This paper examines the implications of the 'Easy Japanese' initiative in Japan from a comparative point of view. In Japan, the number of immigrants and foreign residents has recently been increasing and there are greater needs for national and municipal governments to provide information in multiple languages. The importance of the equal access to information is evident especially at times of a natural disaster or a pandemic as we learnt from the 1995 and 2011 earthquakes as well as the recent Covid-19 crisis, as information is crucial for one's health and safety. Under such a context, there have been efforts to use easy Japanese as a lingua franca to widely distribute essential information. According to a survey carried out by the National Institute of Japanese Language and Linguistics (2009), Japanese is the most common second language among permanent residents in Japan, spoken by 62.6%, followed by English spoken by 44% and Chinese spoken by 38.3%. Furthermore, according to a survey carried out by Tokyo International Communication Committee (2018), the language in which the largest number of foreign residents Japan wish to receive information is easy Japanese (76%) followed by English (68%). Based on these survey results, the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Immigration Service Agency published the Easy Japanese Guideline in August 2020. The use of simple and straightforward language supports smooth and democratic communication in multicultural societies, as it is equally understood by native and non-native speakers. From this point of view, it corresponds to the principles of multilingualism and World Englises. For this reason, the use of plain language initiatives has been promoted in other parts of the world. The European Union, for example, promotes multilingualism and cultural diversity with its twenty-four official languages. Official documents in European institutions are therefore translated into multiple languages. In such an environment, English and French are often used as base languages from which documents are translated into various other languages. In order to ensure the clarity of these working languages, the European Parliament encourages the use of 'clear language'. Comparing the 'Easy Japanese' initiative in Japan with the 'clear language' initiative in Europe, the paper discusses possible contribution of plain language initiatives to the internationalising and globalising world.
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