Use and perception of Spanish in the linguistic landscape of Tokyo’s wards

Abstract

Walking among restaurants of Shinjuku and finding menus that announce food in perfect Spanish; enjoying an afternoon at karaoke in any city of Japan and being surprised by songs from Hispanic groups; or finding stores, products, and advertisements with words in Spanish makes easy to realize the weight that step by step our language is acquiring in Japanese society. This increasingly closed relationship is not simply given by the increase in young people whose families come from Latin countries or by the historical ties that the Japanese country may have with the Hispanic culture, is also due to a more complex phenomenon in the that Japanese society is assimilating Western elements as its own.

The study of the Spanish linguistic landscape in Japan, both from a sociolinguistic perspective and from a didactic point of view in relation to Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language, is presented as an opportunity to begin to understand the real extent of the spread of Spanish in Japan, the stereotypes and preconceived ideas that are transferred to the classrooms and the image that is being transmitted in the Japanese imaginary of our culture. Therefore, taking as its object the analysis of the linguistic landscape of an area as central and bustling as the Shibuya area (Tokyo), this presentation will analyze how the vision of the West that is rooted in Japan is reflected in the use of Spanish in the daily life of this megacity.