j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

1/14

English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music

ANDREW J. MOODY*

ABSTRACT: This study of the role of English within Japanese popular culture, and especially withinJapanese popular music, suggests that attitudes toward the Japanese language may be changing.Numerous scholars maintain that the Japanese conflation of race with language establishes patterns ofracial discrimination in which Japanese prefer not to use the Japanese language for inter-ethnic commu-nication. Likewise, the Japanese language is rarely treated as a language of broader communication (i.e.,global communication) by the Japanese. However, the recent development of the language entertain-ment genre of broadcast television actively challenges these stereotypes of Japanese ethnolinguisticidentity. Furthermore, language mixing within Japanese popular music, especially mixing that results incode ambiguation, attempts to redefine ethnic identity by obscuring what language is used in pop music.These phenomena are interpreted according to possible ongoing changes of Japanese ethnolinguistic

identity.

INTRODUCTION1

One of the first linguistic analyses of popular music was Peter Trudgills study of pro-

nunciation in British pop music (Trudgill, 1983). Looking at stereotypical North

American versus UK pronunciations, Trudgill concluded that popular music presented a

highly symbolic medium for the expression of identity and solidarity. While the expression

of identity might belong to a particular artist, at the same time it is usually symbolic ofattitudes and expressions which have already gained acceptance within the pop music

audience. For example, Frank Zappas song Valley Girl featuring his daughter, Moon

Unit Zappa, came to define and promote the valley girl speech patterns described by

various linguists, including Preston (2003) and Bronstein (2000). Sociolinguistic data from

popular music does not conform to the representative data that is usually gathered

through random sampling, selection of informants, and classification of speech styles.

However, the data is often highly emblematic of shifts in attitudes and even behaviors

within a speech community. The study of English lyrics within Japanese popular music

(J-Pop), then, offers to inform more about sociolinguistic and attitudinal changes under-

way within the community of J-Pop listeners than actual linguistic practice. This study willcritically examine previous research on Japanese language attitudes in order to demon-

strate that J-Pop music effectively challenges conceptions of race and language. Moreover,

an examination of the use of English within another medium the emerging genre of

language entertainment programs in broadcast television suggests that the change of

attitudes in J-Pop may be found in other modes of expression of Japanese cultural

attitudes.

* Department of English, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomas Pereira, S.J., Taipa, Macao. E-mail:[email protected]

2006 The Author. Journal compilation 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,

Malden, MA 02148, USA.

World Englishes, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 209222, 2006. 08832919

7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

2/14

JAPANESE ATTITUDES TOWARD ENGLISH

A number of scholars have examined language attitudes in Japan, primarily for the

purpose of clarifying the relationship between language and racial identity. Roy Miller

(1982) presents one of the earliest appraisals of Japanese language attitudes, arguing that the

myth of Japanese linguistic uniqueness is related to the belief that the racial and ethnic

group is also unique. Within this ethnic environment the linguistic motivation for themythologizing of language derives from, among other things, the belief that Japanese is

intrinsically more difficult than any other language. Hence, the ability to speak such a

difficult language is believed to be linked to the racial characteristics of the speakers. Laura

Miller (1986) explains that this conflation of Japanese race and language culminates in the

belief that ones phenotypic make-up is inseparably intertwined with language. In other

words, they regard the ability to speak the Japanese language as genetic (Miller, 1986: 13).

While this type of mythologizing is not uncommon among other languages and cultures,

the Japanese language mythology has come to characterize discussions of language

attitudes in Japan more than in other countries. In fact, some have claimed that Roy

Millers criticisms of the Japanese myth of uniqueness are likewise erroneously tied to thenotion that this mythology is unique to Japan, when, in fact, belief in uniqueness is

anything but unique. Nevertheless, the attitude of uniqueness, what Fishman (1970)

calls autonomy, has been used as an explanation for various language behaviors,

including a perceived lack of proficiency in English. The perceived lack of proficiency

demands an explanation of how, in spite of the nearly universal six years of English study

required of Japanese students, the Japanese rarely reach high levels of proficiency.

Hildebrandt and Giles (1983) demonstrate a psychological approach to this problem

and claim that the threat to ethnolinguistic identity posed by knowing English proficiently

is the impetus for the common strategy of learning English, but not proficiently.

More recently, some scholars have made reference to the attitude of uniqueness as anexplanation of the observed reluctance of Japanese speakers to use the Japanese language

in communication with non-native speakers of the language. For example, Hagiwara

(1990), in a ten-year longitudinal study of non-native speakers studying at Keio

University, contends that:

Japanese treat nonnatives cordially as guests, always keeping the foreigner at arms length. For

the foreign student, who may have thought that mastery of the language was the key to more

satisfying interpersonal relationships, the discovery of this non-language-related barrier to close-

ness is a huge disappointment. (Hagiwara, 1990: 161, emphasis added)

Hagiwara notes that the treatment of foreigners is as guests and non-native speak-

ers of Japanese, yet the classification of the behavior as a non-language-related barrier

suggests that a more fundamental barrier operates in inter-ethnic communication. He

continues to note that the judgment of nativeness is, in fact, related to race. He observes

that, while Japanese are often surprised to hear well-spoken Japanese pour out of the

mouth of someone who does not have a Japanese-looking face, especially if that person is

a Caucasian, at the same time Japanese seem to expect Asians to have a good command

of the language perhaps because Asian speakers Oriental [sic] features belie their

nonnative ability with the language (p. 162). Hagiwara suggests that the reluctance to

use Japanese inter-ethnically derives solely from judgments of race. Indeed, the racist

210 Andrew J. Moody

2006 The Author. Journal compilation 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

3/14

connotations of this attitudinal reluctance to use Japanese inter-ethnically have also been

discussed in Mikes (1970), Suzuki (1975), Siedensticker (1978), Brown (1990), and Ross

and Shortreed (1990).2

In addition to the relationship between language attitudes and ethnic identity, a number

of scholars have also examined the sociolinguistic implications of the massive borrowing

from English over the past few decades and the attitudes associated with foreign loan-words.3 One of the more intensive arenas for borrowing from foreign languages, perhaps

because of its reliance on persuasion with affective language, is product advertising.

Haarmann (1984) attests to the prevalence of foreign loanwords in television advertising

and argues that advertising uses ethnocultural stereotypes of languages and language

groups to promote particular features of a product. The result, however, is a degree of

language mixing that is unprecedented for a monolingual culture that does not support

code switching. Haarmann explains that advertising plays a singular role in that Japanese

television is the only mass medium in an almost monolingual country which produced

multilingual commercial texts (1986: 219, emphasis in original). While this practice may

not reflect the norms of language use within the community, Haarmann (1984, 1986)instead argues that it does promote stereotypes that keep non-Japanese cultures at a

psychological distance and allows positive stereotypes to be transferred to products. The

transfer of stereotypes may mean specific stereotypes for particular languages (i.e., French

is seen to represent high elegance and refined taste), but Takashi (1992) identifies a

more comprehensive attitude of cosmopolitanism connected to English in advertising.

With 45.1 percent of loanwords in advertising used to evoke a modern and sophisticated

image, she argues that nearly half of the words were borrowed not to meet lexical needs

but to affect the audience who desire to be regarded as members of a cosmopolitan

society (p. 141).

This overview of language attitudes in Japan allows us to draw several conclusionsabout the sociolinguistic environment in which English functions within popular culture.

First, Japanese is usually seen as the only appropriate language for intra-ethnic commu-

nication and it is frequently deemed inappropriate for inter-ethnic communication, which,

whenever possible, takes place in English. Second, borrowing from foreign languages,

although prevalent, does not lead to code switching or other forms of language mixing.

While code switching does occur within Chinese or Korean communities in Japan

(Haarmann, 1986), it is otherwise almost entirely unobserved. Finally, examination

of the use of foreign languages in popular culture can tell us little about the functions of

foreign languages within Japanese culture. However, we may discern the stereotypes

of foreign languages and cultures as well as the images of Japan which are promoted

within popular culture.

CLASSIFICATION OF TYPES OF LANGUAGE MIXING

Before proceeding to an examination of data from Japanese popular culture, it is

necessary to specify what types of data might be included within an analysis of English

in popular culture. While individual lexical items may easily be considered in the mixing of

English and Japanese (Takashi, 1990), this study instead prefers to examine longer items

which are mixed on the level of phrases or clauses. These longer portions of mixed text,

although frequently found within popular culture, are quite rare within conversational

Japanese. Haarmann (1986: 211) explains:

English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 211


7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

4/14

Whenever or wherever multilingual strategies occur in modern communication in Japan, it is an

indication of mass media language use. . . . With respect to the great majority of monolingual

Japanese, code switching phenomena are unknown in their use of colloquial Japanese.

Unlike individual lexical items, these longer portions of English text are typically less

nativized in their pronunciation or usage and they are, therefore, more easily calledEnglish. Individual lexical items are frequently borrowed into Japanese and, when

borrowed, nativized according to the structural requirements of Japaneses strict CV

structure.4 However, it is possible that an individual lexical item might be either less

nativized or less widely accepted within the monolingual Japanese speech community,

making it a nonce borrowing. Figure 1 illustrates the different kinds of language mixing

that may be examined according to a cline of nativization.

Finally, it should be pointed out that, for the purposes of this examination of English,

no difference between loanwords and wasei eigo made in Japan English will be consid-

ered, although there are significant differences in the attitudes toward these two types of

borrowings (L. Miller, 1997).

LANGUAGE ENTERTAINMENT

One aspect of Japanese popular culture under investigation here is the prevalence of

English in broadcast television. While English may have had little influence in genres like

dramas or documentaries, the development of the variety show genre has relied

strongly on the exploration of foreign cultures and customs, and discussion of differences

between languages and expression. While language-related topics are frequently on com-

mercial television, the purpose of this examination is simply to examine a few representa-

tive examples of what I call language entertainment and to consider some of the ways

that the language behavior modeled in the shows does not conform to the attitudinal

behaviors described above. Instead, it is argued that the language entertainment genre

imaginatively recreates language behaviors according to the desire for cosmopolitanism

described by Takashi (1992).

Individuallexicalitems

Loanwordsand

wasei eigo

Nonceborrowings

Codeswitching

Mostnativized

Leastnativized

Phrasesor

clauses

Language mixing

Figure 1. Types of language mixing

212 Andrew J. Moody


7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

5/14

Childrens programs

There are, on commercial Japanese television, a number of programs designed for

language instruction. For example, a survey of television programming in Table 1 lists

language programs that are designed for both adults and children. While adult language

instruction programs usually follow a routine emphasizing the study of specific structures

with little attention to entertainment, this is rarely the case with childrens programs.

Table 1. Instructional English and entertainment English programs on Japanese television

Name of program Target audience Broadcast schedule

Childrens programs (NHK)

Eigo-de Asoboa Pre-school and Twice daily

Lets Play in English kindergarten MondayFriday

Eigorianb

English [A]lien Grades 13 Twice weeklySuupaa Eigorian

Super English [A]lien Grades 46 Twice weekly

Adult programs

Bera-Bera Station/Sma Station

Fluency Station/SMAP Station Young people Saturday, 11:00 p.m.

Eigo-de Shabera Naito: Can You

Speak Englishc General Monday, 11:1511:45 p.m.

Adult instruction programs (NHK)

Mini Eigo: Tossa-no Hitokoto

Mini-English: The Impromptu Word General Monday, Tuesday, and

Wednesday, 6:456:50 a.m.

Jissen Bijinesu Eigo

Practical Business English General Wednesday, 11:1011:30 p.m.

Eikaiwa: Tooku & Tooku

English Conversation: Talk & Talk General Tuesday, 11:0011:30 p.m.

Hyakugo-de Sutaato Eikaiwa

Starting English Conversation

with 100 Words

General Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

and Friday, 11:0011:10 a.m.

Imakara Denaoshi Eigojuku

Starting Over from Now English Class General Thursday, 11:1011:30 p.m.

a

The grammatically correct transcription of the verb form lets play is asobou, where the final vowel is a longvowel. The transcription used above, however, represents a transcription from the Japanese title, which is inhiragana script rather than the more conventional kanji and hiragana scripts.bThis title is a type of blending in Japanese. The two words eigo English and eirian alien both begin with thesame vowel sound /ei/. The title substitutes the entire word eigo for the first element of the word eirian, creatingthe word eigorian. The choice of an alien as an English speaker is interesting in relation to the ethnic stereotypethat English is a foreigners, i.e. an aliens, language. However, the Japanese term eirian does not denoteforeigner as it does in English.cThis title should be classified as an example of code ambiguation, which is discussed below. The word naitonight is a fully nativized English loanword in Japanese and is written in katakana, a script largely reserved forloanwords. Although the written form of the title mixes English loanwords in katakana script and nativeJapanese words in kanji and hiragana scripts, when read aloud it becomes Eigo Shabera-naito. In this form,naito functions as a modal modifier of the verb shaberu to speak, meaning we must speak. Therefore, the titleproduces two possible meanings (1) speaking English night, or (2) we must speak English. The second half ofthe title is not a translation, but rather the English title of the show.



7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

6/14

Instead, the emphasis in childrens programs is on realistically modeling specific language

structures in an entertaining manner.

Below is an excerpt from the childrens television program Eigo-de Asobo [Lets Play

in English]. The program targets an audience of children who have not yet begun primary

school. The excerpt quoted below contains three characters: JB, Maya, and Eric. JB is a

green puppet, approximately 180 cm (6 feet) tall. Maya is an Asian girl about 6 years old.Eric is a white man who is probably in his mid thirties. All three characters speak both

English and Japanese fluently although Eric and JB do not appear to be native speakers of

Japanese. The English used in the program is, broadly speaking, North American English.

The excerpt below is one minute long. Japanese text is italicized with a translation given

underneath.

(1) JB: A gift from Eric? What is it?

Maya: Mite, mite.

Look, look.

JB: Oh, wow. Thats great. Kite mite.

Try it on.Maya: Okay.

JB: A cowboy hat and a vest. Woah. Thats great.

[Eric enters]

Eric: That looks good, Maya.

Maya: Oh, Thank you, Eric.

Eric: Youre welcome. Youre a great cowgirl.

Maya: Yokatta. Aa soda, kore-wo kite kondo-no baton taikai-ni dechaotto.

Thats good. Oh, yeah, Im going to wear this to the next baton competition.

JB: Hoho, Good idea. Zettai medatsuyo.

Youll certainly stand out.

Eric: Aa sodatta. JB, rajio-no jikan dayo.Oh yeah. JB, its time for the radio.

JB: Ee, mou?

Oh, already?

Eric: Come on, lets get going.

JB: Ja, Maya, atodene.

See you later, Maya.

Maya: Gambattene.

Do a good job.

Eigo-de Asobo is produced by the publicly funded NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai,

Japan Broadcasting Corporation), and is broadcast throughout Japan twice daily, fivedays a week. Like many of the NHK educational programs, parents may buy a textbook

as a supplement to the program. Within the textbook, additional practice is given for the

vocabulary and structures that are targeted for each program. Some of the structures and

vocabulary within the excerpt above are targeted for this episode, while others have been

introduced in previous episodes. Any other material, however, is spoken in Japanese in

order to focus attention upon the target structures and vocabulary.

The result of this strategy, however, is a code-switched text unlike anything that would

normally appear in Japanese conversation. While it is clear that the purpose of this is

pedagogical, a social message is also conveyed. First, inter-ethnic communication easily

takes place in both English and Japanese and neither is preferred or avoided in either

214 Andrew J. Moody


7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

7/14

inter-ethnic or intra-ethnic communication. Second, the boundaries between the two

languages are clearly marked by clause boundaries and, more often, by the boundaries

of participants turns. In the excerpt quoted in (1) above, switches between English and

Japanese do not occur within a single sentence or clause, and only twice within a single

turn of a participant. Finally, loanwords in (1) are fully nativized within the spoken

dialogue. The two loanwords used, baton baton and rajio radio, are produced asJapanese words and most speakers of English who do not speak Japanese would probably

be unaware that the two words of English origin are used.

In terms of the development of an emerging genre of language entertainment pro-

gramming, the childrens programming cited in Table 1 clearly maintains English instruc-

tion as the primary goal. However, entertainment is also a fundamental objective of these

programs. Within the development of the language entertainment genre, childrens

programs represent an important antecedent in the development of the genre.

Adult programs

Currently NHK broadcasts five English instruction programs targeting an adult audi-

ence. These programs, however, have not been considered as part of the emerging genre of

language entertainment. Within the various genres that have developed on Japanese

television, quiz shows and talk shows frequently highlight topics related to English or

other languages. More recently, however, shows that are focused entirely on the experi-

ence of Japanese people speaking English have begun to appear.

The first of these shows to be discussed is a program called Eigo-de Shabera Naito:

Can You Speak English (see Table 1). The NHK program features three hosts; two are

Japanese, a man named Kazuya Matsumoto and a woman named Yumiko Shaku, and the

third is a white North American man named Patrick Harlan. All three of the hosts are

fluent bilinguals. In the excerpt quoted in (2) below, the show focuses on several Japanese

people who live in New York City. The program introduces a celebrity named Nokko,

who, in the mid 1980s to early 1990s, was the lead singer in a successful J-Pop band called

Rebecca. Currently, Nokko lives in New York with her husband Goh Hotoda, who is a

record producer. Given the frequency with which J-Pop celebrities appear in language

entertainment programs, the development of the genre has likely been strongly influenced

by J-Pop English. As with the childrens program cited in (1), the English used in this

program is broadly modeled on North American English. The excerpt below is 52 seconds

long. Japanese text is italicized with a translation given underneath.

(2) Patrick: Welcome, live from New York, Miss Nokko-san.

Ja sassoku kochira-no kamera-ni mukatte, jikoshoukai onegaishimasu.

Now give an introduction to this camera, please.

Nokko: Hi. Thank you inviting me. I am living, living, uh, liveling regend, vokko,

ato, eto. Mo ikkai onegaishimasu.

Well, uh. One more time, please.

Announcer: Kinchogimi-no Nokko-san-ga tasuke-wo motometa kono dansei-wa ittai?

Who is the person that nervous Nokko goes to to be held.

Kotae-wa nochihodo akirakani.

The answer will come later.



7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

8/14

Nokko: Hi. Im Nokko, a living legend. Thank you for invite, invite me. Its been a long, long

time to be on the TV show. Thats where I a little bit nervous, but glamorous still. Thank

you very much.

Like the other programs produced by NHK, Eigo-de Shabera Naito has a series of

books available to accompany the program. The excerpt above is interesting because it is

an NG no good, or blooper. When Nokko is nervous, she becomes tongue-tied andunable to even say her name correctly, saying vokko, instead. Immediately she switches

into Japanese, pointing out that English is only being used for entertainment with the

audience, not for communication with the crew. This is also emphasized by Patricks

Japanese instructions to Nokko to speak to the camera. As with this television program,

though, the image of Japanese communication that is presented is one in which Japanese

may be used irrespective of race or ethnicity.

With the creation of this emergent genre of language entertainment programs in

Japan, it should be emphasized that English is not a requirement for enjoyment of the

program. The only people on the program who speak English regularly are the three hosts

and their guests. Any other additional information in the program, such as the announ-cers question of who Nokko goes to when she is nervous, are presented in Japanese.

Furthermore, all the English information in the program appears in subtitled simulta-

neous translation. Unlike the childrens programming, enjoyment of Eigo-de Shabera

Naito does not require that viewers understand the English of the program.

Eigo-de Shabera Naito is produced for a general audience. A program that is geared

toward a younger (e.g., 1530-year-old) audience is Bera-Bera Station [Fluency Station].

This program is, in fact, one recurring segment of a variety show featuring the J-Pop music

group SMAP. The name of the fan program is Sma Station, in which Sma is the first

part of the bands name. The excerpt of the program quoted below as (3) was originally

broadcast in the summer of 2004. One of the members of the J-Pop vocal group, TsuyoshiKusanagi, starred in the Japanese-made Korean-language movie Hoteru Beenusu [Hotel

Venus]. When the film won the Moscow International Film Festivals Perspectives award,

the television producers took the opportunity to take all five members of SMAP to Russia

for the film festivals award ceremony and touring around Moscow.

This is the context of the recurring Bera-Bera Station segment, in which one member

of SMAP, Shingo Katori, must try to communicate with someone in English. For the

Moscow special, Shingo sits in a Moscow coffee shop with several Russian film festival

attendees to talk to them about their impressions of the movie. In the excerpt quoted in (3)

Shingo formally talks to a woman about her impressions of Chonan Kan, the Korean

stage name of his bandmate Tsuyoshi. After the brief interview, he begins speaking toanother patron in the coffee shop about his own role in the movie. The excerpted segment

lasts a little more than one minute. Japanese speech is transcribed in italics with a

translation below. Russian speech is not transcribed, but the simultaneous Japanese

subtitles of Russian speech are translated into English and included below.

(3) Shingo: How did you like Chonan Kans acting?

Interviewee: He is change.

Shingo: Oh, oh oh.

Interviewee: He look very tall, very beautiful, very smart. But nature, not so same impression.

Shingo: Sounandayo. Ore-mo sakki yutta sa mukou-no intabyuu dene.

Thats right. I said the same thing at the interview over there.

216 Andrew J. Moody


7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

9/14

Interviewee: So good.

Shingo: I think so. [pause] Did you notice me?

Interviewee: Sorry.

Shingo: Glasses, smoke, hat.

Interviewee: Its you, and speak English.

Shingo: English, English. Me!

Interviewee: No.

Shingo: No

[after the interview, speaking to the camera crew]

Shingo: Oredatte wakattenai hito kekkou irundana.

There are so many people who didnt notice that it was me.

Patron: [speaks in Russian, translated from the Japanese subtitles] I wonder if youre one of

the guys from STEP?5

Shingo: Kizuita?

Did you notice?

Patron: STEP?

Shingo: Oredatte?

Notice me?

Patron: What language is it that you are speaking?

Shingo: Ore-ga detetandayo, boushi-no kou tabako kouyatte. Pa yatte

It was me, in the hat with a cigarette like this. Doing pa [puffing sound]

kou memememe, wowowowowo.

like memememe, wowowowowo

Patron: What is that?

Shingo: Un, ore ore ore.

Yeah, it was me, me, me.

Patron: Who are you?

A: Detetandamon.

I was in the movie.Patron: Huh?

[both laugh]

While the formal interview of (3) proceeds much along the lines that we expect from the

survey of Japanese language attitudes English is used exclusively in inter-ethnic com-

munication the second half of the excerpt shows a radically different style of commu-

nication and not necessarily intentional. In the second half of the excerpt the interviewee

has left and Shingo is speaking directly to the camera crew in Japanese about the fact that

no one has noticed that he also had a role in the film. When the patron sitting at another

table in the coffee shop asks Shingo what language he is speaking, Shingo continues

talking about his role, only he speaks to the patron as if she understands his Japanese. His

onomatopoeic memememe, wowowowowo are accompanied with hand motions that

suggest that Shingo is about to fall down as he walks across the room. This, however, only

contributes to the womans confusion; according to the Japanese subtitles, she only wants

to know what language he is speaking. Again, the image of the Japanese language that

is presented within this segment is substantially different from the attitudes described by

R. Miller (1982) and others. Shingo portrays Japanese as a language that is potentially

useful for inter-ethnic communication and, in this case, international communication.

While his communication in Japanese ultimately fails, Shingo demonstrates that its failure

is not a result of his unwillingness to use Japanese to communicate with the Russian

woman. Because this conversation is spontaneous and unscripted, it appears that it arises



7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

10/14

from a genuine lack of prejudgment of whether Shingos interlocutor will understand him

or not.

Like the other programs discussed above, Bera-Bera Station produces a book that

can be used to study the English used in the segment. This type of resource adds to the

educational value of language entertainment programs and suggests legitimacy to

parents who might be tempted to label the programs as nonsense. However, theportrayal of language attitudes in these programs also suggests that Japanese may

hold contradictory attitudes toward the Japanese language. If R. Miller (1982) and

Hagiwara (1990) are correct, the type of code switching and inter-ethnic use of

Japanese that appears in all three of the programs is quite rare. However, the goal of

these programs is not to portray speech, but, as the instructional materials suggest, to

model it. What is modeled, in addition to structure and vocabulary, is an attitude that

treats Japanese as sufficient for inter-ethnic communication. Hence, the use of Japanese

is just as cosmopolitan as the use of English. Language entertainment programs

respond to a popular desire to see Japan as a cosmopolitan culture, and to see the

Japanese language as a language of broader communication. In this way, these programsdo not simply model English, but they model attitudes that are not frequently encoun-

tered in everyday Japanese life.

J-POP ENGLISH

Recently, a number of studies have examined the lyrical content of Japanese popular

music (Tansman, 1996; Stanlaw, 2000, 2004; Yano, 2000; Dowd and Kujiraoka, 2002;

Misaki, 2002; Pennycook, 2003). In particular, Moody (2000 and 2001) examine the rate

at which English lyrics appear within a survey of 307 songs from the Oricon weekly top-50charts of 2000. Table 2 presents the results of the study in which nearly two-thirds of

J-Pop songs were found to contain English lyrics.6 J-Pop English lyrics are quite frequent,

and Moody and Mastsumoto (2003) have identified four functions of English lyrics within

J-Pop. These are illustrated in Table 3. While English lyrics may represent nothing more

than the rendering of English loanwords in roman letters rather than the more conven-

tional katakana writing system, they may also represent a form of hybridization called

code ambiguation. Because it represents the most significant challenge to conceptions of

ethnolinguistic identity, code ambiguation is the most innovative function of J-Pop

English. It has been recognized that ambiguation of the speakers ethnic identity is a

common function of code switching and that with the use of strategic ambiguity, social

functions may take place without the interference of ethnicity (Heller, 1988). Code

ambiguation, however, is a form of bilingual creativity that uses material from at least

two languages in such a way that it is unclear which language is used. (4)(10) below are

all cited as examples of code ambiguation in Moody and Matsumoto (2003).

Table 2. J-Pop songs containing English lyrics (Moody, 2001)

Songs containing English and Japanese lyrics 142 (62%)

Songs containing no English lyrics 79 (35%)

Songs entirely in English 6 (3%)

218 Andrew J. Moody


7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

11/14

(4) So, Saint name Saint name, Burning love oimotometeru [seeking]

SennenSennen [1000 years 1000 years] Crazy Love ichigeki mune-ni abite

[getting a stroke on the chest]

from Hallelujah, Burning Love/Hiromi Go

(English Saint name mimics the Japanese text sennen 1000 years)

(5) dont U Think? I wana [trap] B wiy U

[dont you think? I want to be with you]

from Gibusu [A Plaster Cast]/Ringo Shiina(Japanese wana trap is meant to be read as English wanna want to)

(6) I, I, I, I Tender

from Atto Iu Ma-no Yume-no Tonight [Night of Dreams]/The Southern All Stars

(sounds like Japanese aittendaa I love you!)

(7) I, I, I, I Surrender

from Atto Iu Ma-no Yume-no Tonight [Night of Dreams]/The Southern All Stars

(sounds like Japanese aisarendaa, a simplified form of aishitendan Ill be loved!)

(8) Skipped Beat, Skipped Beat

from Sukippu Biito (Skipped Beat) [Skip Beat]/Kuwata Band

(sounds like Japanese sukebee a lecher)(9) Cry Ai Cry [Cry, I Cry]

from Cry Ai Cry [Cry, I Cry]/The Southern All Stars

(Japanese ai sad is meant to be read as English I)

(10) Ima ni-mo yuugata Hold on me [Almost, youve got a hold on me]

from Yuugata Hold On Me [Youve Got A Hold On Me]/The Southern All Stars

(Japanese yuugata evening is meant to be read as English you gotta Youve got a)

In each of these examples English is used to produce a meaning in Japanese, or alterna-

tively Japanese is used to produce a meaning in English. While it is true that many of these

uses of code ambiguity would go unnoticed without examination of the printed lyric sheet,

there may be important reasons why lyricists choose to use code ambiguation. For

Table 3. Functions of language mixing in J-Pop (Moody and Matsumoto, 2003)

Roles Description

Musical filler Words like yeah or oh appear in romaji (Roman script)

and may therefore be counted as English words. The words are

pronounced as Japanese words.

Single words and phrases Words like jump or kiss may be inserted within a text that is

otherwise Japanese. The English words do not disrupt the Japanese

grammatical structure. The English words may be widely understood

loanwords, or nonce borrowings.

Clauses and sentences Sentences or clauses may be inserted, usually within the space of an

entire line. Often the clauses or sentences translate the preceding

Japanese text into English.

Code ambiguation English (or any foreign language) words or Japanese words are used

with possible meanings in both languages. This blending,

or ambiguating, of the two codes is often done at the written level,while at the aural level there does not appear to be any blending.



7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

12/14

example, (8) uses the English words skipped beat to stand in for a somewhat lewd

Japanese term. The use of code ambiguation in this example injects a level of playfulness

into a text that might otherwise appear offensive. The code ambiguation suggests that the

singer is not really singing what it sounds like he is singing.

While this analysis explains a number of the examples of stigmatized language cited in

Moody and Matsumoto (2003), it does not account for all, or even most of the examplesof code ambiguation. On a sociolinguistic level, code ambiguation, by reducing the

perceptual differences between English and Japanese, may also function to redefine

ethnolinguistic identity by questioning the myth of Japanese uniqueness. If English text

is able to suggest a meaning in Japanese, and vice versa, then it is difficult to maintain the

myth of Japanese uniqueness. Instead, the Japanese language begins to function within a

domain that is also occupied by English.

In his analysis of language and identity with the Japanese Latin salsa band Orquest de

la Luz (OL), Hosokawa (1999) argues that purist niche bands like OL respond to the

feeling among many Japanese youth for the loss of Japans genuine cultural identity

(p. 509). In relation to pop music, Hosokawa continues:

Generally referred to as kayokyoku, or J-pop today, mainstream popular music tends to be heavily

influenced by Western styles but mixed with something Japanese in the lyrics, rhythm, melody and/

or arrangement. (Japanese lyrics are particularly crucial for nationwide popularity.) (p. 519)

The J-Pop mode of mixing Japanese forms and content with Western in search of identity,

then, has further linguistic implications. When verbal codes are ambiguated in the manner that

Moody and Matsumoto (2003) describe, ethnic identity is potentially obscured. For example,

Moody and Matsumoto demonstrate that the J-Pop band Love Psychedelico Englishizes their

Japanese pronunciation to the point that it is not always clear which language is being used. It

is no longer clear whether the songs are sung by a Japanese speaker in English, or by an

English speaker in Japanese. This ambiguity has even led one commentator to incorrectly

guess that the lead singer grew up during her teenage years in the United States (Konuki, 2003:

80). By ambiguating her Japanese pronunciation, listeners doubt that the singer is Japanese,

and suspect that she must have lived abroad in order to produce Englishized Japanese.

In examining the role of language and identity in popular culture, it must be remem-

bered that the expressions of identity are not necessarily representative of the speech

communitys attitudes. Instead, individual expressions of identity can be used to question

or mock those of the speech community. Likewise, individual expressions may function as

a vehicle of change in identity, and an expression of the communitys desires rather than

practice. In the case of the language entertainment television genre and J-Pop music, it

seems that the use of English responds to a desire to question the domains of the Japanese

language, and to extend the use of Japanese to inter-ethnic communication. While the

myth of uniqueness may still be largely unquestioned, it should be noted that popular

culture responds to market forces within the greater population. If an image of the

Japanese language or identity is unacceptable, it will not be allowed to find greater

expression. This is not the case, however, with the attitudes represented in the language

entertainment genre a genre that continues to expand in popularity or by code

ambiguation in J-Pop, a practice that becomes increasingly common. Instead, it seems

that the images of Japanese language and ethnicity presented in popular culture express

the desire for a more cosmopolitan and globally influential language.

220 Andrew J. Moody


7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

13/14

NOTES

1. Much of the research for this paper was completed with the assistance of Aichi Shukutoku University,Nagoya, Japan. The author also gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Setsuko Hisakawa in gatheringmuch of the television data used in this study and of Yuko Matsumoto for her helpful comments andassistance in preparation of the manuscript. Any errors are, of course, my own. Unless quoted from othersources, the translations from Japanese are the authors.

2. A number of scholars also claim that these attitudes have disappeared in contemporary Japanese society. SeeGonnerman (1983), Saint-Jacques (1983), Wallacker (1983), and Dewolf (1985).

3. See Stanlaw (2004: 26578) and Loveday (1996: 77113) for discussions of the history of attitudes towardEnglish loanwords.

4. For a description of how English and other languages loanwords are nativized see Loveday (1996: 11456).5. It is not entirely clear what the speaker means by the use of the word STEP. I have translated in all capital

letters to show that the speaker has possibly confused the name of the group SMAP with STEP. At thesame time, it is possible that she is referring to him as the member of SMAP as a dancing group and uses theword step to refer to such a group.

6. For the purposes of these studies of J-Pop English, English lyrics were defined as lyrics written in roman letterson the CD liner notes. No attempt was made to try and measure the degree of nativization with which thelyrics were sung, and, therefore, it is impossible to determine whether these lyrics fall into the categories ofloanwords, nonce borrowings, or code switches. For the purposes of this paper, however, it should beunderstood that J-Pop English may refer to the full range of language mixing described in Figure 1.

DISCOGRAPHY

Go, Hiromi (2000) Hallelujah, Burning Love. Sony (Japan) 4684.Kuwata Band (1986) Skippu Biito (Skipped Beat). Victor 35302.Shiina, Ringo (2000) Gibusu. Toshiba EMI 22051.Southern All Stars, The (1984) Atto iu ma-no yume-no tonight. Ninkimono-de Ikou. Victor 60217.Southern All Stars, The (1984) Yuugata hold on me. Ninkimono-de Ikou. Victor 60217.Southern All Stars, The (1998) Cry Ai Cry. Victor 30237.Zappa, Frank (1982) Valley Girl. Ship Arriving Too Late To Save a Drowning Witch. RKODisc USA 10537.

REFERENCES

Bronstein, Arthur J. (2000) American speech: trying to remember. American Speech, 75(3), 2302.Brown, R. A. (1990) Korean sociolinguistic attitudes in Japanese comparative perspective. Journal of Asian

Pacific Communication, 1(1), 11734.DeWolf, Charles M. (1985) Review of Japans Modern Myth, by Roy Andrew Miller. Papers in Linguistics, 18,

295316.Dowd, Norman Lee and Kujiraoka, Allison (2002) English in Japanese pop music: analyses and perceptions.

Higashi Nihon Kokusai Daigaku Kenkyuu Kiyou [Higashi Nippon International University Research Bulletin],7, 1128.

Fishman, Joshua A. (1970) Sociolinguistics: A Brief Introduction. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Gonnerman, Mark W. (1983) The Japanese language: fortress and fable. Japan Christian Quarterly, 49(2),

14959.

Haarmann, Harald (1984) The role of ethnocultural stereotypes and foreign languages in Japanese commercials.International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 50, 10121.

Haarmann, Harald (1986) Language in Ethnicity: A View of Basic Ecological Relations. Berlin: Mouton deGruyter.

Hagiwara, Shigeru (1990) Can we really talk in Japanese? Japan Quarterly, AprilJune, 15863.Heller, Monca (1988) Strategic ambiguity: code-switching in the management of conflict. In Codeswitching:

Anthropological and Sociolinguistics Perspectives. Edited by Monica Heller. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter,pp. 7796.

Hildebrandt, Nancy and Giles, Howard (1983) The Japanese as subordinate group: ethnolinguistic identity in aforeign language context. Anthropological Linguistics, 25, 43666.

Hosokawa, Shuhei (1999) Salsa no tiene frontera: Orqesta de la Luz and the globalization of popular music.Cultural Studies, 13(3), 50934.

Konuki, Nobuaki (2003) Uta-nonakano Kotoba-no Mahou [Language Magic in Songs]. Tokyo: Yamaha Music

Media Corporation.Loveday, Leo J. (1996) Language Contact in Japan: A Socio-Linguistic History. Oxford: Clarendon.



7/31/2019 j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x

14/14

Mikes, George (1970) The Land of the Rising Yen. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Miller, Laura (1986) Aspects of Japanese language attitudes. Journal of Asian Culture, 10, 943.Miller, Laura (1997) Wasei Eigo: English loanwords coined in Japan. In The Life of Language: Papers in

Linguistics in Honor of William Bright. Edited by Jane Hill, P. J. Mistry, and Lyle Campbell. The Hague:Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 12339.

Miller, Roy A. (1982) Japans Modern Myth: The Language and Beyond. New York: Weatherhill.Misaki, Tetsu (2002) J Poppu-no Nihongo [J-Pop Japanese]. Tokyo: Sairyuusha.

Moody, Andrew J. (2000) Beyond shooby-dooby-doo-wah: an examination of English lyrics in Japanese popmusic. Gengo Bunka [Language and Culture], 8, 18.

Moody, Andrew J. (2001) J-pop English: or, how to write a Japanese pop song. Gengo Komyunikeeshon Kenkyuu[Language Communication Studies], 1, 96107.

Moody, Andrew and Matsumoto, Yuko (2003) Dont touch my moustache: language blending and codeambiguation by two J-pop artists. Asian Englishes, 6(1), 433.

Pennycook, Alastair (2003) Global Englishes, Rip Slyme and performativity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4),51333.

Preston, Dennis Richard (2003) Presidential Address: where are the dialects of American English at anyhow?American Speech, 78(3), 23554.

Ross, Steven and Shortreed, Ian M. (1990) Japanese foreigner talk: convergence or divergence? Journal of AsianPacific Communication, 1(1), 13545.

Saint-Jacques, Bernard (1983) Language attitudes in contemporary Japan. The Japan Foundation Newsletter, 11,

714.Siedensticker, Edward (1978) Review of The Japanese Language in Contemporary Japan: Some SociolinguisticObservations by Roy A. Miller. Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, 13(2), 2004.

Stanlaw, James (2000) Open your file, open your mind: women, English, and changing roles and voices inJapanese pop music. In Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by Timothy J. Craig.Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 75100.

Stanlaw, James (2004) Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UniversityPress.

Suzuki, Takao (1975) Tozasareta Gengo: Nihongo-no Sekai [Closed Language: The World of Japanese]. Tokyo:Shinchousha.

Takashi, Kyoko (1990) A sociolinguistic analysis of English borrowings in Japanese advertising texts. WorldEnglishes, 9(3), 32741.

Takashi, Kyoko (1992) Language and desired identity in contemporary Japan. Journal of Asian PacificCommunication, 3(1), 13344.

Tansman, Alan M. (1996) Mournful tears and sake: the postwar myth of Misora Hibari. In Contemporary Japanand Popular Culture. Edited by John Whittier Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, pp. 10333.

Trudgill, Peter (1983) Acts of conflicting identity: the sociolinguistics of British pop-song pronunciation. In OnDialect: Social and Geographical Perspectives. Oxford/New York: Blackwell and New York University Press,pp. 14160. Reprinted 1997 in Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Coursebook. Edited by Nikolas Coupland andAdam Jaworski. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan, pp. 25165.

Wallacker, Benjamin E. (1983) Book notice of Miller, Japans Modern Myth. Language, 59(4) 7012.Yano, Christine R. (2000) The Marketing of tears: consuming emotions in Japanese popular song. In Japan Pop!:

Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by Timothy J. Craig. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 6074.

222 Andrew J. Moody


Documents

j.0083-2919.2006.00460.x