Nanette Gottlieb has written an informative study on the present state of language policy and management in Japan. Gottlieb's analysis is set against the backdrop of two significant social developments in recent years: (1) a large-scale, immigration-induced demographic change that is currently challenging pre-established notions of national monolingualism and monoethnicity, and (2) technological advancements, particularly in the domain of electronic text production, that are having a critical impact on the way the Japanese language is written. One of the stated aims of Gottlieb's book is to explain precisely the relationship between these developments—demographic change and electronic technologies—and language policy, and assess “whether and how language policy authorities in Japan are moving to accommodate these social and cultural changes” (p. ix).
From the outset of her study, Gottlieb challenges Japan's deep-seated notion of monolingualism, providing valuable evidence of an increasingly diverse society that is now being confronted with the realities of...
