ABSTRACT
We have seen in the foregoing chapters that word processing technology has played a significant role in both the construction of the information era and its associated affective concerns within Japan itself. What have been the consequences for Japan's interface with the rest of the world? Despite the push for Japanese to become an international language like English or French, the writing system is often seen as a barrier to achieving this goal. While word processing technology has enabled Japanese-language computing, there has still been difficulty with international standards of various kinds and a relatively late takeup of the Internet. What implications does the electronic handling of characters have for the transmission of data between countries and for Japan's international presence on the Internet? Is it true, as has been argued by advocates of romanisation, that the continued use of characters in the computer age, and in particular on the Net, acts to reinforce a barrier between Japan and the rest of the world? This chapter will examine first some of the views on practical difficulties with international standards and then the argument that the continued use of characters on the Internet constitutes a kind of language nationalism.
