ABSTRACT
Introduction The last chapter outlined the evidence proving that there is an Indonesian element in the Japanese population. This seems to have been relatively quite small, though the figures may have to be adjusted somewhat when we have adequate sampling of the Indonesian population. It was pointed out how other numerically small groups such as the Romans and French in England had had significant influence on the host population, and that significant influence is invariably reflected in the language. In this chapter I will summarize and evaluate the evidence for language contact between Indonesia and Japan. I will try to do this in terms that will be understandable to the general educated reader. Professional linguists and others with an advanced knowledge of linguistics are advised to read the paper of Kumar and Rose (2000) where a fuller and more rigorously statistical treatment of the procedures followed and results obtained is provided.
