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A brief history of Japanese popular culture in Japanese language education: Using

‘manga’ in the classroom

East Asian Journal of Popular Culture EAJPC 4.2. (August 2018), pp.153-169 (preprint)

https://doi.org/10.1386/eapc.4.2.153_1

Sumiko Iida, UNSW Sydney

Yuki Takeyama, K.K. HarperCollins Japan

ABSTRACT

This article discusses a history of Japanese popular culture (JPC) located in the broader field of

Japanese language education, particularly focusing on ‘manga’. JPC has drawn the public

attention of Japanese language educators following an international boom in the consumption

of anime and ‘manga’ in the early 2000s. However, looking into JPC and its location in the

context of Japanese language education, its history goes further back to the late 1980s and the

early 1990s, when ‘manga’ and anime began to be used in classrooms. Despite active attempts

using JPC in Japanese language education, research into this field was still inactive until the

end of the twentieth century. This article is therefore aimed at connecting classroom practices

and research into JPC over time since the late 1980s to look into how JPC in Japanese language

education has been viewed and used differently in its trajectory and implies its future direction.

The article first critically discusses the early days of JPC, namely ‘manga’ in Japanese language

education by reviewing three periodicals of the early to the mid-1990s – Mangajin, Gekkan

Nihongo and Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin. Second, the article overviews research into

‘manga’/anime and Japanese language education from the late 1980s to early 2010. The results

of the analyses imply that the early days of JPC in Japanese language education were triggered

by the struggle of the instructors finding teaching resources rather than the motivation of the

learners. In contrast, a number of more recent studies of JPC in Japanese language education

align with both the learners’ and the teachers’ demands and motivations of daily classroom

practice.

KEYWORDS: Japanese popular culture (JPC); Japanese language education; history; research

into Japanese language education; ‘manga’; learning and teaching

INTRODUCTION

In post-2000, following the arrival of an era of new technology, some local and international

award-winning anime, ‘manga’ and their associated products vigorously spread around the

world, contributing towards an increase in the number of fans of Japanese popular culture (JPC).

This rising international popularity in JPC was also linked to academic and other views, e.g.

Japan’s Gross National Cool (McGray 2002), cultural odour (Iwabuchi 2002), soft power (Nye

2004), and became influential enough to attract sections of the Japanese government to consider

utilizing this as a strategy for revitalizing Japan’s economy and promoting the country to the

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rest of the world under the Cool Japan/Creative Industry Policy administered by the Ministry

of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and other initiatives such as the public-private Cool

Japan Fund.

This popularity also affected Japanese language education. In 2006, The Society for

Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language (Nihongo Kyōiku Gakkai) held a symposium about

using JPC in Japanese language education. This was the first time in their history that they

formally paid attention to how JPC could be used as learning and teaching materials in Japanese

language education. The Japan Foundation’s (JF) inclusion of ‘interest in JPC products’ in the

list of ‘purposes for studying Japanese language’ for the first time in its 2009 survey also

symbolizes the rising connection between JPC and Japanese language education (The Japan

Foundation 2011). Furthermore, it is also worth mentioning the JF’s establishment of a website

for learning Japanese using anime and ‘manga’, ‘Japanese in anime and manga’ in 2010, when

the Japanese government officially identified the culture industries as potential areas for

economic growth, and established the Creative Industries Promotion Office in METI to

promote these industries.

Although the formal attention paid to JPC in Japanese language education is a relatively

recent development, grass-roots attempts of linking JPC and the Japanese language education

have been practiced since as early as the late 1980s or even earlier. The global boom in the late

1980s in learning the Japanese language, aligned with Japan’s bubble economy, attracted many

foreign business professionals and others to learn the language for their current and future

careers. Looking back at the available literature, these grass-roots attempts using JPC in

Japanese language education were mainly practiced during that time but weakened with the

burst of the bubble. As research into JPC in Japanese language education was yet to be formally

established then, the ideas and practices connected to JPC, namely ‘manga’ and anime in these

early days, and its relationship to Japanese language education at that time seem to have been

buried under the larger wave of the JPC boom in post-2000. This article therefore aims to retrace

a history of JPC in Japanese language education in terms of ideas, practices and research

development to form a single trajectory of JPC in Japanese language education to post 2000.

The article consists of two parts. The first part critically discusses the ideas and practices

of JPC represented by ‘manga’ (and anime) in Japanese language education in the late 1980s

to 1990s. The second part discusses JPC in Japanese language education through research into

‘manga’ (and anime) in this field mainly from the late 1990s to the 2010s.

There are two issues that need to be addressed before proceeding. First, this article

mainly focuses on the role that ‘manga’ has played in Japanese language education. This is due

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to a paucity of published studies discussing the use of JPC products other than ‘manga’, such

as anime, pop music, dramas, movies and commercial advertisements. Furthermore, we assume

that the reason for not focusing on other JPC products in the early days was due to restricted

technology upon which many of them heavily rely for their distribution. ‘Manga’, on the other

hand, is an originally printed medium, portable and easy to access without any special

technology required. Moreover, it is ostensibly a multimodal entertainment with pictures and

spoken language. These factors seemed to have pushed ‘manga’ to become a leading JPC

product for the learning and teaching of Japanese language in the early days. Despite these

reasons, whilst admitting the article’s extensive focus on ‘manga’, our intention is to view JPC

in general in terms of Japanese language education.

Second, the data that we used are limited to Japanese and North American sources.

Considering the fact that globally over 60 per cent of the institutions that teach Japanese

language and over 80 per cent of the learners of Japanese language are concentrated in Asia

(The Japan Foundation 2017), this study may not comprehensively depict ‘the’ complete

history of JPC in Japanese language education. The reason why the study focuses on data in the

two countries is solely due to the availability of access to those data following our limited

language proficiency in Japanese and English,1 and the difficulty in locating pre-2000 data

within Asia online. Further study into the complete history would require to be cooperatively

conducted with scholars worldwide.

JPC IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN THE LATE-1980S TO THE 1990S

This first part discusses ideas linking JPC and Japanese language education and its practices

during the late-1980s to the 1990s by critically reviewing Japanese language textbooks and

periodicals published during this period. It particularly focuses on three periodicals – Mangajin,

Gekkan Nihongo and Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin.

Beginnings

Japanese language education outside Japan began to grow significantly in the 1980s along with

Japan’s upswing economy. According to the JF Survey Report on Japanese-Language

Education Abroad (The Japanese Foundation 1981, 1987, 1992), over the period from 1979

through to 1990, the number of learners of Japanese language in educational institutions

increased 7.7 times to 981, 407, and the number of institutions teaching the Japanese language

increased 3.42 times to 3917. Accordingly, a variety of Japanese language textbooks and

learning and teaching materials began to be actively developed in the 1990s.

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Judging from our analysis, it appears that the first major Japanese language textbook

that introduces a product associated with JPC is Japanese for Everyone (Nagara 1990). The

textbook uses one whole page to introduce six yon-koma MANGA2 (four-frame comic strips)

taken from Fuji Santarō created by Sanpei Satō under the heading of ‘Culture Notes’ (Nagara

1990: 289). Although the textbook encourages learners to read the MANGA, the purpose of

these comic strips seems to be more for introducing a life and culture surrounding a salary-man

rather than teaching the language itself.

A yon-koma MANGA mostly follows the Japanese narrative structure (ki-shō-ten-

ketsu), aided by the characters’ brief wordings in each frame, with a clear story development

towards the conclusion with a punch-line in the last frame. Thus, it is not surprising that yon-

koma MANGA is perceived as ideal and fun for learning and teaching Japanese. Actually, the

idea to use yon-koma MANGA had already been employed in another textbook several years

earlier than Japanese for Everyone appeared. In Shizen na Nihongo (Sakurai 1984), each

chapter begins with a picture of only yon-koma manga (with additional onomatopoeia and

symbols) created by the author, and characters’ utterances including key expressions presented

separately, followed by some examples. According to Sakurai (1991), her motivation to publish

such a textbook came from a demand for developing learning and teaching materials for

learners at the intermediate level who were eager to learn Japanese conversation. Textbooks

that were designed for learners at the intermediate level were few in those days; thus, Sakurai’s

application of yon-koma manga into language textbook was insightful. However, it was not an

attempt to teach Japanese language by authentic MANGA.

MANGAJIN (1990–97): MOVEMENT FROM OUTSIDE JAPAN

To our knowledge, 3 the first publication that extensively focuses on authentic ‘manga’

(MANGA) for learning the Japanese language was the periodical, Mangajin, developed by a

businessman and translator, Vaughan Simmons, in the late 1980s and published between 1990

and 1997. The magazine was not primarily published as a Japanese language textbook or a

reference, but more for non-Japanese, particularly Americans, to learn about Japan to do

business successfully with Japan. According to The Mangajin Story on web.archive.org,

Simmons believed that one would have to have some insights into the Japanese language to

really understand Japanese people, but this should be achieved not by whitewashed reference

sources made by Japanese authors for foreign consumption but through the current popular

culture products that the Japanese themselves consume. Thus, the use of MANGA as a focus

of the magazine seemed to have been an ideal solution to fulfil his objectives.

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According to Schodt (1983), interest in Japanese comics and artists increased in

America in the early 1980s, and American fans of Japanese comics regularly appeared at comic

conventions doing the then equivalent of present-day cosplay. Bona fide American fans of

Japanese MANGA and anime were fascinated by their artwork, buying raw MANGA/anime

from Japan, and relied on their Japanese friends to informally translate them for more

information (Schodt 1983). Interestingly, Schodt argues that one of the obstacles preventing

MANGA from becoming international was the subject matter in MANGA being

‘incomprehensible or uninteresting to people unfamiliar with Japanese ways or they may

contain an unacceptable level of violence and eroticism’ (Schodt 1983: 154), and he exemplifies

this with the subject of ‘salary-men’. Considering this, Simmons’s attempt to pick up MANGA

of this kind can be said to be a challenge, but also an innovation.

Each Mangajin issue focused on several titles including yon-koma MANGA and short

episodes of between twenty and 50 frames taken from a variety of genres. Each title was

presented in its original format appearing on the left side of the magazine and its exegesis on

the right side, with a romanized reading of wordings, narrations and onomatopoeia together

with translations and cultural notes in English frame by frame. To fulfil Simmons’s objectives,

the magazine also introduced various cultural and societal trends of Japan at the time via

Japanese food, drink, television programmes and other JPC products.

Although Mangajin was not a language textbook per se, we observe that it was used in

the classroom, not necessarily in Japanese language classes either, but also in English-language

classes targeting native speakers of Japanese, and even in a JPC course taught at a university in

America (see Issue 30 1993: 20). This seems to reflect a particular demography of the

magazine’s readers. According to a survey conducted in 1992 (see Issue 16, p. 6), 87.76% of

the total respondents (n=646) were active learners of the Japanese language, whether learning

informally or formally, who valued the language component as equal to the popular culture

component (49.92%) or even more on the language component (42.59%). It is assumed that in

the early 1990s when there was a paucity of resources, Mangajin was considered a valuable

authentic resource for learning Japanese language and culture by North Americans.

Unfortunately, Mangajin faced financial problems following the Japanese economic

downturn in mid 1990, and discontinued with its 70th issue in 1997. According to Sawasaki

(2005), the number of Japanese language learners at North American tertiary institutions

decreased from its peak in 1992 towards 1998 due to the weakened Japanese economy and

educational budget cuts. Since the Japanese language learning boom of the mid- to the late-

1980s was triggered by Japan’s strong economy, attracting learners for business and

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employment opportunities (The Japan Foundation 2003, cited in Sawasaki 2005), this loss of

interest in learning Japanese is understandable. Thus, it seems that the financial problems

Mangajin encountered were not simply influenced by the downturn of the Japanese economy,

but were also affected by its readers losing interest in learning Japanese and about Japan.

NIHONGO KYŌIKU TSŪSHIN AND GEKKAN NIHONGO: ADVOCACY

While learning and teaching Japanese via JPC was initiated by non-Japanese represented by the

example of Mangajin, educators and organizations in Japan who controlled Japanese language

education also began to publicly recognize this New Wave of learning and teaching of Japanese.

We can trace this recognition by drawing upon two major periodicals, Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin

and Gekkan Nihongo, which were well distributed to educators and researchers in Japanese

language teaching in the 1990s.4

Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin was a trimonthly newsletter; JF has been publishing for

overseas Japanese language instructors since 1990. Its purpose is to offer readers the latest

information on Japanese learning and teaching, particularly Japanese language materials, tips

for classroom teaching, issues surrounding Japanese culture and society and general

information on Japanese language education. On the other hand, Gekkan Nihongo was

published by a major private publisher of language education, ALC Press. Originally engaged

with English-language education since its establishment in 1969, ALC extended its business to

Japanese-language education in 1986 with the publication of the monthly magazine The

Nihongo Journal targeting foreign learners of the Japanese language, followed by the

publication of Gekkan Nihongo in 1987. The target readers of Gekkan Nihongo were mostly

Japanese residing in Japan who were engaged in Japanese-language education and those who

intend to become Japanese-language instructors, in contrast to Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin, which

especially targeted overseas Japanese-language instructors.

Looking back at the time when these periodicals were being published, the demand for

Japanese language education was on the rise, but accessibility to innovative learning and

teaching resources was limited, except for the small number of commercially available

textbooks and references in overseas countries. Unlike today, when educators can access

whatever we need immediately by merely going online, instructors and researchers at that time

had to solely rely on hardcopy information for their communication and resources; hence, it

was costly in terms of money and time. The network for instructors and researchers outside

Japan was not well developed either until the advent and spread of the Internet in the late 1990s.5

Thus, Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin was a significant resource.

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Of the two periodicals, Gekkan Nihongo was the first to publish a special issue that dealt

with using MANGA in classroom. The June 1993 issue devotes nineteen pages on the topic,

consisting of interviews with academics who were using manga in their tertiary and vocational

language classes, and tips for using yon-koma MANGA, story MANGA6 and other MANGA-

related learning and teaching activities. The titles of MANGA that are focused in that issue

include Sazae-san, a yon-koma MANGA about family life surrounding a house-wife called

Sazae (by Machiko Hasegawa), Hi no Tori/Phoenix, a long science-fiction story MANGA (by

Osamu Tezuka), Peesuke, a yon-koma MANGA about a life of a salary-man (by Shunji

Sonoyama), OL Shinkaron, a yon-koma MANGA about daily life faced by female office

workers (by Risu Akizuki), and Kachō Shima Kōsaku, a story MANGA about a salary-man (by

Kenshi Hirokane). The issue boldly advocates the usefulness and effectiveness of using

MANGA in the Japanese-language class by arguing:

Japan is a nation of ‘manga power’ (‘manga’ taikoku) that has been generating

countless number of high-quality titles

‘manga’ provide the reader with a rich knowledge of authentic conversations that

language textbooks do not cover

‘manga’ also reflect the culture and society of Japan, and is hence an excellent

reference for the learners; and

‘manga’ are cheaper than textbooks or videos, and easy to obtain.

On page nineteen of this special issue covering MANGA in the Japanese language class,

Mangajin is introduced as a recommended reference; thus, we can observe that the trend of

using ‘manga’ in those days was being inspired by non-Japanese learners and teachers of

Japanese.

In comparison to Gekkan Nihongo, Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin seemed to have been more

cautious of using JPC products in the classroom. The first time the newsletter mentioned any

JPC product was in the 1993 May issue (Volume 15), which was almost the same time as the

special issue of Gekkan Nihongo was published. The article appears in the Q&A network

section, where a language professional at JF answers a question by a language instructor from

Thailand about teaching Japanese language using authentic materials. The language

professional suggested a newspaper with some examples including Fuji Santarō, a yon-koma

MANGA. However, after that, there was no mention of JPC until JF began to pay more attention

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to JPC in language education in 1994. In fact, Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin mentions JPC in three

consecutive issues from the February 1994 issue (Volume 18).

First, the popular anime title Tonari no Totoro/My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki, 1988)

was indirectly mentioned as a newly developed learning software in a special article about

Computer Assisted Instruction and Japanese-language education (Kato 1994). Then, references

to JPC in the newsletter became more focused issue by issue. The May 1994 issue (Volume 19)

introduces Mangajin as a reference to understand ‘up-to-date information about Japan’, a part

of the regular four-page article series, Nihongo Kyōzai Shōkai/Introduction to Japanese-

language teaching materials (Hirose et al. 1994), and finally the August 1994 issue (Volume

20) directly linked JPC to language teaching in the same article series. The article picks up the

above-mentioned OL shinkaron, Oishinbo, a story MANGA about food and the adventures of

a culinary journalist, Shirō Yamaoka (by Tetsu Kariya and artwork by Akira Hanasaki), and

My Neighbor Totoro, and introduces them in relation to learning and teaching of language and

culture, together with several other ‘manga’ and anime titles.

The titles of JPC Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin informs in these volumes are similar to what

Gekkan Nihongo introduces. However, unlike Gekkan Nihongo, which referred to Japan as the

nation power of ‘manga’/‘manga’ taikoku’, and eagerly suggested instructors of the Japanese

language to use ‘manga’ in their classrooms, Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin introduces the use of

‘manga’ and anime in class in a rather modest way. For example, the following extract is part

of the foreword appearing in a 1994 article:

‘Manga’/animation are important cultures of Japan, and there are more than a few titles

of high quality that contribute to a profound effect (on learning Japanese language) if they

are utilized in class (Anon.1994: 10).

While Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin also values ‘manga’ and anime as important Japanese cultural

properties, it is clearly stated that there are titles of high quality that can be utilized in class for

profound effect. This may be due to its target readers, Japanese-language instructors residing

overseas, where accessibility to JPC products was limited at the time of the publication of these

issues. Even so, it is possible to make the claim that the newsletter implied that not all JPC

products are suitable for language teaching. It is unknown how JF defined ‘high quality’;

however, given that the newsletter selects titles that reflect ordinary people’s daily life to more

serious cultural and social issues in Japan such as working life, gender, housing and the law,

the dichotomy that the newsletter seems to have created is a clear one: these types of titles are

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the more suitable ones, while titles based on the imagination such as sci-fi, horror or adventure

are not.

This stance may also be shared with Gekkan Nihongo in its June 1993 issue for focusing

on titles similar to those mentioned in Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin. Although Osamu Tezuka’s

W3/The Amazing 3 and Hi no Tori were referred to, these titles appear only in an interview with

an instructor of a French-Japanese translation class, and the majority of the nineteen-page

special article focused on ‘manga’ that are family oriented (e.g. Sazae-san) or business oriented

(e.g. OL Shinkaron, Kachō Shima Kōsaku).

Okuhara et al. (1993: 14) claim that the reason for selecting these titles includes their

accessibility, usability as teaching materials, popularity and entertaining story lines. However,

they fail to explain the reason for choosing these titles over countless other popular ‘manga’

titles that seem to fulfil the criteria mentioned directly above. Thus, Gekkan Nihongo also seems

to have divided ‘manga’ titles into those that can be used in class from those that cannot be

used.

The question is what the demand arising from the learners’ side was. Were these titles

the ones that learners wanted to read or learn from? It is not possible to present any firm

answers to these questions, but there are interesting data that might answer them. The 1992

Mangajin survey results mentioned above provide insights into the genres of ‘manga’ that

readers would like to see in future issues of Mangajin. Contemporary fiction came in at first

place (49.69% of respondents), followed by historical fiction (44.89%), science fiction (37%)

and business related (29.88%). Considering Mangajin continually published business-related

‘manga’, this positioning could be interpreted as that the readers were already satisfied with

those amounts, although it is interesting that the percentage of readers who voted for science

fiction was far more than those who voted for the business related genre. Looking back at those

days in North America, since the successful release of the anime Akira (Ōtomo, 1988) in

December 1989, it is not surprising that there was a demand for science fiction from the readers.

On the other hand, judging from the following (Okuhara et al. 1993), we can assume that

the suggestion of using ‘manga’ originated more from the instructors’ side for the sake of

variation and enrichment of teaching materials rather than any demand from the learners

themselves.

To Instructors of Japanese language who have been trying various measures to

make teaching materials, for us being in the Nation of ‘manga’ Power, it would be

a huge waste not to utilise ‘manga’ as teaching materials. If we use them effectively,

our classroom activities should become far livelier from tomorrow. (Okuhara et al.

1993: 14)

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As research into Japanese language education and JPC was not well developed in the early

1990s, there is no evidence that the learners did not enjoy learning Japanese with these titles,

but the encouragement of using ‘manga’ in those days did not seem to be based on any close

analysis of learners’ motivations.

Interestingly, neither Gekkan Nihongo nor Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin published any other

focused articles about ‘manga’ and anime since then. Looking back at the mid-1990s, following

the initial advancement in technology, the focus on learning and teaching materials gradually

shifted from a hardcopy to softcopy using computers and the Internet7. In particular, the Internet

catered for both learners and teachers of the Japanese language as a great potential for accessing

various sorts of learning and teaching materials instantly online, although it was yet to be

developed and distributed at that time. Accordingly, the struggle of Japanese language teachers

to find proper teaching materials (hardcopies) as mentioned in Okuhara et al. (1993) became

less. Thus, although ‘manga’ and anime may still have been used in Japanese language classes

at the grass-roots level, they became one of the many resources from where instructors could

choose in the mid-1990s onwards; hence, this particular topic of using JPC in language learning

was buried under the broader discussion of Japanese language education.

RESEARCH INTO JPC IN JAPANESE-LANGUAGE EDUCATION: STUDIES OF

MANGA AND ANIME

This second part discusses research into JPC in Japanese language education over a period of

about 25 years since the mid-1980s. Considering the various societal movements, these 25 years

are roughly divided into three periods: (1) Beginnings to silent period (mid 1980s-1990s); (2)

Cool Japan initiative period (early 2000s); and (3) Official promotion of JPC in Japanese

language education period (post 2006). Research in each period is discussed.

Beginnings to silent period: From the mid-1980s to the 1990s

According to the available data, the first research into JPC in Japanese language education was

Kanamori (1989), who analysed vocabulary in MANGA for classroom teaching. Following

Kanamori, Okazaki (1993) introduced teaching methodologies using yon-koma MANGA, story

MANGA focusing on social topics and hito-koma (one frame) MANGA. Arai and Akahori

(1998) discussed the systematic development of Japanese learning using yon-koma MANGA.

The common idea of all this research was that ‘manga’ is recognized as a very efficient tool to

teach language in context.

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However, despite the various ideas and practices discussed in Part 1, there was little

research into JPC in Japanese language education in the 1990s. There are a few reasons for this.

First, research into classroom activities (e.g. action research) was not actively attempted.

Second, MANGA was placed in a vulnerable position in Japanese society in the early 1990s,

following a nationwide movement to banish harmful MANGA originating from housewives’

concerns of the negative effects of ‘manga’ on children, which then spread to the education

sector, feminists and politicians (Galbraith 2015). Okazaki criticizes this movement, and

encourages Japanese-language instructors to abandon their prejudice against using MANGA in

the classroom (1993). From Okazaki, and what is discussed in Part 1, we can observe two

contrasting views on ‘manga’ in the Japanese language classroom: (1) to promote MANGA as

learning and teaching resources, and (2) against such promotion. Third, the significant impact

of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the mid-1990s seemed to have swept

away the idea of using JPC in the classroom. Accordingly, research into the field became

invisible from the mid-1990s towards the end of the twentieth century. We refer to this time as

‘the silent period’, although it is interesting to note that some JPC titles that contributed to the

JPC boom in the 2000s, such as Pokémon, Digimon and Sailor Moon, became popular

worldwide during this period.

Cool Japan initiative period: The early 2000s

The early 2000s is the period when JPC became the centre of the world’s attention. Following

this trend, the Nihon ‘manga’ gakkai (The Society of Japanese ‘manga’) was established in

2001. Also, a significant number of studies on anime/‘manga’ in Japanese-language education

began to be produced. The first study is ‘manga’ gaku no susume (Encouragement of

Researching into ‘manga’) by Kusaka (2000), who gave lectures for Manga research at her

university. In her first paper about MANGA and Japanese language education, Chinami (2002),

another noteworthy scholar of this field, argues that the selection of MANGA requires clear

aims and learning activities to develop the learners’ language ability.

Since 2002, Chinami has contributed to the study of MANGA in Japanese language

education through her various studies. For example, she attempted to introduce the pragmatics

of Japanese communication using MANGA to foreign learners of the Japanese language

(Chinami 2004, 2005, 2008). Another focus of Chinami’s research into MANGA in Japanese-

language education is linguistic presentation of gender and politeness (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007,

2008). Her various attempts became a solid foundation for the current studies of MANGA in

Japanese-language education.

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Official promotion of jpc period: Post 2006

As mentioned above, 2006 was a notable year when JPC and Japanese-language education were

officially recognized by public sectors of Japanese-language education in Japan. It was as recent

as 2007 when JF cooperated with several associations such as Nihongo Kyōiku Gakkai to

organize forums and workshops to promote ways to make better use of ‘manga’ and anime for

learning and teaching the Japanese language (Kumano and Kawashima 2011). The increasing

number of studies into this field in 2007 and 2008 (e.g. Hagino 2007; Hattori 2008; Hongō

2007; Kumano and Hirokaga 2008; Watanabe and Fuse 2008) proves researchers’ serious

consideration of MANGA as a research topic. Post 2006 research into the field includes various

topics such as classroom activities and learner’s motivation (e.g. Imura and Northwood in this

issue). These studies can be categorized into three groups according to their focused

perspectives: (1) teachers’ perspectives, (2) learners’ perspectives and (3) linguistic

perspectives.

First, the research from the teachers’ perspectives was pioneered by Chinami, followed

by a number of case studies out of researchers’ classroom teaching using MANGA (e.g. Hagino

2007; Hongō 2007; Kihara 2010). Given that the various ideas of using JPC in classrooms had

already been discussed in the early 1990s, the emergence of publications on this topic seems to

be quite late. However, these studies seem to reflect the increasing number of learners

motivated by JPC in post 2000; hence, they are dynamic in dealing with both learning and

teaching, rather than discussions in early days that focus only on teaching.

Second, studies of JPC in Japanese language education from the learners’ perspectives

became active post 2006. For example, Ishikura (2013), Kumano and Hirokaga (2008), and

Northwood and Thomson (2012) investigated the learners’ motivations to study Japanese

linked to JPC. In the classroom setting, Watanabe and Fuse (2008) revealed students’ negative

reactions and a perceived gap between the Japanese language in the ‘real’ world and what

appears in MANGA and anime. In contrast, Fukunaga (2006) discusses how anime influences

learners’ literacy development, and argues that repetitive watching of anime provides multiple

advantages including word recognition, listening and pronunciation for learning Japanese.

Kumano and Kawashima (2011) broke fresh ground for ways of using anime/‘manga’

as a teaching medium. Their needs survey became a foundation to develop an online learning

site as a part of JF’s project (Kumano 2010; Kumano and Kawashima 2011). The survey result

suggests that anime/MANGA fans wish to learn specific vocabulary and grammar that appear

in anime/MANGA but are rarely used in the ‘real’ world. Following this, Kumano and

Kawashima (2011) developed an e-learning tool named anime/‘manga’ no Nihongo (Japanese

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language for anime and ‘manga’), which enables learners to become familiar with the unique

vocabulary and expressions in both media. Over 1.55 million accesses from 168 countries

within eight months since its release in February 2010 (Kumano and Kawashima 2011) indicate

the users’ high interest in this learning tool.

Research into anime/MANGA in Japanese-language education focusing on their

linguistic analysis includes the studies of vocabulary (Kumano 2011; Unser-Schutz 2011, 2013),

onomatopoeia (Hattori 2008), gender (Chinami 2003), pragmatics (Chinami 2005), role

language (Kinsui 2007; Teshigawara and Kinsui 2011) and discourse (Hongo 2007; Naruoka

2012). Unser-Schutz (2011) is particularly notable for presenting a new perspective of MANGA

as a linguistic learning and teaching resource by her corpora of eight popular MANGA titles

including ‘One Piece’ (by Eiji Oda). Her study (Unser-Schutz 2013: 93) revealed that the level

of language use differs across MANGA genres, i.e. shōnen (boys) MANGA is more difficult

than shōjo (girls) MANGA.

As in Chinami (2002), the selection of suitable MANGA for language learning and

teaching is difficult but important for the teacher. In this sense, Unser-Schutz’s attempts

contribute towards the future of learning and teaching Japanese language with JPC. A database

of anime/MANGA, where the titles can be sorted by the level of difficulty with their vocabulary,

expressions and grammar, would be ideal. In doing so, JPC fans can learn Japanese by only

focusing on what they want to know. Furthermore, such a database would contribute towards

promoting the user’s motivation further to learn Japanese language linked to their interest in

JPC.

The literature review in this part reveals that research into JPC (or more precisely into

MANGA/anime in Japanese-language education) became more intense since 2006. The use of

JPC represented by MANGA and anime seems to have yielded new insights and innovations

into the learning and teaching of Japanese language as a foreign language by the learners and

potential learners (fans of JPC) themselves in recent years, which has led to increased learner-

focused studies of JPC in Japanese-language education.

A TENTATIVE CONCLUSION

It has been over a quarter of a century since JPC became influential in Japanese-language

education. During this period, this influence has changed from peripheral, which merely

supplemented the insufficient amount or a variety of learning and teaching materials, or to

understand Japanese culture of the time rather than language itself, to one of the core learning

and teaching resources and linked directly to research. Furthermore, recent research also

14

suggests that the influence of JPC in informal learning settings needs to be accounted for.

Although the informal mode of learning has yet to be studied in detail to make any significant

conclusions, some existing studies argue that a significant number of Japanese language

learners in the formal mode of learning (e.g. university or school) are initially motivated to

enrol into Japanese-language courses due to their interest in JPC (Japan Foundation 2011;

Northwood and Thomson 2012).

What we can see is a strong link between Japanese-language learning and JPC in

contemporary Japanese-language education. However, considering the nature of popular

culture – one that reflects the society of a particular period of time, hence it changes from time

to time following the trends of culture, economics, politics and technology – the current position

of Japanese-language education that significantly relies on JPC is vulnerable. In fact, despite

the government’s promotion of JPC under the broad umbrella known as the Cool Japan Policy,

we believe that worldwide interest in JPC may have already passed its peak since the early

2000s according to Google Trends.8 Similarly, JF’s latest survey result (The Japan Foundation

2017) indicates the declining number of learners of the Japanese language around the world

compared with the number in 2012, which is the first time numbers have declined since 1979,

when the survey began. Enrolment in Japanese-language courses at tertiary institutions in

Australia has decreased as well. While the reasons for the decreasing enrolment may be

attributed to multiple factors including the university system and consuming JPC outside the

classroom (Northwood and Thomson 2012), as far as current learners’ motivation to learn

Japanese is mainly triggered by interest in JPC, it is uncertain how long this trend will last.

When the world loses interest in JPC and the Japanese government abandons the Cool Japan

Policy, we may face a significant decrease in the numbers of enrolment in Japanese Studies at

tertiary institutions, and ultimately closure of Japanese Studies departments.

The good news is that Google Trends still shows a moderate and stable public interest

in anime and ‘manga’. In fact, JPC conventions around the world still attract large numbers of

participants. Thus, there are still many fans of JPC, whose population is believed to be much

larger than Japanese-language learners, and there is a great potential for them to become

learners of Japanese in formal education (Armour and Iida 2016; Kondō and Muranaka 2010).

What is yet to be clear is how these fans of JPC learn or do not learn the Japanese

language. Following technological advancement, accessing learning resources is not as difficult

as it was in the 1990s. Thus, learners or potential learners of Japanese have more options for

learning. Japanese-language education in formal institutions should continue to pay attention

to JPC in Japanese-language education.

15

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CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS

Sumiko Iida is senior lecturer and convenor of Japanese and Korean Studies at UNSW Sydney.

She has been engaged in teaching Japanese communication, Japan in popular culture since

Second World War, Japanese discourse analysis and Japanese language through ‘manga’ and

anime. Whilst pursuing a Ph.D. in linguistics (Discourse Analysis), Sumiko's research interest

has recently extended to Japanese popular culture including fans of JPC and their consumption,

informal learning and their motivation to learn the Japanese language (with William S. Armour).

Sumiko is also interested in visual representations of gender in video games, and she was

invited to present a panel on this topic at the 2016 Sydney Manga and Anime Show.

Yuki Takeyama works for K.K. HarperCollins as a comic editor. From 2015 to 2017, she

worked as a Japanese-language instructor in Association for Japanese-Learning Teaching

(AJALT), where she taught classes mainly for exchange students and expatriates from various

countries. She has an MA in applied linguistics (TESOL) and Japanese applied linguistics

(UNSW Sydney). Her primary research interest is in ‘manga’ and Japanese language education

and the multimodal analysis of ‘manga’.

Contact:

School of Humanities and Languages, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW Sydney

NSW 2052, Australia.

E-mail: s.iida@unsw.edu.au

21

K.K. HarperCollins Japan, Akihabara-Sanwatoyo Bldg, 3-16-8 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo,

101-0021 Japan.

E-mail: yuki.yamamoto@harpercollins.co.jp

Notes

1 For reference purposes, Tanikawa (2017) provides a number of works in Japanese, Chinese

and English related to JPC, but not necessarily linked to Japanese-language education. 2 See Editorial in this issue for the definition of MANGA. 3 This section draws upon details provided on the web page created by the Wasabi Brothers

Trading Company. https://web.archive.org/web/20101020201551/http://www.mangajin.com/

mangajin/story/. Accessed 7 July 2016. As of 22 January 2018, the original site is no longer

available, but appears as an archive on ‘archive.is’. 4 Nihongo Kyōiku Tsūshin became an online publication only in 2009. Gekkan Nihongo was

first published in 1987 by ALC Press and was discontinued after 2012. 5 For example, Nihongo Kyōiku Gakkai established its website in 1997. 6 ‘Story MANGA’ is a form of MANGA that deals with a thematic drama story surrounding

the main character(s) of various lengths from a few pages to hundreds of volumes. 7 For example, Gekkan Nihongo published articles on Computer Literacy for Japanese

language instructors (by Kazumi Hatasa) from December 1995 to July 1996. 8 ‘Google Trends’ is a public web facility of Google Inc., based on Google Search, which

indicates the frequency of a particular search item relative to the total search volume around

the world.