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Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Abstract

COVID-19 has dramatically transformed Japan’s linguistic landscape. This paper determines the types of COVID-19 store signs in Tokyo and Kanagawa and the extent to which they cater to the growing number of non-Japanese residents living in this highly populated urban region. Analysis of 293 COVID-19 signs shows that many are text-and- image monolingual Japanese signs that display multiple messages related to customer and staff policies. Although the stores predominantly prepare these signs, they are influenced by government policy, particularly those related to social distancing. Only a quarter of these signs is multilingual, and many contain Japanese and English only. Consequently, the majority of the foreign population from non-English-speaking countries who cannot read either language well may need to rely on the images contained in COVID-19 signs and the signs’ positioning to decipher the meaning. However, this paper demonstrates that neither images nor the positioning of Japanese monolingual signs is an adequate substitute for the greater use of multilingual signs. The prevalence of monolingual Japanese COVID-19 signs suggests that non-Japanese residents in Japan potentially face a linguistic disadvantage in navigating a linguistic landscape altered by COVID-19.

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