The Birth of the “National Language”. National Unity and Language in New Period Japan

Within the framework of the “Lectures on Japanese Studies” program, on December 20, 2022 (Tuesday), at 2:30 p.m., a lecture of the Hitotsubashi University‘s Professor Toshiaki Yasuda (linguistic policy, intellectual history) took place in the Piotrovsky auditorium of the new building of the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University (RAU)  .

In Japan, the literary language is called “kokugo”, which translates as “national language”. This name has close conecction to the idea of nation-building or national unity in Japan of the new period. The term “national language” was discussed with Professor Toshiaki Yasuda of Hitotsubasha University, dividing it into two concepts: “national language as a system” and “national language as a symbol”.

The lecture was held in Japanese with an oral translation into Armenian.

Author: H. Muradyan