From Yasashii Nihongo in non-disaster times towards a plurilingual language education approach: an outlook from the perspective of “reasonable accommodation”

Abstract

In order to address labor shortages, starting April 2019 the Japanese government introduced two new visa categories, and it can be expected that the growing number of foreign residents living and working in Japan will be increasing further in the foreseeable future. Within this context, the notion of Yasashii Nihongo or Simplified Japanese has been gaining attention over recent years. Originally designed as a tool for transmitting information in disaster-related situations and proposed for disaster mitigation purposes, at present it is being advocated as a means of communication to be used in non-disaster situations as well. The authors argue that ultimately Yasashii Nihongo for non-disaster situations may be just a means to an end. Seen from the perspective of “reasonable accommodation”, a concept prevalent in the domain of disability studies, they assert that by de facto creating a new linguistic category making it a tacit prerequisite to communicate in “Japanese only”, Yasashii Nihongo is but a concept geared towards the language majority (speakers using Japanese as their first language) and is potentially serving no other purpose than to alleviate the psychological burden of having to speak in a language other than Japanese, thus potentially leading to a new form of discrimination towards language minorities. Offering an alternative approach for improving multicultural communication aimed at establishing a communicative space based on openness, equality, and mutual respect for each other’s cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities, the authors propose the introduction of language education based on the notion of plurilingualism, as outlined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) by the Council of Europe.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on public engagement approaches to disaster preparedness for foreign residents: case of Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan

“…These groups offer consultation services to foreign residents, promote and teach easy Japanese language (“Yasashii Nihongo”) and promote community cohesion through volunteering activities between foreign residents and Japanese nationals within local communities in conjunction with other agencies (Tsunagari, 2021). These activities are all essential to disaster preparedness for foreign residents in Japan (Ito and Tokarev, 2021). A literature review from secondary data sources was used to build a general overview of activities of the organizations before the COVID-19 pandemic but a few of the organizations were sampled for interviews to extract specific changes in activities.…”

“…"Yasashii Nihongo" or plain Japanese is one major learning IJDRBE 13,3 approach adopted by TMG and is enhanced by international association as means of engaging foreign residents to able to read or understand basic Japanese associated with safety, disaster prevention, integration and mutual assistance. Thus, this concept uses simplified Japanese to explain, guide and implement disaster management activities (Ito and Tokarev, 2021). Before the COVID-19 pandemic, all these activities were conducted at the premises of the associations, city halls and local community centers, except for consultation services that could either be conducted in person or via email or telephone.…”