While some people think of Japan as “ethnically homogenous,” the truth is the country has a substantial non-Japanese population. With Japan facing a massive labor shortage, the number of foreign residents continues to grow and is only likely to keep rising.
The tragedy wrought by Typhoon Hagibis raised a critical question: How does Japan best communicate information to these residents during emergencies? A new crop of data suggests that a key piece of this strategy may be found in “easy Japanese.”
Typhoon Hagibis Accelerates The Debate
Earlier this month, Japan suffered one of its worst typhoons in decades. While Typhoon 19 (台風19号), code-named Hagibis, spared Tokyo, it caused flooding and mudslides in multiple prefectures. As of this writing, 35 are confirmed dead, and 17 are missing.
News agencies took to social media to issue warnings and updates on the typhoon’s approach. Since the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, the Japanese government has upped its efforts in providing crucial information on national emergencies to foreign residents. This approach, dubbed “easy Japanese” (やさしい日本語), targets residents who aren’t fluent in Japanese but don’t speak English. With the upcoming 2020 Olympics, the dissemination of important information is one of the top priorities of the government.
On October 8, NHK News tweeted the following warning:
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NHKニュース on X (formerly Twitter): “【がいこくじん の みなさんへ】 たいふう19ごう が 12にち~13にち に にしにほん~きたにほんの ちかくに きそうです。 たいふう19ごう は おおきくて とても つよいです。 き を つけて ください。(↓よんで ください)https://t.co/47Pb7NhZu6 https://t.co/kHlFxQUAnG pic.twitter.com/tFVzDtGTMa / X”
【がいこくじん の みなさんへ】 たいふう19ごう が 12にち~13にち に にしにほん~きたにほんの ちかくに きそうです。 たいふう19ごう は おおきくて とても つよいです。 き を つけて ください。(↓よんで ください)https://t.co/47Pb7NhZu6 https://t.co/kHlFxQUAnG pic.twitter.com/tFVzDtGTMa
There’s nothing wrong with the content itself; however, the tweet is written entirely in hiragana (ひらがな), Japan’s syllabary script. An average Japanese sentence is a mixture of hiragana, kanji, and sometimes katakana. Reading a string of hiragana-only text is enough to give anybody a headache. NHK News is no stranger to やさしい日本語. Previous news tweets are written in basic sentence structures with kanji and hiragana. So why tweet only in hiragana?
A hiragana-only message can be easily understandable for absolute beginner Japanese learners, but without the kanji to provide contextual clues and distinguish homonyms, the overall meaning can be misunderstood. And when it comes to disaster warnings, you don’t want any room for misunderstandings.
Why an “English First” Approach is Misguided in Japan
In 2016 the Ministry of Justice (法務省; houmushou) conducted a survey revealing 62.6% of permanent foreign residents understood Japanese, compared to 44% who understood English. in 2018, Japan’s foreign resident population hit a record of 6.6%, largely due to Vietnamese students and trainees. That number has since gone up 3.3%, hitting 2.8 million foreign residents. Chinese and South Koreans contributed the most to that increase.
English-speaking foreign residents barely hit the top 5 largest communities in Japan. English may be the third most spoken language worldwide, but it’s false to assume English-speaking residents are the majority in Japan.
NHKニュースが外国人向けに台風情報を「ひらがな」で発信!? 実はこれ「やさしい日本語」という試みなんです
2019年10月10日現在、日本列島に接近中の台風19号。NHKニュースの公式ツイッターが外国人向けに発信した台風関連のつぶやきが、今注目を集めています。 つぶやきはすべ …
There really is no easy solution to this issue. Transmitting important information in multiple languages takes time, yet sticking to English overlooks the majority who don’t speak it. Equipping disaster support centers with enough resources to help foreigners is another option to consider. Easy Japanese seems the right way to go overall, but standards need to be established on exactly how “easy” those messages should be.