This book analyses how this linguistic diversity, and indeed recognition of this phenomenon, presents a wide range of sociolinguistic challenges and opportunities in fundamental institutions such as schools, in cultural patterns and in social behaviours and attitudes. This topic is an important one as Japan fights to re-establish itself in the new world order and will be of interest to all those who are concerned language change, language versus dialect, the effect of modern technology on language usage, and the way national and social problems are always reflected through the prism of language.
Patrick Heinrich is Professor at Dokkyo University, Japan.
Christian Galan is Professor at the University of Toulouse-le Mirail/Center of Japanese Studies (INALCO, Paris), France.