Japan's Modern Myth

by Roy Andrew Miller

Japan's Modern Myth

Genres: Japan, Japanese Literature

312 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Roy Andrew Miller was an American linguist best known as the author of several books on Japanese language and linguistics, and for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the proposed Altaic language family.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

JAPAN'S MODERN MYTH is Roy Andrew Miller's passionate expose of Japanese sociolinguistics, the relationship between language and society in Japan. He mainly makes two points. The first is that the modern myth of Japan, the common belief that the Japanese are utterly different from every other people on earth in a number of pseudoscientific ways, also has ramifications for how the Japanese think of their language. Miller cites a number of popular authors whose bestselling books claim Japanese to be unique, either more capable or less capable of nuance than other languages, impossible to fully master, etc. Furthermore, some of these beliefs are recent; Miller makes a strong case that the belief that Japanese culture prefers contemplative silence isn't all that old, and silence is in fact hard to find in Japan.

The second point is that the particular relationship that the Japanese perceive between race and language tends to exclude foreigners -- as well as those of non-Japanese heritage born in Japan such as the nation's substantial Korean population. If you've heard stories from foreigners resident in Japan that the more their language skills improve, the more they are shunned by local society, then this book will place that trend in context and explain why it is so disturbing for foreigners to gain proficiency in "their" language.

This is a very interesting book that explains many of the rumours I've heard of Japanese pedagogy and the way foreigners are treated, but it is rather flawed. Miller's style is repetitive, never making a point in one paragraph when three will do. Also, his view of Japan is rather too uniformly grim. If the Japanese were as exclusive as he points out, then he and other scholars would have never learnt the language as well as they have. Miller could have explained from which sectors of Japanese society such assistance in language learning came from, as well as how these helpful people are judged by other Japanese. Finally, this book was published 30 years ago and the reader wonders what things have changed in the Japanese view of foreigners and in the teaching of Japanese. A second edition would be welcome.