Yokomoji arerugī: katakana and katakana-go as loci for linguistic ideologies and conflict in contemporary Japan

Since becoming Japanese’s primary script for loan words, katakana has been a major target of hostility in Japanese metalinguistic discourse. Often lumped into one entity with the words it represents, the script has been blamed for linguistic confusion, critiqued as snobbish, and even accused of destroying the future of Japanese. Despite these negative sentiments, however, the use of katakana itself has not abated, with many studies to date noting how novel applications of katakana continually spawn novel discourse around katakana in public spheres. Drawing upon major developments in academic understandings of ideology in how language variants are used and interpreted since the first studies of katakana use, the current study examines contemporary discourses around katakana and the words it represents to flesh out our understandings of how the script and its users are viewed in contemporary Japan. More specifically, the study builds on prior survey-based attention to nation-wide beliefs about katakana, moving instead to analyze more individual assertions and debates around the script in contemporary Japan. First, the study examines a corpus of hundreds of comments surrounding uses of katakana taken from the major Japanese websites Yahoo! Chiebukuro and Girls Channel, focusing on how links between script, vocabulary, and identity are disseminated in online Japanese discourse. The study then examines discussions of marked katakana use from the website reddit.com/r/learnjapanese, looking for the first time at if and how non-native learners of Japanese grapple with marked script use in contemporary Japan(ese). Across these investigations, the study aims to update and internationalize our understanding of contemporary views surrounding katakana use(rs), and showcase how said views consistently evolve in response to novel social practices, with katakana uses shown to serve as critical sites for debate over culture and identity in contemporary Japan(ese).