Globalization, the global spread of the English language, and the nation: A critical narrative analysis of Japanese nationalism and identities in a globalization context

Today's globalization undermines and intensifies nationalism and nationalistic sentiments. Globalization also accelerates the global spread of the English language. Non-English speaking nation-states are put in a dilemma in which they are urged to promote English language education as well as their national language that has played an important role for constructing the nation. This study investigates how Japanese nationalism and identities are produced, and how they are connected with and are disconnected from each other in a globalization context in which English was proposed to be adopted as an official language of Japan in January, 2000.; Three kinds of texts are analyzed using the combined notion of narrative and representation. The first text is a governmental report in which the proposal for adopting English as an official language of Japan was made. The second text is 38 newspaper articles about the proposal that appeared in the three largest Japanese national newspapers during the year of 2000. The third text is 390 personal opinions posted on a national newspaper's website. The first and the second texts are regarded as the dominant discourse; the third text is considered as the people's discourse. Borrowing the perspective of the three dimensional approach, a critical discourse analysis approach, the three texts are examined textually, intertextually, and socially.; This study shows that three stories of Japanese nationalism, the neoliberal, the conservative, and the multiculturalist stories, are told in the dominant discourse, whereas four stories of Japanese identities, the three stories of Japanese nationalism and the imperialist story, are recounted in the people's discourse. Japanese identities are connected with Japanese nationalism as three stories are narrated both in the dominant and the people's discourses. On the other hand, they are disconnected in the sense that an extra story is narrated in the people's discourse, and the stories of Japanese identities are a little more complex and fragmented than the stories of Japanese nationalism.