ABSTRACT
We saw in the previous chapter that media language relating to minority groups has been regulated on a voluntary basis since the 1970s, but that public perceptions of this regulation are largely cynical, given that it is based on a desire to avoid potentially embarrassing protests rather than having any real aim of decreasing discriminatory attitudes. In this chapter, we move on to the inevitable backlash that such practices incurred in the 1990s, when discussion of ‘political correctness’ was brought to the boil by a high-profile writer. The 1990s also saw the resurfacing of discriminatory language in the public arena, on the internet. We examine, too, how dictionaries have responded in part to the changing views of certain terms, in particular those relating to Burakumin.
