A Design in the Life #11

The purpose of Easy-to-read Japanese

How many people around you don’t speak Japanese as their first language? In a 2022 survey, it was said that over 3 million foreigners live in Japan. That’s about 4% of Tokyo’s population and over 10% in Shinjuku Ward alone. These people come from various nationalities and countries of origin.

For foreigners who speak Japanese fluently, reading and writing Japanese, which includes thousands of kanji, hiragana, and katakana characters, can be extremely difficult. It’s even said that “Anime enthusiasts worldwide consider Japanese as their Latin,” and many foreigners start learning Japanese through anime and manga. However, from the perspective of European languages based on the alphabet, Japanese is considered one of the most challenging languages to master in reading and writing. Even those proficient in Japanese struggle to distinguish between similar characters like “ソ(so), ン(n), リ(ri)” and “シ(shi), ツ(tsu)” in handwritten form.

To convey information to foreigners who can’t read Japanese, we can use methods like translation and interpretation. Often, we consider translating into English, which about 25% of the world’s population understands at a practical level. It’s easy to assume that foreigners can speak some English, but in reality, only about 2% of foreigners in Japan speak English as their first language. Most foreigners, even if fluent in English, come from non-English-speaking countries. Statistics show that there are more foreigners in Japan who understand a little Japanese than those who speak English.

In the capital area’s public transportation, guides are provided in Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Thai, Spanish, French, and more. However, not all languages are available, and not all Japanese information is translated. This can be inconvenient for those who need help to read Japanese. Even with major languages, creating understandable translations can be very challenging. You might have seen some awkward translations in public places.

Given this, the concept of Easy-to-read Japanese is spreading to foreigners in Japan who understand some basic Japanese. “Easy” encompasses both “kind” and “easy” meanings. Easy-to-read Japanese simplifies difficult words into easier ones, adds furigana (phonetic guides) to kanji, and avoids complex sentences. This helps foreigners who can read hiragana and simple kanji to understand the text quickly. It also benefits children with limited language skills, the elderly, people with visual traits that make reading complex texts difficult, and tourists from abroad.

The importance of Easy-to-read Japanese

The concept of Easy Japanese emerged after the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Many foreigners living in Japan were affected by the disaster, highlighting the need to quickly convey accurate information. Since then, efforts have continued to improve, and this approach has been utilized for disaster communication.

The study of Easy-to-read Japanese began at the Sociolinguistics Research Lab of Hirosaki University’s Faculty of Humanities and has been adopted by various municipalities and organizations.

Examples

• Avoid difficult words and use simple words. → Example 1
• Use important words as they are but provide explanations. → Example 2
• Be careful with Japanese-made English terms as they may have unique meanings. → Example 3
• Shorten sentences and simplify structures, conveying one piece of information per sentence.
• Avoid using romaji (romanized Japanese) as it can be mistaken for English.
• Do not use onomatopoeia or mimetic words, which often don’t have equivalents in other languages.
• Use only simple kanji, about 3-4 characters per sentence. Use kanji for homophones to avoid confusion.
• State the time and dates clearly to avoid misunderstandings due to different formats in different languages.
• Avoid ambiguous expressions.
• Simplify double negatives into clear statements.
• Standardize sentence-ending expressions for clarity.
• Use direct language instead of honorifics.
• Combine words with pictures or illustrations.
• Use spaced writing to make word boundaries clear.

Reference: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Fire and Disaster Management Agency’s “Guidelines for Creating Easy Japanese”

The value of Easy-to-read Japanese in everyday life

Easy-to-read Japanese isn’t only useful during disasters. For example, the Skylark Group, which operates many restaurant chains, uses Easy-to-read Japanese on its job recruitment site for foreigners. This highlights that simple “translation” isn’t enough to attract talent for the Japanese food industry. Skylark’s recruitment page effectively conveys the message that they welcome foreigners who understand basic Japanese to work with them.

Creating pages with furigana or systems that display furigana can be quite challenging for web designers. The effort put into such a recruitment page sends the company’s message that if you understand Easy-to-read Japanese, you are welcome to work with them.

ルビなしHTML： <h3>アルバイトの申し込み</h3>
ルビありHTML： <h3>アルバイトの<ruby><rb>申</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>もう</rt><rp>)</rp>
　　　　　　　　</ruby>し<ruby><rb>込</rb><rp>(</rp><rt>こ</rt><rp>)</rp></ruby>み</h3>

Embracing Easy-to-read Language

The mystery novel “The Bridesmaid” by Ruth Rendell, which was adapted into a film, depicts the tragedy of committing murder to keep the secret of illiteracy. While literacy rates are very high today, even those who think they are proficient in Japanese might encounter unknown words in daily life. Although it’s possible to look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary, as children, we learn words by guessing their meanings from context and situations.

The approach of Easy-to-read Japanese is tailored to Japanese, but similar considerations and care in expressions are useful for all languages. Take a moment to reflect on whether the text and language expressions around you and in your digital products can be made more “easy” to understand.

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In “A Design In The Life” series, we will provide hints on improving the resolution of the design experience from the perspectives of both designs in daily life and design in digital space. If you have a topic you would like us to cover, please let us know.