Kanji Politics

by Nanette Gottlieb

First Published in 1995. The nature of the Japanese script has been a matter of contention since the early Meiji period. It was not until 1902, however, that the government was convinced of the need to simplify the written language. The modernised system of kana usage and the guidelines on the use, shape and readings are thoroughly discussed in this book alongside the political nature of Japan's multiple written languages. This title has involved interviews with many of the key players in the post-war period as well as research on the vast amount of primary source material on the topic.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 1995

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lost braincells😔

F

[Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I made it through the book - the subject is really fascinating and this book is a fountain of knowledge on the topic. BUT. My goodness, the lack of commas combined with the really long sentences made it a somewhat difficult read (unless you have a lot of sleep and can really sit down and focus on it - just my personal opinion). A great book otherwise & I learned a lot.

I really liked how the author tried to explain both reformist and conservative perspectives. The idea of a written script as simply a tool to convey spoken language, versus being a tradition and culture in its own right, was a main point of contention. Whether it should be "artificially" controlled or evolve naturally was also an interesting concept. Then add in the politics surrounding the topic, from wartime nationalism to democratic arguments and everything in between... super interesting!

An updated edition to add more commas (is it just me?) - and maybe add an updated chapter on developments since 1995 - would be even better.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very informative. Gives a detailed and well cited history of the politics and arguments surrounding script reform in Japan from roughly the 1900's until this book's publish date (1995). This book is very dense and difficult to read at times. Some of this is the immense detail, and some of it is simply the typesetting. I'm normally a pretty fast reader (at least a page a minute, sometimes more). This book took me around 3 to 4 times as long to read as I thought it would.
This book also made me think about the nature of language policy, and the relative merits of convenience vs. tradition and culture. These two themes are what drove (and still drive) the controversy surrounding kanji and Japanese script. Highly recommend to anyone interested in Japanese script reform and history.