Japanese Language Teachers’ Views on Native Speakers and “Easy Japanese”

In a society where bilingualism is not the norm and the national language is seen as an embodiment of the Japanese culture and people, the issues surrounding native-speakerism in Japanese language teaching (JLT) are not considered to be problems by most policymakers and academics. The historical approaches towards Japanese language shed new light on the current practices surrounding JLT for foreigners, including yasashii nihongo (YN) or "Easy Japanese". Yasashii nihongo was initially used to communicate with foreigners when the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck in 1995. This chapter examines the data collected from Japanese language teachers in 2013 on their views about Japanese native and non-native speakers, including their perception of YN, based on their teaching experience. In order to understand teachers' view of the variety of Japanese language, the survey asked about the use of dialects in their teaching practice.