites in Japan: International, Multicultural, Multilingual?

Abstract

Today, electronic government is being pursued at both national level (denshi seifu) and local level (denshi jichitai) in Japan. It is therefore useful to examine how local administrations communicate with the public in the Internet age. This paper examines foreign-language provision on local government websites, concentrating on the 47 prefectures. An overview is supplemented by more detailed discussion of several selected websites, looking at aspects such as the languages available, content, target audiences, translation and efforts to make Japanese-language information more accessible to non-native speakers. Local governments increasingly have to take into account the linguistic needs of the growing numbers of foreign residents in their communities. Making provision for foreign residents is, however, not the only reason for local governments to use languages other than Japanese on their websites. Examining these websites in terms of which languages are used and the type of material presented offers insights into broader issues of internationalisation, multiculturalism and globalisation as experienced and managed at local level.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper, and to Ian Astley, John Ertl, Nelson Graburn and Roger Goodman for providing me with key materials for its revision.

Notes

¹Jain, ‘The Catch-up State’, 238.

²Ibid.

³Takano, ‘Building e-Government’, 3–5; http://www.e-gov.go.jp/ (accessed 27 April 2010).

⁴Jain, ‘The Catch-up State’, 239.

⁵Ibid., 237.

⁶Takao, ‘Democratic Renewal’, 252. Given the promotion of e-government and the enormous expansion in Internet use in the intervening years, the rates of access to both central and local government websites have undoubtedly risen greatly, and the relative proportions may also have changed somewhat. Unfortunately, more recent figures were not readily available at the time of writing.

⁷Correct rubbish disposal seems to be a high priority for local authorities: Atsuko Abe's 2006 survey of municipalities found that 401 produced information in languages other than Japanese on garbage collection, while only 176 said they had some kind of multilingual service for other information. Abe notes, however, that this may be partly because garbage collection rules vary locally (at municipal level), whereas health care and education policy are under prefectural jurisdiction and relevant information is therefore produced at the higher administrative level; Abe, ‘Japanese Local Governments’, 2. Rubbish disposal is also a concern for local residents, as highlighted in Gifu's multicultural coexistence policy promotion guidelines; Gifu Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture Multicultural Co-Existence Policy, 17.

⁸Mogami, ‘Kotoba no gyōkaku’. See Carroll, ‘Local Government in the 1970s and 1980s’, and Language Planning, 121–124, for discussion of these reforms.

⁹Ehime-ken, Kotoba no tebiki, 1–2.

¹⁰Gottlieb, ‘Language on the Internet’, 70.

¹¹Tegtmeyer Pak, ‘Towards Local Citizenship’, 3.

¹²Ertl, ‘Internationalization and Localization’, 86–87.

¹³Tegtmeyer Pak, ‘Towards Local Citizenship’, 8.

¹⁴Abe, ‘Japanese Local Governments’, 1.

¹⁵ http://jid.jin.or.jp/?mode=category&path=15/06/ (accessed 5 May 2010).

¹⁶See, for example, Maher and Macdonald, Diversity in Japanese Culture; Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan; Maher and Yashiro, Multilingual Japan; Lie, Multiethnic Japan; Gottlieb, Language and Society; Graburn, Ertl and Tierney, Multiculturalism in the New Japan; Chung, Immigration and Citizenship.

¹⁷See Lie, Multiethnic Japan, 6–26 on postwar foreign worker migration.

¹⁸National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, ‘Population Statistics of Japan’.

¹⁹Lam, ‘Internationalization and Immigration’, 4–5.

²⁰Ertl, ‘Internationalization and Localization’, 84; Graburn and Ertl, ‘Introduction’, 6–8.

²¹Morris-Suzuki, Re-Inventing Japan, 194. See also Kashiwazaki, ‘Local Government’, 64.

²²Abe prefers Keizo Yamazaki's translation of the term as ‘multicultural community building’, and also notes that the Japanese term is criticised for its vagueness, and overuse; Abe, Japanese Local Governments, 3, 7. Although Yamazaki's translation accurately emphasises that these policies involve processes rather than a state, it has not been widely taken up, so this paper uses the more generally accepted ‘multicultural coexistence’.

²³Prompted by a call in 2004 from the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, to scrap multiculturalism in the UK, the BBC website provided several definitions from a range of thinkers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3600791.stm (accessed 21 August 2010).

²⁴Burgess, ‘Multicultural Japan?’.

²⁵Graburn and Ertl, ‘Introduction’, 8–9.

²⁶Takezawa, ‘The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake’, 32–33.

²⁷Graburn and Ertl, ‘Introduction', 3.

²⁸Tegtmeyer Pak, ‘Foreigners Are Local Citizens Too’, 244, cited in Burgess, ‘Multicultural Japan?’, 6. See also Chung, Immigration and Citizenship, 154–159.

²⁹Kashiwazaki, ‘Local Government and Resident Foreigners’.

³⁰Nagy, ‘Local Government and Multicultural Coexistence Practices’.

³¹Although the URL cited in Nagy's article was not functioning at the time of writing, an alternative one was available: http://www.city.shinjuku.lg.jp/foreign/english/video/video.html (accessed 8 May 2010).

³²Chung, Immigration and Citizenship, 169–170.

³³Tegtmeyer Pak, ‘Towards Local Citizenship’, 9.

³⁴Chung, Immigration and Citizenship, 3–4.

³⁵Nagy, ‘Local Government and Multicultural Coexistence Practices’, 165.

³⁶Abe, 3; Sōmushō, Tabunka kyōsei, 2007, 2.

³⁷Sōmushō, Tabunka kyōsei, 5.

³⁸Graburn and Ertl, ‘Introduction’, 3.

³⁹Sōmushō, Tabunka kyōsei, and Tabunka kyōsei, 2007.

⁴⁰See Chung, Immigration and Citizenship, on the role of the Korean community in gaining rights and recognition for foreign residents.

⁴¹Analysts have adopted a rough division of foreign residents into two categories: ‘oldcomers’, mainly Chinese and Korean, who have lived in Japan since before 1952 and their descendants, and ‘newcomers’, foreigners who have come to Japan since the 1980s; see Kashiwazaki and Akaha, ‘Japanese Immigration Policy’.

⁴²Maher, ‘The Kakyo’; Kashiwazaki and Akaha, ‘Japanese Immigration Policy’.

⁴³See Goto, ‘Latin Americans’, on the background of migration between Japan and Brazil.

⁴⁴Lam, ‘Internationalization and Immigration’, 15.

⁴⁵The category ‘Chinese’ combines information given in simplified and traditional characters; some websites give both, others just simplified characters, but none gave only traditional characters. See Table.

⁴⁶Gottlieb, ‘Language on the Internet’.

⁴⁷Baba and Fukuda, ‘Gaikokujin shien kara mita’, 11.

⁴⁸Ibid.

⁴⁹ http://www2.aia.pref.aichi.jp/sodan/e/benricho/emokuji.html (accessed 21 August 2010).

⁵⁰ http://www2.aia.pref.aichi.jp/sodan/p/benricho/pmokuji.html (accessed 21 August 2010).

⁵¹ http://www.clair.or.jp/tagengorev/en/index.html (accessed 10 May 2010).

⁵²See, for example, Burgess, ‘(Re)Constructing Identities’, and Faier, Intimate Encounters.

⁵³Shikama, ‘Integration Policy’, 56.

⁵⁴ http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japan-to-accept-1000-indonesian-nurses-caregivers-over-next-2-years (accessed 10 May 2010).

⁵⁵ http://www.pref.nagano.jp/gaikokugo/index.htm (accessed 6 May 2010).

⁵⁶Backhaus, ‘Signs of Multilingualism’.

⁵⁷Gottlieb, ‘Language on the Internet’, 70.

⁵⁸Nagy, ‘Local Government and Multicultural Coexistence Practices’.

⁵⁹Gottlieb, ‘Language on the Internet’, 70.

⁶⁰Kashiwazaki, ‘Local Government and Resident Foreigners’.

⁶¹Backhaus, ‘Signs of Multilingualism’, and this issue.

⁶²Gottlieb, Language and Society, 136.

⁶³Jain, ‘The Catch-up State’, 248.

⁶⁴Ertl, ‘Internationalization and Localization’, 139–140; Kashiwazaki, ‘Local Government and Resident Foreigners’.

⁶⁵Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan, 177.

⁶⁶Ertl, ‘Internationalization and Localization’, 87.

⁶⁷Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan, 177.

⁶⁸ http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/kz/skk/russia/russia/index (accessed 23 August 2010).

⁶⁹Kashiwazaki and Akaha, ‘Japanese Immigration Policy’.

⁷⁰ http://www.pref.tottori.lg.jp/dd.aspx?menuid=47304 (accessed 6 May 2010).

⁷¹Graddol, English Next.

⁷² http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm (accessed 10 May 2010). Estimating the extent to which particular languages are used on the Internet is extremely difficult, so these figures should be used with caution; see Gerrand, ‘Estimating Linguistic Diversity’, and Graddol, English Next, 44–45.

⁷³Tegtmeyer Pak, ‘Towards Local Citizenship’, 7–8, discusses the establishment of ‘International Offices’ to develop incorporation programs and how their precise location within one or another generalist department indicates the respect they enjoy in the bureaucracy.

⁷⁴See, for example, http://www.omniglot.com/language/names.htm (accessed 18 August 2010).

⁷⁵Gottlieb, ‘Language on the Internet’, 70.

⁷⁶ http://www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/ (accessed 21 August 2010).

⁷⁷Sōmushō, Tabunka kyōsei 2007.

⁷⁸ http://www.gic.or.jp/english/e-useful1.html (accessed 21 August 2010). See also Gifu Prefecture, Gifu Prefecture Multicultural Co-Existence Policy, 17.

⁷⁹Baba and Fukuda, ‘Gaikokujin shien kara mita’, 12.

⁸⁰Goto, ‘Latin Americans’, 25, points out, for example, that ‘while a party with Samba music at midnight might be common in Brazil, such behavior often results in serious conflict with Japanese neighbors’.

⁸¹ http://www.cirhomepage.org/; http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/aspiring/positions.html (both accessed May 2010).

⁸² http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/aspiring/countries.html/ (accessed 5 May 2010).

⁸³Kokusaika JP, ‘Tōkyō-to ku-shi-chō-son webusaito’.

⁸⁴Department for Communities, Guidance for Local Authorities, 9.

⁸⁵ http://www.pref.kumamoto.jp/foreign/ (accessed May 2010).

⁸⁶ http://www.pref.oita.jp/soshiki/10400/multilingual.html (accessed May 2010).

⁸⁷ http://www.techterms.com/definition/website (accessed 8 May 2010).

⁸⁸ http://www.techterms.com/definition/homepage (accessed 8 May 2010).

⁸⁹ http://www.pref.fukuoka.lg.jp/life/honyaku_e.html (accessed May 2010).

⁹⁰Baba and Fukuda, ‘Gaikokujin shien kara mita’.

⁹¹Kokusaika JP, ‘Tōkyō-to ku-shi-chō-son webusaito’, 5.

⁹²Ibid., 6.

⁹³Carroll, Language Planning, 153–155.

⁹⁴Gottlieb, Language and Society, 142–143.

⁹⁵Kyodo News, ‘Guide Drafted’, ‘Govt Guidelines’.

⁹⁶Baba and Fukuda, ‘Gaikokujin shien kara mita’, 11.

⁹⁷Ibid., 14.

⁹⁸Since the mid-1970s, Kanagawa has been in the forefront of reforms to simplify official language; Carroll, ‘Local Government in the 1970s and 1980s’, 122. The same can be said of its involvement in international exchange projects and foreign resident-related policies; Kashiwazaki, ‘Local Government and Resident Foreigners’.

⁹⁹ http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/menu/page/04.html (accessed August 2009); http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/osirase/kokusai/2seikatujouhou/buta_influenza.html (accessed August 2009).

¹⁰⁰Shibata, ‘Yasashii Nihongo no kokoromi’.

¹⁰¹NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, ‘How to Use Easy Japanese’.

¹⁰²Ibid.; Shibata, ‘Yasashii Nihongo no kokoromi’, 37.

¹⁰³ http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/howto.pdf (accessed April 2010).

¹⁰⁴See, for example, the US Federal guidelines at http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/bigdoc/TOC.cfm (accessed 3 May 2010), and Chapter 4, ‘Plain Language around the World’, in Michele Asprey's Plain Language for Lawyers.

¹⁰⁵ http://www.city.hamamatsu.shizuoka.jp/hamaj/index.html (accessed 21 August 2010).

¹⁰⁶Backhaus, ‘Signs of Multilingualism’, 112–115.

¹⁰⁷Ibid., 118–119.

¹⁰⁸Easton, ‘Cost in Translation’.

¹⁰⁹Department of Communities and Local Government, Guidance for Local Authorities, 11.

¹¹⁰Ibid.

¹¹¹Sōmushō, Tabunka kyōsei, 11, 14.

¹¹²Nagy, ‘Local Government and Multicultural Coexistence Practices’, 182.

¹¹³See, for example, Chung, Immigration and Citizenship.