PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture
Chapter 8. Promotion of Culture
5 Policies Concerning the Japanese Language, Copyright and Religious Affairs
(1) Enhancement of Policies on the Japanese Language
The national language constitutes the very basis of national
culture. If the nation is to further develop and improve its society and create
and transmit its culture, the Government is required to carry out appropriate
national language policies corresponding to the changing times. For this reason,
the Agency has been formulating and implementing national language policies on
the basis of careful and impartial deliberations by the National Language Council,
which is composed of members who are renowned experts in the national language.
One area the council has deliberated is the addition of foreign words into Japanese.
In February 1991, it submitted a report entitled "Way of Writing Japanese Words
of Foreign Origin", and recommendations from this report were put into effect
by the Cabinet Notification and Instruction in June 1991.
The Agency annually publishes a booklet entitled "Usage of the
Japanese Language" and it annually produces a video-tape entitled "Towards the
Beautiful and Rich Usage of the Japanese Language". The Agency produces these
for the purpose of disseminating policies on the national language. The National
Language Research Institute has been conducting various scientific studies related
to the Japanese language, as well as studies regarding the teaching of the Japanese
language as a second language. The Institute also provides I-?service training
for teachers of the Japanese language.