ABSTRACT
When comparing the paragraph quoted above with Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which lists “race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status,” one of the interesting findings is that the Japanese constitution does not mention language. Language is not listed as an element on which ground there shall be no discrimination. Of course, this does not imply that it is allowed in Japan to discriminate according to language. Nevertheless, the omission of language is indicative of the stance in Japanese policy after 1945 to not take up language as an issue. The fact that there is no paragraph on official language in the constitution is another index of the uncontested status of the Japanese language at the outset of postwar Japan. Indeed, one of the main linguistic ideologies of postwar Japan has been the belief in its monolinguality, which could be understood as a modernist stance, aiming to provide security through homogeneity (see Chapter 1). In recent years, the neglect of Japanese multilingualism is increasingly perceived as unjust, causing discontent. A part of this discontent with the present linguistic order is articulated by way of claiming language rights. These discourses are of particular interest to the present volume because of their comprehensive perspectives. Language rights are asserted to involve speakers of various languages, autochthonous as well as immigrant, minority as well as majority. Investigating these perspectives across different linguistic issues could provide us with transversal insights on trends in Japanese language ideologies. Paying due attention to the different linguistic situations in different parts of the world, Paulston (2003: 480) has argued to conceptualize language rights as emic rather than universal, suggesting to examine “language rights issues in spe-
cific localities around the world.” This is just what this chapter intends doing. We will investigate what kind of potential the discourses on language rights have in negotiating change in Japan and how they can be located between modernity and late modernity. By way of analyzing this emerging type of argumentation to express discontent, this chapter aims to probe a possible shift from modernity to late modernity in Japan. In order to pursue this aim, we will concentrate on overt discourses on language rights, instead of dealing with rights de facto guaranteed to users of minority languages, or with the question what language rights are implied in more general minority rights. First, we will present how the concept of language as a right was adopted and adapted to Japan. Then, we go on to discuss prospects and limitations of the language rights approach and assess the current state in terms of modernity-late modernity. We will close the chapter with an outlook on the implication of our topic to understand the changing linguistic order in Japan.
