ABSTRACT
This chapter has discussed how language barriers are addressed in Japan's multilingual courtrooms as part of Japan's internationalization initiatives. To examine how language diversity is addressed in criminal trials, a study of a multilingual courtroom was undertaken in Japan. In exploring language and internal internationalization of the Japanese justice system, the chapter draws on the notion of language ideologies, which are, according to Blommaert socially, culturally and historically conditioned ideas, images and perceptions about language and communication. To understand the relationships between the chosen patterns of interpreting and the various phases of trials, the analysis of courtroom discourse in the chapter draws on the notions of register and genre developed by Halliday and Martin respectively. An important question arising from the common use of summary-only interpreting is whether there is an ideology that, native speaker or not, defendants are not expected to fully understand discussions among lawyers involving technical legal concepts.
