6 - Representation and identity: discriminatory language

Summary

One of the strongest indicators of a society's attitudes to language and identity is the kind of language used to refer to those of its members who are seen as in some way disadvantaged or outside the mainstream. The last thirty years of the twentieth century saw a heated debate on inclusive language in most of the world's advanced industrial societies, as ethnic and other minority groups protested against the use of language which labeled them as in some way inferior to other members of those societies. This was fuelled in part by international movements on minority rights such as the United Nations International Year of Disabled Persons in 1981 and Decade of Disabled Persons (1983–1992), the United Nations Decade for Women (1976–1985), and the United Nations Year for Indigenous People in 1993 and Decade for Indigenous People (1994–2004).

Japan was no exception, although the debate on “political correctness” (a backlash from people who did not wish to restrain the speech they used in referring to others) which resulted came rather later than in other countries like Australia or the United States. The push for language change in Japan came not from a strong civil rights tradition as in the United States but from a combination of international pressure and a strongly developed domestic sensitivity to public embarrassment on the part of the media and government.