Alphabet ante portas: How English Text Invades Japanese Public Space

Abstract

This paper examines the prominence of written English on shop signs in Japan. Based on data from a larger empirical study into multilingual signs in Tokyo, the most common ways of using English and the Roman alphabet on Japanese shops signs are identified. It is argued that the ambivalent nature of English loan words plays a key role in the ever-growing visibility of English in Japanese public spaces. Focusing on one special type of sign – price lists outside hairdressers' – how the use of English loan words entail the general use of English and the Roman alphabet is shown, which in the long run results in signs completely functioning in English.