ABSTRACT
Chinese language media in the Chinese community is massive and the newspaper industry including web newspapers is vigorous. Large circulation newspapers include the oldest, Jiyu Shimbun, as well as Zhongwendaobao, Xinjiaoliu Shibao, Waiguoxuesheng Xinwen and Liuxusheng Xinwen. Observation of the Chinese community in Japan helps us connect multilingualism with an understanding of how language and identity is changing in Japan. In a theory termed 'metroethnicity', new hybrid ethnicities and language identities are moving beyond traditional loyalties towards a performative and dynamic mode. Observation of the Chinese community in Japan helps us connect multilingualism with an understanding of how language and identity is changing in Japan. A common language situation that exists throughout the world, generally diglossia refers to the coexistence of two varieties of the same language throughout a speech community. Indeed, the demands of ethnic loyalty and conformity to an orthodoxy of 'being something', in postmodern Japan, are now being disengaged from language identity.
