A Study about the Japanese Language for Symbiosis : From Kanyaku Nihongo (Basic Japanese) to Universal Japanese

Approximately a quarter of a century has passed since “Kanyaku Nihongo (Basic Japanese)” was advocated in the National Institute for Japanese Language. Kanyaku Nihongo was launched as an approach to expand the use of the Japanese language around the world as an international common language. In Basic Japanese, thus created, difficult points of the language for foreign learners were removed and the essential Japanese expressions were presented. These expressions were artificially devised as a means of realizing an efficient acquisition of Japanese as a second language. The increase of immigration became conspicuous at the beginning of the 1990s due to the revision of the Immigration Law. Then the Great Hanshin Earthquake highlighted the importance of providing information to those non-Japanese speakers. “Yasashii Nihongo (Easy Japanese)” was then suggested as an approach to dealing with that problem. “Symbiotic language” is an approach to promoting symbiosis among those with different cultural backgrounds, encouraging acquisition of the second language while ensuring the coexistence of the other languages. I would like to examine the approaches leading up to Universal Japanese through a variety of past suggestions