World Englishes, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 209222, 2006.

08832919

English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music

ANDREW J. MOODY*

ABSTRACT: This study of the role of English within Japanese popular culture, and especially within
Japanese popular music, suggests that attitudes toward the Japanese language may be changing.
Numerous scholars maintain that the Japanese conflation of race with language establishes patterns of
racial discrimination in which Japanese prefer not to use the Japanese language for inter-ethnic commu-
nication. Likewise, the Japanese language is rarely treated as a language of broader communication (i.e.,
global communication) by the Japanese. However, the recent development of the language entertain-
ment genre of broadcast television actively challenges these stereotypes of Japanese ethnolinguistic
identity. Furthermore, language mixing within Japanese popular music, especially mixing that results in
code ambiguation, attempts to redefine ethnic identity by obscuring what language is used in pop music.
These phenomena are interpreted according to possible ongoing changes of Japanese ethnolinguistic
identity.

INTRODUCTION1
One of the first linguistic analyses of popular music was Peter Trudgills study of pro-
nunciation in British pop music (Trudgill, 1983). Looking at stereotypical North
American versus UK pronunciations, Trudgill concluded that popular music presented a
highly symbolic medium for the expression of identity and solidarity. While the expression
of identity might belong to a particular artist, at the same time it is usually symbolic of
attitudes and expressions which have already gained acceptance within the pop music
audience. For example, Frank Zappas song Valley Girl featuring his daughter, Moon
Unit Zappa, came to define and promote the valley girl speech patterns described by
various linguists, including Preston (2003) and Bronstein (2000). Sociolinguistic data from
popular music does not conform to the representative data that is usually gathered
through random sampling, selection of informants, and classification of speech styles.
However, the data is often highly emblematic of shifts in attitudes and even behaviors
within a speech community. The study of English lyrics within Japanese popular music
(J-Pop), then, offers to inform more about sociolinguistic and attitudinal changes under-
way within the community of J-Pop listeners than actual linguistic practice. This study will
critically examine previous research on Japanese language attitudes in order to demon-
strate that J-Pop music effectively challenges conceptions of race and language. Moreover,
an examination of the use of English within another medium the emerging genre of
language entertainment programs in broadcast television suggests that the change of
attitudes in J-Pop may be found in other modes of expression of Japanese cultural
attitudes.

* Department of English, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomas Pereira, S.J., Taipa, Macao. E-mail:
amoody@umac.mo

2006 The Author. Journal compilation 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street,
Malden, MA 02148, USA.
210 Andrew J. Moody

JAPANESE ATTITUDES TOWARD ENGLISH

A number of scholars have examined language attitudes in Japan, primarily for the
purpose of clarifying the relationship between language and racial identity. Roy Miller
(1982) presents one of the earliest appraisals of Japanese language attitudes, arguing that the
myth of Japanese linguistic uniqueness is related to the belief that the racial and ethnic
group is also unique. Within this ethnic environment the linguistic motivation for the
mythologizing of language derives from, among other things, the belief that Japanese is
intrinsically more difficult than any other language. Hence, the ability to speak such a
difficult language is believed to be linked to the racial characteristics of the speakers. Laura
Miller (1986) explains that this conflation of Japanese race and language culminates in the
belief that ones phenotypic make-up is inseparably intertwined with language. In other
words, they regard the ability to speak the Japanese language as genetic (Miller, 1986: 13).
While this type of mythologizing is not uncommon among other languages and cultures,
the Japanese language mythology has come to characterize discussions of language
attitudes in Japan more than in other countries. In fact, some have claimed that Roy
Millers criticisms of the Japanese myth of uniqueness are likewise erroneously tied to the
notion that this mythology is unique to Japan, when, in fact, belief in uniqueness is
anything but unique. Nevertheless, the attitude of uniqueness, what Fishman (1970)
calls autonomy, has been used as an explanation for various language behaviors,
including a perceived lack of proficiency in English. The perceived lack of proficiency
demands an explanation of how, in spite of the nearly universal six years of English study
required of Japanese students, the Japanese rarely reach high levels of proficiency.
Hildebrandt and Giles (1983) demonstrate a psychological approach to this problem
and claim that the threat to ethnolinguistic identity posed by knowing English proficiently
is the impetus for the common strategy of learning English, but not proficiently.
More recently, some scholars have made reference to the attitude of uniqueness as an
explanation of the observed reluctance of Japanese speakers to use the Japanese language
in communication with non-native speakers of the language. For example, Hagiwara
(1990), in a ten-year longitudinal study of non-native speakers studying at Keio
University, contends that:

Japanese treat nonnatives cordially as guests, always keeping the foreigner at arms length. For
the foreign student, who may have thought that mastery of the language was the key to more
satisfying interpersonal relationships, the discovery of this non-language-related barrier to close-
ness is a huge disappointment. (Hagiwara, 1990: 161, emphasis added)

Hagiwara notes that the treatment of foreigners is as guests and non-native speak-
ers of Japanese, yet the classification of the behavior as a non-language-related barrier
suggests that a more fundamental barrier operates in inter-ethnic communication. He
continues to note that the judgment of nativeness is, in fact, related to race. He observes
that, while Japanese are often surprised to hear well-spoken Japanese pour out of the
mouth of someone who does not have a Japanese-looking face, especially if that person is
a Caucasian, at the same time Japanese seem to expect Asians to have a good command
of the language perhaps because Asian speakers Oriental [sic] features belie their
nonnative ability with the language (p. 162). Hagiwara suggests that the reluctance to
use Japanese inter-ethnically derives solely from judgments of race. Indeed, the racist

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 English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 211

connotations of this attitudinal reluctance to use Japanese inter-ethnically have also been
discussed in Mikes (1970), Suzuki (1975), Siedensticker (1978), Brown (1990), and Ross
and Shortreed (1990).2
In addition to the relationship between language attitudes and ethnic identity, a number
of scholars have also examined the sociolinguistic implications of the massive borrowing
from English over the past few decades and the attitudes associated with foreign loan-
words.3 One of the more intensive arenas for borrowing from foreign languages, perhaps
because of its reliance on persuasion with affective language, is product advertising.
Haarmann (1984) attests to the prevalence of foreign loanwords in television advertising
and argues that advertising uses ethnocultural stereotypes of languages and language
groups to promote particular features of a product. The result, however, is a degree of
language mixing that is unprecedented for a monolingual culture that does not support
code switching. Haarmann explains that advertising plays a singular role in that Japanese
television is the only mass medium in an almost monolingual country which produced
multilingual commercial texts (1986: 219, emphasis in original). While this practice may
not reflect the norms of language use within the community, Haarmann (1984, 1986)
instead argues that it does promote stereotypes that keep non-Japanese cultures at a
psychological distance and allows positive stereotypes to be transferred to products. The
transfer of stereotypes may mean specific stereotypes for particular languages (i.e., French
is seen to represent high elegance and refined taste), but Takashi (1992) identifies a
more comprehensive attitude of cosmopolitanism connected to English in advertising.
With 45.1 percent of loanwords in advertising used to evoke a modern and sophisticated
image, she argues that nearly half of the words were borrowed not to meet lexical needs
but to affect the audience who desire to be regarded as members of a cosmopolitan
society (p. 141).
This overview of language attitudes in Japan allows us to draw several conclusions
about the sociolinguistic environment in which English functions within popular culture.
First, Japanese is usually seen as the only appropriate language for intra-ethnic commu-
nication and it is frequently deemed inappropriate for inter-ethnic communication, which,
whenever possible, takes place in English. Second, borrowing from foreign languages,
although prevalent, does not lead to code switching or other forms of language mixing.
While code switching does occur within Chinese or Korean communities in Japan
(Haarmann, 1986), it is otherwise almost entirely unobserved. Finally, examination
of the use of foreign languages in popular culture can tell us little about the functions of
foreign languages within Japanese culture. However, we may discern the stereotypes
of foreign languages and cultures as well as the images of Japan which are promoted
within popular culture.

CLASSIFICATION OF TYPES OF LANGUAGE MIXING

Before proceeding to an examination of data from Japanese popular culture, it is
necessary to specify what types of data might be included within an analysis of English
in popular culture. While individual lexical items may easily be considered in the mixing of
English and Japanese (Takashi, 1990), this study instead prefers to examine longer items
which are mixed on the level of phrases or clauses. These longer portions of mixed text,
although frequently found within popular culture, are quite rare within conversational
Japanese. Haarmann (1986: 211) explains:
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212 Andrew J. Moody

Whenever or wherever multilingual strategies occur in modern communication in Japan, it is an

indication of mass media language use. . . . With respect to the great majority of monolingual
Japanese, code switching phenomena are unknown in their use of colloquial Japanese.

Unlike individual lexical items, these longer portions of English text are typically less
nativized in their pronunciation or usage and they are, therefore, more easily called
English. Individual lexical items are frequently borrowed into Japanese and, when
borrowed, nativized according to the structural requirements of Japaneses strict CV
structure.4 However, it is possible that an individual lexical item might be either less
nativized or less widely accepted within the monolingual Japanese speech community,
making it a nonce borrowing. Figure 1 illustrates the different kinds of language mixing
that may be examined according to a cline of nativization.
Finally, it should be pointed out that, for the purposes of this examination of English,
no difference between loanwords and wasei eigo made in Japan English will be consid-
ered, although there are significant differences in the attitudes toward these two types of
borrowings (L. Miller, 1997).

LANGUAGE ENTERTAINMENT

One aspect of Japanese popular culture under investigation here is the prevalence of
English in broadcast television. While English may have had little influence in genres like
dramas or documentaries, the development of the variety show genre has relied
strongly on the exploration of foreign cultures and customs, and discussion of differences
between languages and expression. While language-related topics are frequently on com-
mercial television, the purpose of this examination is simply to examine a few representa-
tive examples of what I call language entertainment and to consider some of the ways
that the language behavior modeled in the shows does not conform to the attitudinal
behaviors described above. Instead, it is argued that the language entertainment genre
imaginatively recreates language behaviors according to the desire for cosmopolitanism
described by Takashi (1992).

Language mixing

Individual Phrases
lexical or
items clauses

Loanwords Nonce Code

and borrowings switching
wasei eigo
Most Least
nativized nativized

Figure 1. Types of language mixing

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 English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 213

Childrens programs
There are, on commercial Japanese television, a number of programs designed for
language instruction. For example, a survey of television programming in Table 1 lists
language programs that are designed for both adults and children. While adult language
instruction programs usually follow a routine emphasizing the study of specific structures
with little attention to entertainment, this is rarely the case with childrens programs.

Table 1. Instructional English and entertainment English programs on Japanese television

Name of program Target audience Broadcast schedule

Childrens programs (NHK)

Eigo-de Asoboa Pre-school and Twice daily
Lets Play in English kindergarten MondayFriday
Eigorianb
English [A]lien Grades 13 Twice weekly
Suupaa Eigorian
Super English [A]lien Grades 46 Twice weekly
Adult programs
Bera-Bera Station/Sma Station
Fluency Station/SMAP Station Young people Saturday, 11:00 p.m.
Eigo-de Shabera Naito: Can You
Speak Englishc General Monday, 11:1511:45 p.m.
Adult instruction programs (NHK)
Mini Eigo: Tossa-no Hitokoto
Mini-English: The Impromptu Word General Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday, 6:456:50 a.m.
Jissen Bijinesu Eigo
Practical Business English General Wednesday, 11:1011:30 p.m.
Eikaiwa: Tooku & Tooku
English Conversation: Talk & Talk General Tuesday, 11:0011:30 p.m.
Hyakugo-de Sutaato Eikaiwa
Starting English Conversation General Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
with 100 Words and Friday, 11:0011:10 a.m.
Imakara Denaoshi Eigojuku
Starting Over from Now English Class General Thursday, 11:1011:30 p.m.
a
The grammatically correct transcription of the verb form lets play is asobou, where the final vowel is a long
vowel. The transcription used above, however, represents a transcription from the Japanese title, which is in
hiragana script rather than the more conventional kanji and hiragana scripts.
b
This title is a type of blending in Japanese. The two words eigo English and eirian alien both begin with the
same vowel sound /ei/. The title substitutes the entire word eigo for the first element of the word eirian, creating
the word eigorian. The choice of an alien as an English speaker is interesting in relation to the ethnic stereotype
that English is a foreigners, i.e. an aliens, language. However, the Japanese term eirian does not denote
foreigner as it does in English.
c
This title should be classified as an example of code ambiguation, which is discussed below. The word naito
night is a fully nativized English loanword in Japanese and is written in katakana, a script largely reserved for
loanwords. Although the written form of the title mixes English loanwords in katakana script and native
Japanese words in kanji and hiragana scripts, when read aloud it becomes Eigo Shabera-naito. In this form,
naito functions as a modal modifier of the verb shaberu to speak, meaning we must speak. Therefore, the title
produces two possible meanings (1) speaking English night, or (2) we must speak English. The second half of
the title is not a translation, but rather the English title of the show.

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214 Andrew J. Moody

Instead, the emphasis in childrens programs is on realistically modeling specific language

structures in an entertaining manner.
Below is an excerpt from the childrens television program Eigo-de Asobo [Lets Play
in English]. The program targets an audience of children who have not yet begun primary
school. The excerpt quoted below contains three characters: JB, Maya, and Eric. JB is a
green puppet, approximately 180 cm (6 feet) tall. Maya is an Asian girl about 6 years old.
Eric is a white man who is probably in his mid thirties. All three characters speak both
English and Japanese fluently although Eric and JB do not appear to be native speakers of
Japanese. The English used in the program is, broadly speaking, North American English.
The excerpt below is one minute long. Japanese text is italicized with a translation given
underneath.
(1) JB: A gift from Eric? What is it?
Maya: Mite, mite.
Look, look.
JB: Oh, wow. Thats great. Kite mite.
Try it on.
Maya: Okay.
JB: A cowboy hat and a vest. Woah. Thats great.
[Eric enters]
Eric: That looks good, Maya.
Maya: Oh, Thank you, Eric.
Eric: Youre welcome. Youre a great cowgirl.
Maya: Yokatta. Aa soda, kore-wo kite kondo-no baton taikai-ni dechaotto.
Thats good. Oh, yeah, Im going to wear this to the next baton competition.
JB: Hoho, Good idea. Zettai medatsuyo.
Youll certainly stand out.
Eric: Aa sodatta. JB, rajio-no jikan dayo.
Oh yeah. JB, its time for the radio.
JB: Ee, mou?
Oh, already?
Eric: Come on, lets get going.
JB: Ja, Maya, atodene.
See you later, Maya.
Maya: Gambattene.
Do a good job.

Eigo-de Asobo is produced by the publicly funded NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai,
Japan Broadcasting Corporation), and is broadcast throughout Japan twice daily, five
days a week. Like many of the NHK educational programs, parents may buy a textbook
as a supplement to the program. Within the textbook, additional practice is given for the
vocabulary and structures that are targeted for each program. Some of the structures and
vocabulary within the excerpt above are targeted for this episode, while others have been
introduced in previous episodes. Any other material, however, is spoken in Japanese in
order to focus attention upon the target structures and vocabulary.
The result of this strategy, however, is a code-switched text unlike anything that would
normally appear in Japanese conversation. While it is clear that the purpose of this is
pedagogical, a social message is also conveyed. First, inter-ethnic communication easily
takes place in both English and Japanese and neither is preferred or avoided in either

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 English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 215

inter-ethnic or intra-ethnic communication. Second, the boundaries between the two

languages are clearly marked by clause boundaries and, more often, by the boundaries
of participants turns. In the excerpt quoted in (1) above, switches between English and
Japanese do not occur within a single sentence or clause, and only twice within a single
turn of a participant. Finally, loanwords in (1) are fully nativized within the spoken
dialogue. The two loanwords used, baton baton and rajio radio, are produced as
Japanese words and most speakers of English who do not speak Japanese would probably
be unaware that the two words of English origin are used.
In terms of the development of an emerging genre of language entertainment pro-
gramming, the childrens programming cited in Table 1 clearly maintains English instruc-
tion as the primary goal. However, entertainment is also a fundamental objective of these
programs. Within the development of the language entertainment genre, childrens
programs represent an important antecedent in the development of the genre.

Adult programs
Currently NHK broadcasts five English instruction programs targeting an adult audi-
ence. These programs, however, have not been considered as part of the emerging genre of
language entertainment. Within the various genres that have developed on Japanese
television, quiz shows and talk shows frequently highlight topics related to English or
other languages. More recently, however, shows that are focused entirely on the experi-
ence of Japanese people speaking English have begun to appear.
The first of these shows to be discussed is a program called Eigo-de Shabera Naito:
Can You Speak English (see Table 1). The NHK program features three hosts; two are
Japanese, a man named Kazuya Matsumoto and a woman named Yumiko Shaku, and the
third is a white North American man named Patrick Harlan. All three of the hosts are
fluent bilinguals. In the excerpt quoted in (2) below, the show focuses on several Japanese
people who live in New York City. The program introduces a celebrity named Nokko,
who, in the mid 1980s to early 1990s, was the lead singer in a successful J-Pop band called
Rebecca. Currently, Nokko lives in New York with her husband Goh Hotoda, who is a
record producer. Given the frequency with which J-Pop celebrities appear in language
entertainment programs, the development of the genre has likely been strongly influenced
by J-Pop English. As with the childrens program cited in (1), the English used in this
program is broadly modeled on North American English. The excerpt below is 52 seconds
long. Japanese text is italicized with a translation given underneath.
(2) Patrick: Welcome, live from New York, Miss Nokko-san.
Ja sassoku kochira-no kamera-ni mukatte, jikoshoukai onegaishimasu.
Now give an introduction to this camera, please.
Nokko: Hi. Thank you inviting me. I am living, living, uh, liveling regend, vokko,
ato, eto. Mo ikkai onegaishimasu.
Well, uh. One more time, please.
Announcer: Kinchogimi-no Nokko-san-ga tasuke-wo motometa kono dansei-wa ittai?
Who is the person that nervous Nokko goes to to be held.
Kotae-wa nochihodo akirakani.
The answer will come later.

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216 Andrew J. Moody

Nokko: Hi. Im Nokko, a living legend. Thank you for invite, invite me. Its been a long, long
time to be on the TV show. Thats where I a little bit nervous, but glamorous still. Thank
you very much.
Like the other programs produced by NHK, Eigo-de Shabera Naito has a series of
books available to accompany the program. The excerpt above is interesting because it is
an NG no good, or blooper. When Nokko is nervous, she becomes tongue-tied and
unable to even say her name correctly, saying vokko, instead. Immediately she switches
into Japanese, pointing out that English is only being used for entertainment with the
audience, not for communication with the crew. This is also emphasized by Patricks
Japanese instructions to Nokko to speak to the camera. As with this television program,
though, the image of Japanese communication that is presented is one in which Japanese
may be used irrespective of race or ethnicity.
With the creation of this emergent genre of language entertainment programs in
Japan, it should be emphasized that English is not a requirement for enjoyment of the
program. The only people on the program who speak English regularly are the three hosts
and their guests. Any other additional information in the program, such as the announ-
cers question of who Nokko goes to when she is nervous, are presented in Japanese.
Furthermore, all the English information in the program appears in subtitled simulta-
neous translation. Unlike the childrens programming, enjoyment of Eigo-de Shabera
Naito does not require that viewers understand the English of the program.
Eigo-de Shabera Naito is produced for a general audience. A program that is geared
toward a younger (e.g., 1530-year-old) audience is Bera-Bera Station [Fluency Station].
This program is, in fact, one recurring segment of a variety show featuring the J-Pop music
group SMAP. The name of the fan program is Sma Station, in which Sma is the first
part of the bands name. The excerpt of the program quoted below as (3) was originally
broadcast in the summer of 2004. One of the members of the J-Pop vocal group, Tsuyoshi
Kusanagi, starred in the Japanese-made Korean-language movie Hoteru Beenusu [Hotel
Venus]. When the film won the Moscow International Film Festivals Perspectives award,
the television producers took the opportunity to take all five members of SMAP to Russia
for the film festivals award ceremony and touring around Moscow.
This is the context of the recurring Bera-Bera Station segment, in which one member
of SMAP, Shingo Katori, must try to communicate with someone in English. For the
Moscow special, Shingo sits in a Moscow coffee shop with several Russian film festival
attendees to talk to them about their impressions of the movie. In the excerpt quoted in (3)
Shingo formally talks to a woman about her impressions of Chonan Kan, the Korean
stage name of his bandmate Tsuyoshi. After the brief interview, he begins speaking to
another patron in the coffee shop about his own role in the movie. The excerpted segment
lasts a little more than one minute. Japanese speech is transcribed in italics with a
translation below. Russian speech is not transcribed, but the simultaneous Japanese
subtitles of Russian speech are translated into English and included below.
(3) Shingo: How did you like Chonan Kans acting?
Interviewee: He is change.
Shingo: Oh, oh oh.
Interviewee: He look very tall, very beautiful, very smart. But nature, not so same impression.
Shingo: Sounandayo. Ore-mo sakki yutta sa mukou-no intabyuu dene.
Thats right. I said the same thing at the interview over there.

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 English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 217

Interviewee: So good.
Shingo: I think so. [pause] Did you notice me?
Interviewee: Sorry.
Shingo: Glasses, smoke, hat.
Interviewee: Its you, and speak English.
Shingo: English, English. Me!
Interviewee: No.
Shingo: No
[after the interview, speaking to the camera crew]
Shingo: Oredatte wakattenai hito kekkou irundana.
There are so many people who didnt notice that it was me.
Patron: [speaks in Russian, translated from the Japanese subtitles] I wonder if youre one of
the guys from STEP?5
Shingo: Kizuita?
Did you notice?
Patron: STEP?
Shingo: Oredatte?
Notice me?
Patron: What language is it that you are speaking?
Shingo: Ore-ga detetandayo, boushi-no kou tabako kouyatte. Pa yatte
It was me, in the hat with a cigarette like this. Doing pa [puffing sound]
kou memememe, wowowowowo.
like memememe, wowowowowo
Patron: What is that?
Shingo: Un, ore ore ore.
Yeah, it was me, me, me.
Patron: Who are you?
A: Detetandamon.
I was in the movie.
Patron: Huh?
[both laugh]
While the formal interview of (3) proceeds much along the lines that we expect from the
survey of Japanese language attitudes English is used exclusively in inter-ethnic com-
munication the second half of the excerpt shows a radically different style of commu-
nication and not necessarily intentional. In the second half of the excerpt the interviewee
has left and Shingo is speaking directly to the camera crew in Japanese about the fact that
no one has noticed that he also had a role in the film. When the patron sitting at another
table in the coffee shop asks Shingo what language he is speaking, Shingo continues
talking about his role, only he speaks to the patron as if she understands his Japanese. His
onomatopoeic memememe, wowowowowo are accompanied with hand motions that
suggest that Shingo is about to fall down as he walks across the room. This, however, only
contributes to the womans confusion; according to the Japanese subtitles, she only wants
to know what language he is speaking. Again, the image of the Japanese language that
is presented within this segment is substantially different from the attitudes described by
R. Miller (1982) and others. Shingo portrays Japanese as a language that is potentially
useful for inter-ethnic communication and, in this case, international communication.
While his communication in Japanese ultimately fails, Shingo demonstrates that its failure
is not a result of his unwillingness to use Japanese to communicate with the Russian
woman. Because this conversation is spontaneous and unscripted, it appears that it arises

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218 Andrew J. Moody

from a genuine lack of prejudgment of whether Shingos interlocutor will understand him
or not.
Like the other programs discussed above, Bera-Bera Station produces a book that
can be used to study the English used in the segment. This type of resource adds to the
educational value of language entertainment programs and suggests legitimacy to
parents who might be tempted to label the programs as nonsense. However, the
portrayal of language attitudes in these programs also suggests that Japanese may
hold contradictory attitudes toward the Japanese language. If R. Miller (1982) and
Hagiwara (1990) are correct, the type of code switching and inter-ethnic use of
Japanese that appears in all three of the programs is quite rare. However, the goal of
these programs is not to portray speech, but, as the instructional materials suggest, to
model it. What is modeled, in addition to structure and vocabulary, is an attitude that
treats Japanese as sufficient for inter-ethnic communication. Hence, the use of Japanese
is just as cosmopolitan as the use of English. Language entertainment programs
respond to a popular desire to see Japan as a cosmopolitan culture, and to see the
Japanese language as a language of broader communication. In this way, these programs
do not simply model English, but they model attitudes that are not frequently encoun-
tered in everyday Japanese life.

J-POP ENGLISH

Recently, a number of studies have examined the lyrical content of Japanese popular
music (Tansman, 1996; Stanlaw, 2000, 2004; Yano, 2000; Dowd and Kujiraoka, 2002;
Misaki, 2002; Pennycook, 2003). In particular, Moody (2000 and 2001) examine the rate
at which English lyrics appear within a survey of 307 songs from the Oricon weekly top-50
charts of 2000. Table 2 presents the results of the study in which nearly two-thirds of
J-Pop songs were found to contain English lyrics.6 J-Pop English lyrics are quite frequent,
and Moody and Mastsumoto (2003) have identified four functions of English lyrics within
J-Pop. These are illustrated in Table 3. While English lyrics may represent nothing more
than the rendering of English loanwords in roman letters rather than the more conven-
tional katakana writing system, they may also represent a form of hybridization called
code ambiguation. Because it represents the most significant challenge to conceptions of
ethnolinguistic identity, code ambiguation is the most innovative function of J-Pop
English. It has been recognized that ambiguation of the speakers ethnic identity is a
common function of code switching and that with the use of strategic ambiguity, social
functions may take place without the interference of ethnicity (Heller, 1988). Code
ambiguation, however, is a form of bilingual creativity that uses material from at least
two languages in such a way that it is unclear which language is used. (4)(10) below are
all cited as examples of code ambiguation in Moody and Matsumoto (2003).

Table 2. J-Pop songs containing English lyrics (Moody, 2001)

Songs containing English and Japanese lyrics 142 (62%)

Songs containing no English lyrics 79 (35%)
Songs entirely in English 6 (3%)

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 English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 219

Table 3. Functions of language mixing in J-Pop (Moody and Matsumoto, 2003)

Roles Description

Musical filler Words like yeah or oh appear in romaji (Roman script)

Single words and phrases
Clauses and sentences
Code ambiguation
and may therefore be counted as English words. The words are
pronounced as Japanese words.
Words like jump or kiss may be inserted within a text that is
otherwise Japanese. The English words do not disrupt the Japanese
grammatical structure. The English words may be widely understood
loanwords, or nonce borrowings.
Sentences or clauses may be inserted, usually within the space of an
entire line. Often the clauses or sentences translate the preceding
Japanese text into English.
English (or any foreign language) words or Japanese words are used
with possible meanings in both languages. This blending,
or ambiguating, of the two codes is often done at the written level,
while at the aural level there does not appear to be any blending.

(4) So, Saint name Saint name, Burning love oimotometeru [seeking]
Sennen Sennen [1000 years 1000 years] Crazy Love ichigeki mune-ni abite
[getting a stroke on the chest]
from Hallelujah, Burning Love/Hiromi Go
(English Saint name mimics the Japanese text sennen 1000 years)
(5) dont U Think? I wana [trap] B wiy U
[dont you think? I want to be with you]
from Gibusu [A Plaster Cast]/Ringo Shiina
(Japanese wana trap is meant to be read as English wanna want to)
(6) I, I, I, I Tender
from Atto Iu Ma-no Yume-no Tonight [Night of Dreams]/The Southern All Stars
(sounds like Japanese aittendaa I love you!)
(7) I, I, I, I Surrender
from Atto Iu Ma-no Yume-no Tonight [Night of Dreams]/The Southern All Stars
(sounds like Japanese aisarendaa, a simplified form of aishitendan Ill be loved!)
(8) Skipped Beat, Skipped Beat
from Sukippu Biito (Skipped Beat) [Skip Beat]/Kuwata Band
(sounds like Japanese sukebee a lecher)
(9) Cry Ai Cry [Cry, I Cry]
from Cry Ai Cry [Cry, I Cry]/The Southern All Stars
(Japanese ai sad is meant to be read as English I)
(10) Ima ni-mo yuugata Hold on me [Almost, youve got a hold on me]
from Yuugata Hold On Me [Youve Got A Hold On Me]/The Southern All Stars
(Japanese yuugata evening is meant to be read as English you gotta Youve got a)
In each of these examples English is used to produce a meaning in Japanese, or alterna-
tively Japanese is used to produce a meaning in English. While it is true that many of these
uses of code ambiguity would go unnoticed without examination of the printed lyric sheet,
there may be important reasons why lyricists choose to use code ambiguation. For

2006 The Author. Journal compilation 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

220 Andrew J. Moody

example, (8) uses the English words skipped beat to stand in for a somewhat lewd
Japanese term. The use of code ambiguation in this example injects a level of playfulness
into a text that might otherwise appear offensive. The code ambiguation suggests that the
singer is not really singing what it sounds like he is singing.
While this analysis explains a number of the examples of stigmatized language cited in
Moody and Matsumoto (2003), it does not account for all, or even most of the examples
of code ambiguation. On a sociolinguistic level, code ambiguation, by reducing the
perceptual differences between English and Japanese, may also function to redefine
ethnolinguistic identity by questioning the myth of Japanese uniqueness. If English text
is able to suggest a meaning in Japanese, and vice versa, then it is difficult to maintain the
myth of Japanese uniqueness. Instead, the Japanese language begins to function within a
domain that is also occupied by English.
In his analysis of language and identity with the Japanese Latin salsa band Orquest de
la Luz (OL), Hosokawa (1999) argues that purist niche bands like OL respond to the
feeling among many Japanese youth for the loss of Japans genuine cultural identity
(p. 509). In relation to pop music, Hosokawa continues:

Generally referred to as kayokyoku, or J-pop today, mainstream popular music tends to be heavily
influenced by Western styles but mixed with something Japanese in the lyrics, rhythm, melody and/
or arrangement. (Japanese lyrics are particularly crucial for nationwide popularity.) (p. 519)

The J-Pop mode of mixing Japanese forms and content with Western in search of identity,
then, has further linguistic implications. When verbal codes are ambiguated in the manner that
Moody and Matsumoto (2003) describe, ethnic identity is potentially obscured. For example,
Moody and Matsumoto demonstrate that the J-Pop band Love Psychedelico Englishizes their
Japanese pronunciation to the point that it is not always clear which language is being used. It
is no longer clear whether the songs are sung by a Japanese speaker in English, or by an
English speaker in Japanese. This ambiguity has even led one commentator to incorrectly
guess that the lead singer grew up during her teenage years in the United States (Konuki, 2003:
80). By ambiguating her Japanese pronunciation, listeners doubt that the singer is Japanese,
and suspect that she must have lived abroad in order to produce Englishized Japanese.
In examining the role of language and identity in popular culture, it must be remem-
bered that the expressions of identity are not necessarily representative of the speech
communitys attitudes. Instead, individual expressions of identity can be used to question
or mock those of the speech community. Likewise, individual expressions may function as
a vehicle of change in identity, and an expression of the communitys desires rather than
practice. In the case of the language entertainment television genre and J-Pop music, it
seems that the use of English responds to a desire to question the domains of the Japanese
language, and to extend the use of Japanese to inter-ethnic communication. While the
myth of uniqueness may still be largely unquestioned, it should be noted that popular
culture responds to market forces within the greater population. If an image of the
Japanese language or identity is unacceptable, it will not be allowed to find greater
expression. This is not the case, however, with the attitudes represented in the language
entertainment genre a genre that continues to expand in popularity or by code
ambiguation in J-Pop, a practice that becomes increasingly common. Instead, it seems
that the images of Japanese language and ethnicity presented in popular culture express
the desire for a more cosmopolitan and globally influential language.

2006 The Author. Journal compilation 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

 English in Japanese popular culture and J-Pop music 221

NOTES
1. Much of the research for this paper was completed with the assistance of Aichi Shukutoku University,
Nagoya, Japan. The author also gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Setsuko Hisakawa in gathering
much of the television data used in this study and of Yuko Matsumoto for her helpful comments and
assistance in preparation of the manuscript. Any errors are, of course, my own. Unless quoted from other
sources, the translations from Japanese are the authors.
2. A number of scholars also claim that these attitudes have disappeared in contemporary Japanese society. See
Gonnerman (1983), Saint-Jacques (1983), Wallacker (1983), and Dewolf (1985).
3. See Stanlaw (2004: 26578) and Loveday (1996: 77113) for discussions of the history of attitudes toward
English loanwords.
4. For a description of how English and other languages loanwords are nativized see Loveday (1996: 11456).
5. It is not entirely clear what the speaker means by the use of the word STEP. I have translated in all capital
letters to show that the speaker has possibly confused the name of the group SMAP with STEP. At the
same time, it is possible that she is referring to him as the member of SMAP as a dancing group and uses the
word step to refer to such a group.
6. For the purposes of these studies of J-Pop English, English lyrics were defined as lyrics written in roman letters
on the CD liner notes. No attempt was made to try and measure the degree of nativization with which the
lyrics were sung, and, therefore, it is impossible to determine whether these lyrics fall into the categories of
loanwords, nonce borrowings, or code switches. For the purposes of this paper, however, it should be
understood that J-Pop English may refer to the full range of language mixing described in Figure 1.

DISCOGRAPHY
Go, Hiromi (2000) Hallelujah, Burning Love. Sony (Japan) 4684.
Kuwata Band (1986) Skippu Biito (Skipped Beat). Victor 35302.
Shiina, Ringo (2000) Gibusu. Toshiba EMI 22051.
Southern All Stars, The (1984) Atto iu ma-no yume-no tonight. Ninkimono-de Ikou. Victor 60217.
Southern All Stars, The (1984) Yuugata hold on me. Ninkimono-de Ikou. Victor 60217.
Southern All Stars, The (1998) Cry Ai Cry. Victor 30237.
Zappa, Frank (1982) Valley Girl. Ship Arriving Too Late To Save a Drowning Witch. RKODisc USA 10537.

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