#heritage language learning

Heritage Language Learners | Complete Educator Guide

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_language_learning

Simply, a heritage learner is someone whose mother tongue is not the language spoken by their ancestors, usually because of historical/ political pressures such as assimilation, colonization, genocide, internment, institutionalization, and other forms of structural oppression.

For the heritage language learner, learning the language is usually tied to a desire to reclaim or strengthen cultural identity, particularly if the language is endangered. Standard Japanese is not an endangered language, but most dialects of Ryukyuan and Ainu are (As are some regional Japanese dialects). Furthermore, most Japanese language resources offered outside of Japan are not crafted for people of Japanese ancestry, but rather implicitly meant for non-Japanese speakers.

Unfortunately, hardly any good English language content about Japanese politics is circulated in non-newspaper formats because much of it is filtered through non-Japanese journalists (through websites like the Japan Times or NHK’s International division) who may not always have the best grasp on what is actually happening in Japan (This is why you’ll often notice that many expats in Japan report very different assessments than their Japanese counterparts. They literally get different news).

I’d say your best bet is probably to read the English versions of the following papers: the Nikkei Asian Review , Asahi Shimbun, and The Mainichi .  Pay close attention to who is writing about what and when non-Japanese correspondents are used v. Japanese correspondents. The labor pool for bilingual journalists in Japan is quite small, so, unfortunately, there’s tremendous variation in the quality of English language correspondents in Japan. Here’s the breakdown:

Nikkei is basically the Economist. They have excellent journalists, but focus mostly politics when relevant to the economy. (They have a paywall)

Asahi is left-wing and prone to sloppy reporting (rather like Vox and Vice in the US).

Mainichi focuses on domestic issues and is also not as diligent as Nikkei. 

Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s center-right newspaper with the largest circulation (both in Japan and worldwide) is behind The Japan Times, propagating the whole “News for Outsiders v. News for Japanese people” dissonance I was talking about earlier.

Finally, though they focus on international affairs, NHK International‘s online radio program covers domestic issues. NHK World-Japan does a livestream of domestic news that is subtitled by AI in six langauges (Chinese, French, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese), plus English.

In terms of foreign newspapers, Al-Jazeera does great reporting on Japanese politics. I have a pretty low opinion of most American and British news sources when it comes to Japanese politics. They tend to re-confirm stereotypes people in both of those countries have about Japan. Most of these stereotypes are harmless, but it’s mediocre reporting.

Honorable mention:

I know the youtube channel Asian Boss is popular for their handling of Japanese political issues, and while I appreciate their easy accessibility and attempts to engage with younger audiences, I personally think their reporters pull their punches when covering Japan. To their credit, they are clear that they are an amateur news network, but it really shows.