The Past, Present, and Future of Second Language Acquisition of Japanese Research

This chapter presents an overview of the acquisition of Japanese as a second language research published in Japan. The chapter begins with a historical overview of the field – from the 1960s to the 1990s – by identifying key elements found in major journals published in Japan. Then the chapter delves into the current trends of theoretical and empirical works that have emerged since the 2000s. Finally, the chapter concludes with a critical assessment of the field up to now and suggestions for future directions of Japanese-SLA research.