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This cutting edge collection considers how the Japanese language functions as a key element of Japanese soft power in Asia. Within Japanese culture itself, the promotion of language has been an area of ambivalence. This interdisciplinary book looks across the fields of language policy, language teaching, socio-linguistics, cultural studies and history to identify the links between Japan´s language policies and broader social, economic and political processes. It examines the challenges that undermine Japan´s potential soft power by identifying a gap between the "official Japan" portrayed by the Japanese government and the "cultural Japan" that foreigners perceive. It also reveals historical continuity in the way Japanese language is perceived and promoted by policy makers and how the current practices of Japanese language teaching in Asian countries have been shaped within the framework of "international exchange", which has been a key concept in Japanese foreign policies since the 1970s. It particularly considers the concept of ´Cool Japan´ as a symbol of Japan´s interpretation of its cultural power and offers a thoughtful assessment of the future of Japanese as a form of soft power in Asia as the country prepares for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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Introduction.- Why language matters in soft power.- Part I Cool Japan and Japan´s soft power.- Cool Japan versus the China threat: Does Japan´s popular culture success mean more soft power?.- Cool Japan and Japanese language: Why does Japan need "Japan fans"?.- Part II Japanese language and the historical construction of Asia.- Japanese language education in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and the kokuji mondai (National Script Problem).- Media and cultural policy and Japanese language education in Japanese-occupied Singapore, 1942-1945.- Part III Japanese language teaching in Asia.- Japanese language for trainee nurses from Asia: the EPA scheme as a missed opportunity.- The roles of native Japanese speaker in Japanese language programs at high schools in South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.- Japanese pop culture as a motivating factor for Japanese language learners in Qatar.- Part IV Japanese language and learners´ empowerment.- Japanese Language in the wake of Hong Kong´s Umbrella movement: Is it a form of soft power?.- Accessing the soft power of Japanese language in Australia: Young Korean migrants studying Japanese as a foreign language.

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Dr Kayoko Hashimoto is Lecturer at School of Languages and Cultures, University of Queensland, Australia. Her main research areas are language policies and Japan´s educational policies. She has been Asian Studies Review Language and Education Thematic & Review Editor since 2013.

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