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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cultural Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1371271
This article is part of the Research Topic Highlights in Cultural Psychology: Language View all 6 articles

Rearticulating the Promotion of Japanese Language and Culture from the Perspective of "Soft Power": Planning and Effects

Provisionally accepted
Jingshu Gu Jingshu Gu 1Shiping Deng Shiping Deng 2*
  • 1 Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The concept of soft power has engendered lively discourse within the international community. The development of a nation's soft power frequently hinges on cultural communication and the promotion of language. This manuscript concentrates on Japan as a case study and undertakes an investigation of the methods it has employed to cultivate its soft power. To accomplish this objective, Japan's strategies for cultural communication and the promotion of the Japanese language are comprehensively examined. From the perspective of language planning, prestige planning of language and culture constitutes a crucial mode of cultural communication, whereas language education planning (or acquisition planning) is the primary method of language promotion. Japan has adeptly disseminated its culture overseas through cultural communication and language promotion. On one hand, it fashions a "cool culture" embodied by anime and manga to augment cultural appeal and amplify national image. On the other hand, it advances the Japanese language abroad by establishing supportive institutions, dispatching experts and volunteers, and creating online teaching materials. Building on Japan, this paper establishes a theoretical framework for the construction of soft power, employing the aforementioned two approaches as valuable guides for research on soft power.

    Keywords: Japan, soft power, language promotion, Cultural communication, Language education planning, prestige planning of language and culture

    Received: 16 Jan 2024; Accepted: 09 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gu and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shiping Deng, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

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