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Editors
Martin Mielick, Ryuko Kubota and Luke Lawrence

Discourses of Identity
Language Learning, Teaching, and Reclamation
Perspectives in Japan
Editors
Martin Mielick
Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK

Ryuko Kubota
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Luke Lawrence
Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan

ISBN 978-3-031-11987-3 e-ISBN 978-3-031-11988-0

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11988-0

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive

licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively
licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
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illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in
any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks,

service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the
relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general
use.

The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the
advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate
at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham,
Switzerland
“This book is a welcome addition to the literature on linguistic diversity
in Japan, putting a solid nail into the coffin of the surprisingly persistent
stereotype of Japan as a monolingual nation. Its multi-faceted
examination of identity-related issues inherent in language learning,
teaching and reclamation illuminates the true complexity of language
issues in Japan today.”
—Nanette Gottlieb, The University of Queensland, Australia, Emeritus
Professor, School of Languages and Cultures, nanette.​gottlieb@uq.​edu.​au
“If, in 2022, anyone is still holding onto the myth of Japan as a
homogeneous nation, this book will shatter that myth. But not only
that, this book also illuminates the experiences of those who are trying
to negotiate diverse identities and carve out a place for themselves in a
nation that’s both rapidly changing and stubbornly resistant to change.”
—Yasuko Kanno, Boston University, USA, Associate Professor of
Language Education and Chair of the Department of Language and
Literacy Education, yakanno@bu.​edu
“Diversity and identity are concepts that are absolutely central to
any understanding of language and its use. This wide-ranging volume
explores the implications this has for language education in Japan, a
country often portrayed as culturally and linguistically homogenous. In
doing so, the book offers an insightful and engaging look at the
experiences and challenges involved in real people’s often complex
relationships with language education.”
—Philip Seargeant, The Open University, UK, Senior Lecturer in
Applied Linguistics, philip.​seargeant@open.​ac.​uk
Contents
1 Introduction to Language Learning, Teaching, and Reclamation
in Japan:​Diversity, Inequalities, and Identities
Ryuko Kubota
Part I English Language Learner Identity
2 English Language Learners’ Discursive Constructions of National
and Global Identities in the Japanese University Context
Martin Mielick
3 Becoming the Paths we Tread:​Negotiating Identity through an
Ideological Landscape of Practice
Daniel Hooper
4 The Intertwining of Native-Speakerism and Racism in the
Construction of Linguistic Identity
Xinqi He
Part II Indigenous Language Reclamation and Identity
5 Creation and Expansion of a Safe Place to Be Ainu:​The Urespa
Project
Yumiko Ohara and Yuki Okada
6 In Search of Indigenous Identity through Re-Creation of Ainu
Self-Sustaining Community:​Praxis and Learning in Action
Tatsiana Tsagelnik
7 Hear our Voice:​New Speakers of Ryukyuan Language—
Negotiation, Construction, and Change of Identities
Madoka Hammine
8 Ryukyuan Language Reclamation:​Individual Struggle and Social
Change
Patrick Heinrich and Giulia Valsecchi
Part III Japanese Language Learner Identity
9 Conflicting and Shifting Professional Identities of Two
Indonesian Nurses:​L2 Japanese Socialization at Workplaces in
Japan and after their Return to Indonesia
 Chiharu Shima
10 “Your Class Is Like Karaoke”:​Language Learning as a Shelter
Kazuhiro Yonemoto
11 “No Need to Invest in the Japanese Language?​”:​The Identity
Development of Chinese Students in the English-Medium
Instruction (EMI) Program of a Japanese College
Keiko Kitade
12 Who Speaks Yasashii Nihongo for Whom?: Reimagining the
“Beneficiary” Identities of Plain/Easy Japanese
Noriko Iwasaki
13 Discursive Construction of Heritage Desire:​Nikkei Identity
Discourse in a Layered Politics of Representation
Kyoko Motobayashi
Part IV English Language Teacher Identity
14 “It Feels Like I’m Stuck in a Web Sometimes”:​The Culturally
Emergent Identity Experiences of a Queer Assistant Language
Teacher in Small-Town Japan
Ashley R. Moore
15 Discursive Positioning of the Philippines and Filipino Teachers
in the Online Eikaiwa Industry
Misako Tajima
16 Framing, Ideology, and the Negotiation of Professional
Identities Among Non-Japanese EFL Teachers in Japan
Robert J. Lowe
17 Emotion and Identity:​The Impact of English-Only Policies on
Japanese English Teachers in Japan
Luke Lawrence
18 Performing Motivating and Caring Identities:​The Emotions of
Non-Japanese University Teachers of English
Sam Morris
19 Moving Beyond the Monolingual Orientation to Investigate
Language Teacher Identities:​A Translingual Approach in the
Japanese EFL Context
Yuzuko Nagashima
Index
List of Figures
Fig.​7.​1 Map of the Ryukyus in relation to Japan Mainland

Fig.​7.​2 Ryukyuan languages (Adopted from Heinrich &​Ishihara, 2019,

p.​166)

Fig.​11.​1 The diagram illustrating the development of I-positions.​

(Adopted from Hermans &​Hermans-Jansen, 2003, Fig.​23-1, p.​544)

Fig.​11.​2 The diagram illustrating the development of I-positions with

promotor and meta positions

Fig.​11.​3 The I-positions in the later stage of Han’s trajectory

Fig.​11.​4 Ko’s I-positions emerged in the last stage

List of Tables
Table 8.​1 Interviews

Table 11.​1 The summary of interview data

Table 11.​2 The initial and revised goals (The equifinality points) of Han
and Ko

Table 11.​3 The stages and BFPs of Han’s trajectory

Table 11.​4 The stages and BFPs of Ko’s trajectory

Table 17.​1 List of participants for interviews

Notes on Contributors
Madoka Hammine
works as an associate professor in the Faculty of International Studies
at Meio University, Japan. She holds a doctorate degree from the
University of Lapland in Finland. Her research focuses on teacher
education, language education, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and
Indigenous research methodologies. She has been learning the
linguistic varieties of Ryukyuan.

Xinqi He
is a lecturer at J. F. Oberlin University in Japan and holds a PhD from the
University of Tokyo. She did her master’s thesis in the same university
in the field of applied linguistics yet shifted her academic focus to the
field of critical applied linguistics in her PhD program, especially on
migrant’s language acquisition.

Patrick Heinrich
is Professor of Sociolinguistics and Japanese Studies at the Department
of Asian and Mediterranean African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of
Venice. Before joining Ca’ Foscari in 2014, he taught at universities in
Germany (Duisburg-Essen University) and Japan (Dokkyo University)
for many years.

Daniel Hooper
is a lecturer in the Education Department at Hakuoh University. He has
taught in Japan for 16 years, predominantly in higher education and
English conversation schools. His research interests include learner and
teacher identity, communities of practice, and the English conversation
school industry.
Noriko Iwasaki
is Professor of Japanese Language Pedagogy and Second Language
Acquisition at Nanzan University. Her research interests include study-
abroad students’ development of pragmatic competence and changes in
linguistic/cultural identities and L2 speakers’ use of Japanese mimetics.
She co-edited a volume titled Ido to Kotoba (Mobility and Language)
(2018).

Keiko Kitade
is Professor of Japanese Language Teacher Education and Intercultural
Communication in the Department of Letters and Graduate School of
Language Education and Information Science, Ritsumeikan University,
Japan. Her current interests are the narrative inquiry of study/work-
abroad experiences, curriculum development in border-crossing
learning, and language teacher development.

Ryuko Kubota
is a professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at
University of British Columbia, Canada. She has taught Japanese and
English as a foreign language. Her research focuses on antiracism,
critical multiculturalism, and other critical issues in language teaching
and learning.

Luke Lawrence
is a lecturer at Toyo University. His research interests revolve around
intersectional aspects of teacher identity. His work has been published
in ELT Journal, Applied Linguistics Review and the Journal of Language,
Identity and Education amongst others. He is also the co-editor of the
book Duoethnography in English Language Teaching.

Robert J. Lowe
is an associate professor at Ochanomizu University, Japan. His recent
publications include the monograph Uncovering Ideology in English
Language Teaching (2020), and papers in Language Teaching,
Language, Culture and Curriculum, and ELT Journal.

Martin Mielick
is a PhD candidate of Applied Linguistics at Canterbury Christ Church
University in England. His research interests are focused upon
discourse, identity, and concepts of nationalism related to identity. He
has taught and researched in the UK, Poland, Kazakhstan and Japan.

Ashley R. Moore
is Assistant Professor of TESOL in the Department of Language and
Literacy Education, Boston University Wheelock College of Education
and Human Development. His research interests include queer issues in
language education and linguistic dissociation.

Sam Morris
is a lecturer in the Centre for Foreign Language Education and Research
at Rikkyo University (Japan). He is interested broadly in the role that
emotions play in second language teaching and acquisition. His
principal focus is the contextually situated emotion regulation that
teachers employ during their work.
Kyoko Motobayashi
is Associate Professor of Japanese Applied Linguistics at the Graduate
School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo,
Japan. Her main research areas are sociolinguistics, discourse analysis,
and language policy studies, focusing on bilingualism, language
teaching and learning, and identity issues.

Yuzuko Nagashima
teaches at Yokohama City University. Her research interests include
teacher identity and intersectionality, translingualism, as well as
critical/feminist pedagogy. Her recent publications can be found in the
Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Applied Linguistics Review,
and ELT Journal.

Yumiko Ohara
is an associate professor in the College of Hawaiian Language at the
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo which houses the only doctoral program in
the United States focusing on revitalizing Indigenous languages. She has
been involved in revitalization work on Ainu, Ryū kyū an, and the
Hawaiian language since 2008.

Yuki Okada
was in the first cohort group of the Urespa project at Sapporo
University and has been working as the supervisor of the club since he
graduated from the program. He is a doctoral student at Hokkaido
University and his work focuses on Ainu perspectives concerning
animal deities.

Chiharu Shima
is Associate Professor of Graduate School of Global Communication and
Language at Akita International University. Her research interests
include the processes of second language socialization and intercultural
communication in institutional settings, in particular, workplaces.

Misako Tajima
is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Science and
Engineering, Ibaraki University. Her research interests include
sociolinguistics and critical applied linguistics, and her articles have
been published in international journals related to these fields, such as
Journal of Sociolinguistics and Critical Inquiry in Language Studies.

Tatsiana Tsagelnik
is a PhD student at Hokkaido University who has been involved in
research related to Ainu people since 2013 and is conducting cultural
anthropological research on Ainu language attitudes and Indigenous
identity.

Giulia Valsecchi
is a graduate student at the Department of Asian and Mediterranean
African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She is preparing her
master’s thesis on conceptions of space on Yonaguni Island and
participating as a research assistant in a project on language and
wellbeing in the Ryukyus.

Kazuhiro Yonemoto
is an assistant professor at the Institute of Global Affairs of Tokyo
Medical and Dental University, where he coordinates the Japanese
language program for international students. His research interests
include educational sociolinguistics, education for language minority
students, and affective dimensions of second language teaching and
learning.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
M. Mielick et al. (eds.), Discourses of Identity
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11988-0_1

1. Introduction to Language Learning,

Teaching, and Reclamation in Japan:
Diversity, Inequalities, and Identities
Ryuko Kubota1
(1) University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Ryuko Kubota
Email: ryuko.kubota@ubc.ca

Keywords English – Essentialism – Identity – Ideology – Indigenous

language – Inequality – Japanese language

Japan is a country typically described as racially, culturally, and

linguistically homogenous. Yet, homogeneity must be understood in
relative terms. Indeed, some nation states are more homogenous than
others, but absolute homogeneity rarely exists anywhere in the world
due to historical and contemporary realities of human mobility.
Transnational and transregional human mobility throughout history
have created contact zones (Pratt, 2008), in which people learn to use
others’ language(s) by necessity, by choice, through colonial
impositions, or under educational policies. This indicates that there is a
significant amount of diversity among languages learned as well as
language users, learners, and teachers in Japan. There are also multiple
purposes, reasons, motivations, and desires for engaging in linguistic
development for ourselves and others, all of which contribute to
shaping identities.
 Yet, such diversity does not imply that all the elements—language,
gender, race, ethnicity, experience, intentionality—that comprise the
multiplicity of identities have an equal status in society. Moreover,
when diversity is understood as a constellation of diverse groups
separated by identity categories (e.g., women, men, Ainu, and
Ryukyuan), an urge to characterize each group in a single unified term
leads to a problem of understanding diversity as a collection of groups,
each of which is defined in an essentialist way.
As an introduction to our book, I will lay out contextual information
about diversity relevant to identities in language learning, teaching, and
reclamation in Japan; examine power, ideologies, and inequalities that
are intertwined with diversity; and provide a brief discussion on
identities in language education. I write as a Japanese woman and a
critical scholar in applied linguistics who grew up in Japan and moved
to North America in my late 20s. My 40 years of professional activities,
including teaching English and Japanese as foreign languages and
conducting research on language education, inform my perspectives.

Diversity in Japan
Diversity observed in the social, cultural, linguistic, and demographic
domains in Japan has been pointed out by a number of authors in
sociology, education, and language studies (e.g., Befu, 2001; Gottlieb,
2005; Okano, 2021; Sugimoto, 2014). Ethnolinguistic diversity is
especially relevant to the topics addressed in this volume.
Although the Japanese language is predominantly used in Japan,
many variations exist according to geography, gender, register, genre,
modality, and so on. In thinking about the linguistic diversity of
Japanese, however, we should be cautious of essentialism. For instance,
there is a common belief that the Japanese language is characterized by
gendered linguistic expressions as well as different registers for
politeness. These ideas tend to lead to the belief that there is a
diametrical difference in linguistic identity between women and men or
between people with different social statuses that are hierarchically
ordered. However, sociolinguistic investigations of actual language use
of Japanese speakers revealed more nuanced use of different registers
and variants. In fact, the indexicality of gender and politeness is
manifested in dynamic and fluid ways according to different dialects,
social contexts, social statuses, and positionalities as well as a
combination of these elements (Okamoto & Shibamoto-Smith, 2016).
There is no inherent connection, for instance, between being a woman
and using feminine speech. It is important to beware of the lure of
essentialism when understanding language and identity (Bucholtz &
Hall, 2004).
One significant component of diversity in Japan is comprised by
Indigenous populations. Indigenous peoples—Ainu and Ryukyuans—
together with their languages and cultures constitute minoritized
segments in Japan. As Part II of this book presents (Chap. 5 by Ohara &
Okuda, Chap. 6 by Tsagelnik, Chap. 7 by Hammine, and Chap. 8 by
Heinrich & Valsecchi), varieties of Ainu and Ryukyuan languages,
cultures, and identities have been severely suppressed by the modern
Japanese government. Yet, they have been revitalized and reclaimed
through the efforts made by Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples
(see also Heinrich, 2012; Heinrich & Ohara, 2019). Furthermore,
although Indigenous identities have been severely suppressed and
erased, they can be playfully appropriated, performing “coolness” in
postmodern society (Maher, 2005).
Linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity in Japan is also observed
among residents other than the prototypical Japanese (Otomo, 2019).
They include: oldcomer ethnic groups who settled in Japan during the
era of Imperial Japan (e.g., zainichi Koreans); newcomers, including
Chinese returnees (repatriates of Japanese war orphans and remaining
women in China—Kubota, 2013) and technical trainees (ginō jisshūsei),
or semi-skilled workers who have come since the 1990s; Nikkeijin
(people of Japanese descent) as workers and their families mainly from
South America; healthcare trainees under Economic Partnership
Agreements (see Chap. 9 by Shima); international students (see Chap. 4
by He; Chap. 10 by Yonemoto; Chap. 11 by Kitade); and skilled foreign
workers, who include native English-speaking teachers. Thus, even in
rural communities, multiple languages, including English, Mandarin,
Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese, are spoken by
diverse racialized and ethnic groups (Kubota & McKay, 2009).
The racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity in Japan creates
multiple contact zones involving diverse learners, teachers, and other
participants who strive to develop their linguistics skills. To take
foreign language learning for example, though the dominant language
to learn is English, other languages, including Mandarin, Korean,
French, Spanish, and German, are also taught and learned. The contexts
in which these foreign languages are learned vary from formal
education (e.g., primary, secondary, and tertiary education) and
nonformal education, including juku or private cram school, private
language institutes providing in-person or online lessons of eikaiwa or
English conversation (Hooper & Hashimoto, 2020), community classes,
workplaces, and so on (Kubota, 2020). The contextual multiplicity
signals the diversity of learners, teachers, as well as desires and
purposes of learning, which are either institutionally required or
individually initiated. As the chapters of this volume illustrate, much of
foreign language learning in Japan takes place among Japanese students
learning English (Chap. 2 by Mielick and Chap. 3 by Hooper). English
language instruction is provided by Japanese teachers of English or
native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) (Chap. 14 by Moore; Chap. 16
by Lowe; Chap. 17 by Lawrence; Chap. 19 by Nagashima). However,
English language learning is also engaged by other diverse learners. For
example, the popularity of English-medium instruction (EMI) has
created a space where plurilingual international students construct and
reconstruct their linguacultural identity in English and Japanese as
additional languages, while providing communicative opportunities in
other languages as well (Tsukada, 2013; Hashimoto, 2013; see also
Chap. 11 by Kitade). Even outside of EMI programs, English is learned
by not only Japanese students but also non-Japanese students in Japan
(see an example of a White Russian student learning English in Chap. 4
by He). In addition, not all non-Japanese teachers of English are NESTs.
Learning English from Filipino/a teachers online has become an
attractive option among Japanese students (Tajima, 2018; see also
Chap. 15 by Tajima). Furthermore, many of the NESTs working in Japan
are learners of Japanese, navigating multilayered contact zones for
identity negotiation (Chap. 14 by Moore).
Indeed, Japanese language teaching and learning in Japan involves
multiple contact zones. Just as in English language education in Japan,
Japanese language teaching and learning involves a range of contexts
and participants. For instance, instruction takes place in primary and
secondary schools in many pockets of Japanese society mainly for
children with overseas roots (e.g., children of Nikkei workers and
foreign professionals), whereas many universities offer Japanese
courses for international students seeking their degree (Chap. 10 by
Yonemoto) or studying under short-term exchange programs. There are
also healthcare and technical trainees learning Japanese in the form of
on-the-job training (Chap. 9 by Shima). Some of them also learn
Japanese in community settings from Japanese volunteer tutors (Chap.
14 by Moore). Furthermore, not only teachers but also prospective
teachers or teacher trainees and their prospective teaching contexts are
diverse (Chap. 12 by Iwasaki; Chap. 13 by Motobayashi).
One prominent yet often forgotten facet of language teaching and
learning involves Indigenous languages and cultures. Although the two
major language groups—Ainu and Ryukyuan—represent Indigenous
languages in Japan, they are not monoliths. There are many varieties of
these languages used in traditional communities. It is important to note
that the familiar concept of modern language teaching and learning
does not fit how Indigenous people try to gain their knowledge and
skills in the language that they have lost for generations. The long-term
oppression and assimilation along with the resultant erasure of
Indigenous languages and cultures compel Indigenous people to regain
their lost linguistic and cultural identity. As such, learning an
Indigenous language is not for increasing socioeconomic opportunities
or appreciating a foreign culture; rather, it is about reclaiming the
Indigenous identity or rediscovering and regaining oneself as a bearer
of Indigenous heritage. Its benefits include strengthening
intergenerational connections and wellbeing of the family and
community, revaluing cultural identity, and developing a sense of self-
determination (McCarty, 2020). This indicates, as Part II of this volume
demonstrate, that learning Indigenous languages does not share the
same purpose, process, benefit, and symbolic meaning with learning
English, Japanese, or other modern languages.

Power, Ideology, and Inequality within Diversity

The above overview of diversity in Japan certainly demystifies the
common image of Japan as a homogeneous nation. However, it is
important to recognize that the diverse groups of people or languages
are not positioned with equal amounts of power in institutions and
larger society.
Of all varieties of Japanese language, standardized Japanese based
on a Tokyo dialect is the dominant language in contemporary Japan. Its
dominance was established as part of the modernist project of building
a linguistically and culturally unified nation, which involved the
creation of kokugo, a written form of standardized language, and the
imposition of the national language, kokugo, onto the users of
Indigenous languages and regional dialects, as well as people in the
colonized and occupied territories during the era of Imperial Japan
(Gottlieb, 2005; Heinrich, 2012). This nation-building process was
driven by the modernist ideology underlying the creation of a unified
nation as an imagined community, which involves the establishment of
standardized print language (Anderson, 2006). However, there is
resistance. As seen in the chapters of Part II on Indigenous language
reclamation in this volume, Indigenous people have begun to push back
the state ideology that has long suppressed their languages to carve out
space for legitimating their lost identities.
The hegemony of standardized Japanese creates a power hierarchy
not only among diverse varieties of Japanese or Indigenous languages
but also between native speakers of Japanese and nonnative speakers
of Japanese or between heritage learners of Japanese and nonheritage
learners of Japanese. For instance, the image of Nikkei Japanese
language learners in South America is constructed closer to
Japaneseness than that of non-Nikkei Japanese learners (see Chap. 13
by Motobayashi). This certainly involves an undertone of racial
distinctions in language learning, resonating with raciolinguistic
ideology, whereby one’s perceived racial background affects listeners’
reaction to linguistic performance (Flores & Rosa, 2015). I will discuss
this more later.
With regard to foreign language education in Japan, the most
popular language to learn is English, reflecting its global status (Kubota,
2019; Seargeant, 2011). However, not all Englishes or English speakers
are equal (Tupas, 2015); there are power disparities between the
standardized forms of English and other varieties and between native
speakers and nonnative speakers. Teachers of English—native speakers
or nonnative speakers—navigate these power differentials (Chap. 19 by
Nagashima). The same belief about the superiority of native speakers
predominates the teaching and learning of Japanese as a second
language in Japan as well. Recently, there is a social movement to
narrow the power differential between native and nonnative speakers
of Japanese in local communities by using yasashii nihongo [simplified
Japanese] especially during natural disasters or other emergency
situations (Hashimoto, 2018). Despite its good intention of leveling
linguistic power relations, using the modified version of Japanese does
not work to disrupt the hegemony of the standardized Japanese in any
fundamental way, and instead it can even accentuate the foreignness of
nonnative speakers, causing their alienation (see Chap. 12 by Iwasaki).
Unequal relations of power between diverse language users are not
only caused by linguistic difference; speakers’ racial backgrounds
intersect with their linguistic profiles and reproduce raciolinguistic
ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015). In the case of English, speakers who
are viewed as competent and thus superior are White people, whereas
in the case of Japanese, those who are viewed as competent speakers of
Japanese typically display the stereotypical phenotype of the Japanese.
People who deviate from these bodily images are made linguistically
illegitimate and marginalized, whereas those who are aligned with the
raciolinguistic stereotype are privileged (Kang & Rubin, 2009; Rivers &
Ross, 2013; see also Chap. 4 by He; Chap. 15 by Tajima). Moreover,
other identity categories, including gender, class, and sexuality,
intersect with each other and form a complex web of power for diverse
language users (see Chap. 14 by Moore).

Research on Identities in Language Learning,

Teaching, and Reclamation
Research on identity in language education has been conducted in
many contexts in various geographical locations (e.g., Anya, 2017;
Appleby, 2014; Barkhuizen, 2017; Higgins, 2011; Kamada, 2010; Kanno,
2003, 2008; Nagamoto, 2016; Nakane et al., 2015; Norton, 2013; Park,
2017; Simon-Maeda, 2011; Stanley, 2013; Tajima, 2018). These
investigations have revealed that constructions of identity are not only
bound up with common identity markers, such as race, gender, and
class, but they are also intrinsically connected with language and are
contextually manifested (Norton & De Costa, 2018).
In the field of language studies, the identity of language learners
and teachers in general has largely been investigated through a
postmodern/poststructuralist lens, underscoring its multiple, fluid,
hybrid, and discursively constructed nature (Weedon, 1997). This lens
provides scholars with anti-essentialist understanding of language,
culture, and identity, serving as a critical tool for analyzing,
interpreting, and reporting the nature of identity. In Japan, the
essentialist conceptualization of Japaneseness or nihonjinron, as an
ideology that emphasizes the uniqueness of Japanese language, culture,
and people, may influence how learners or teachers construct identities
of the Self and the Other (Befu, 2001; Chap. 2 by Mielick; Chap. 19 by
Nagashima). Moreover, its essentialist ideology functions as an
assimilation force against Indigenous peoples, compelling them to
devalue their ancestral language and culture as inferior to Japaneseness
(see Part II: Chap. 5 by Ohara & Okuda, Chap. 6 by Tsagelnik, Chap. 7 by
Hammine, and Chap. 8 by Heinrich & Valsecchi).
The essentialist understanding of language and culture is
incompatible with the increased diversity as seen in linguistic forms
and practices, which informs how learner or teacher identity is shaped
within multilingual and plurilingual conditions and consciousness
(Rubdy & Alsagoff, 2013; Kramsch, 2009). Yet, the scholarly trend
toward illuminating the multi/plural turn is at odds with the neoliberal
emphasis on learning English only and measuring linguistic ability via
standardized tests, posing a tension between fluidity and fixity (Jaspers
& Madsen, 2019; Kubota, 2016). Thus, more recently, increased
scholarly attention has been paid to the role of the political economy,
neoliberal ideologies, and social class in language teaching, learning,
and use (Block, 2014; Block et al., 2012). Under the neoliberal ideology
that emphasizes the importance of developing marketable skills with
self-effort, acquiring English language competence is deemed essential
for socioeconomic mobility, constructing the identity of the neoliberal
self. Paradoxically, neoliberalism also capitalizes on the notion of
diversity which is supposed to enhance economic profit in the free
market economy, creating tensions for identity management. For
example, in a study on Korean workers in multinational corporations in
Singapore, Park (2020) demonstrated a contradiction of the neoliberal
discourse of diversity management that values the workers’ unique
linguacultural identity on the one hand, and imposes a monolingual
English-dominant identity of being assertive on the other. Park’s study
as well as others raise questions of how identity is shaped and
reshaped by the interface between language policies, ideologies,
economy, and material conditions (see Chap. 15 by Tajima).
While the neoliberal ideology drives the nation to enhance English
language teaching and learning for economic success, not all language
learners are oriented toward the instrumental purpose for learning
English. Learning a language in fact shapes nonpragmatic identities that
involve various kinds of personal desires and aspirations (Kubota,
2011; see Chap. 10 by Yonemoto). This also indicates how emotions are
involved in the shaping of identity in language education. Teachers’
emotional encounters and management, for instance, are embedded in
social, contextual, and relational specificities and linked to their
professional wellbeing and identities (Benesch, 2012; Gkonou et al.,
2020; see Chap. 17 by Lawrence, Chap. 18 by Morris).
In contrast to these individual experiences of desires and emotions,
reclaiming collective identity is foregrounded in reclaiming Indigenous
languages from decolonizing perspectives. It necessitates community
mobilization, healing, and transformation, as discussed earlier (Smith,
2021; Wyman et al., 2014). In this context, language learning is a part of
a larger community endeavor to recover the lost Indigenous identity
which integrates collective linguistic identity with land, history, and
culture (see Part II: Chap. 5 by Ohara & Okuda, Chap. 6 by Tsagelnik,
Chap. 7 by Hammine, and Chap. 8 by Heinrich & Valsecchi).
Issues of identity in language teaching and learning in Japan can be
investigated against these backdrops. Reflecting globalization, English
is the predominant language to learn, offering many contact zones in
which the identity of teachers and learners are often negotiated with
native/nonnative speakerness and cultural identity. Japanese
educational initiatives in globalization have both solidified and
obscured national, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic borders and identities
(Doerr, 2020). Yet, participants in language education are positioned in
unequal relations of power that require identity negotiation.
Furthermore, the contexts of teaching and learning are multiple,
providing multiple sites for identity (re)formation and negotiation.

About This Book

Focusing on language learning, teaching, and reclaiming in Japan, this
book presents studies that offer multiple manifestations, workings, and
negotiations of identity observed in diverse contexts involving diverse
people. It focuses on multiple dimensions of identity in Japan as they
intersect, collide, or are reshaped, illuminating linguistic, cultural, and
human diversity and complexity as manifested in language education.
The book brings together Japanese and non-Japanese scholars to
investigate a diverse range of contemporary issues related to identities
constructed within this context. While some identities are performed
by human actors, such as teachers, learners, and reclaimers, other
identities are discursively (re)constructed and signify teachers and
learners as the Other. The identities of the authors too, presented as
researcher positionalities in each chapter, are woven into their data
analysis, providing nuanced understandings of identities. Languages
addressed in this book range from English learned and taught by
diverse participants in various settings, to Japanese learned as a
second, foreign, or heritage language by speakers of other languages,
and to Indigenous languages reclaimed by community members. By
presenting such diverse contexts, languages, actors, and purposes,
issues of identity in Japan shed light on multiple facets of linguistic
practices, beliefs, ideologies, and tensions in a distinct way.
The book is divided into four parts: English language learner
identity, Indigenous language reclamation and identity, Japanese
language learner identity, and English language teacher identity.
Chapters present original qualitative research and expand our
understandings of facets of identities as evident in language education
in the Japanese context and likely in other contexts as well. By
questioning assumptions and investigating the heretofore under-
researched, this volume adds nuance and complexity to what is often
seen as a homogenous society and gives greater insight and
understandings for students and scholars both in Japan and around the
world.
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Part I
English Language Learner Identity
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
M. Mielick et al. (eds.), Discourses of Identity
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11988-0_2

2. English Language Learners’

Discursive Constructions of National
and Global Identities in the Japanese
University Context
Martin Mielick1
(1) Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK

Martin Mielick
Email: m.j.mielick976@canterbury.ac.uk

Keywords Identity – Nationalism – Globalization – Discourse –

Ideology – Essentialism – nihonjinron

National identity in Japan has been a strong foundation for its culture
and traditional underpinnings at first glance (Gottlieb, 2005), yet
concepts of national identity often ignore the diversity of identity and
plurilingual conditions that can be found in modern Japanese society
(Befu, 2001). In particular, one major influence to consider is the role of
globalization in English language teaching in Japan and how this may be
affecting language learners’ identities and ideological perceptions of
‘Otherness’ (Said, 1978). According to Kubota (2017, p. 288), “the
neoliberal promotion of English is complemented by neoconservative
emphasis on national identity,” which in turn emboldens nihonjinron
thesis claims, a discourse that emphasizes Japanese ‘uniqueness.’ But
how is this phenomenon externally represented in English language
learners’ discourses in Japanese universities and what role does
learning English play in shaping students’ identities?
This chapter examines the differing discursive constructions of
identity made by three Japanese university students at a foreign-
languages university through semi-structured interviews using a
multiple case study approach. The approach also used a question guide
which specifically focused on investigating national and global
identities. The discussion of national identity focuses on Japan, of
course, but there are also references to countries including the US and
India, native-speaker identity and non-Japanese identity. The
discussion of global identity is framed within the ideological bracket of
using English as a global language and, in turn, what it means to be
global.

Literature Review
National Identity, Nationalism, and the Nihonjinron
Thesis in Japan
National identity may be defined as the primordial source of belonging
to a nation (Geertz, 1963) acting as a “system of cultural
representations” (Wodak et al., 1999, p. 22) and/or an imagined
community (Anderson, 1983) for its people, although a postmodern
view conceptualizes national identity as discursively constructed. The
national ‘spirit’ has a long history of importance and relevance to the
Japanese people, and this topic forms the basis of discussion for much
of this chapter.
The discursive construction of national identity has been
investigated rigorously by Wodak et al. (1999), and they provide
categorization of the ways that discourses can be constructed through
discursive strategies, albeit predominantly based upon research in the
Austrian and wider European contexts. This topic is also explored in
detail by Anderson (1983), Billig (1995), Hall (1996), Calhoun (1997),
and Smith (2001), and each of them discusses how the importance of
nationhood interacts with the notions of identity. Looking specifically at
the Japanese context, Gottlieb (2005, 2007) also discusses aspects of
Japanese national identity, mostly in connection to how a combination
of language and identity acts as a basis for social identification. There
may be ample reason for this in Japan considering examples provided
by Doi (1973) as cited in Kawai (2007, p. 41), whereby the Japanese
language “comprises [of] everything which is intrinsic to the ‘soul’ of a
nation,” a concept which may also be referred to as kotodama, “the
‘spirit’ of the Japanese language” (Gottlieb, 2007, p. 192).
Dale’s (1986) somewhat controversial The Myth of Japanese
Uniqueness could be regarded as a “strategy of demontage or
dismantling” (Wodak et al., 1999, p. 42) of the self-identity stereotypes
that exist in Japan. Dale heavily criticizes the self-perceived uniqueness
of the Japanese, building on Miller’s (1982) Japan’s Modern Myth: The
Language and Beyond, which highlighted different essentialisms in
Japan. However, there are some credible contextual interpretations of
the many features of the nihonjinron thesis made by Dale which may
still be applicable even now. For example, arguments like “the
nihonjinron’s endless discussion of differences between Japan and the
West” (Dale, 1986, p. 39) still seem poignant, and elements of this are
evident in mainstream Japanese media, especially TV programs. Kubota
(1999) also explored this concept in relation to pedagogy and research
in Japan and its implications for how Japanese culture is discursively
constructed. Adding to this, there is still a vast array of popular modern
literature which reflects the nihonjinron thesis, proclaiming that the
Japanese are uniquely different within the world, which ironically could
be considered a unique discourse in itself. In considering the
relationship between this sociocultural phenomenon and everyday
teaching at universities in Japan, there may be a wide range of
discourses that practitioners have experienced through students’
written and spoken text. For example, do students write or say certain
things which seem to reflect the nihonjinron thesis or a similar
ideology? If so, to what extent can this discourse be considered
otherizing, ethnocentric, or xenophobic, or simply seen as a
representation of Japanese culture?
Befu (2001) argues that the appreciation of the actual diversity that
exists in Japan is rather lacking, and there is a growing trend for this to
be made more apparent in institutional and educational discourse as
we see ‘newcomer’ identities form communities in Japanese society.
Investigation into this issue has been made by Rear (2017), who
discusses alternatives to this nationalist hegemonic discourse, and thus
there is ongoing research being done on how such discourse is
manifest. Nevertheless, research is not particularly prevalent in
educational institutions where it may be sorely needed. One exception
is Bouchard’s (2015) analysis of nihonjinron discourse in Japanese
junior high school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms
where it was found to be rather commonplace, most likely dictated by
revisionist government-instructed curriculum reform (Kolmaš, 2020).
The Japanese historical context is the backdrop for much of what
may be claimed by nationalist Japanese arguments in the nihonjinron
thesis, and it is explored comprehensively by McVeigh (2004). His
arguments are rather broad but most relevant to an evaluation of
modern Japanese society may be his discussion of “postimperial ethnos
nationalism: homogeneity, uniqueness, and peace” (McVeigh, 2004, p.
203), which highlights the importance of national unity, cultural
integrity, and peace after defeat in the Second World War. It is claimed
by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and
Technology (MEXT, 2002), politicians, and mainstream media that
Japan has moved on and this current era is Japan’s internationalization
(kokusaika), whereby one of the main goals is to increase English
language proficiency as a tool to express Japanese beliefs and identity
on a global platform (Hashimoto, 2009). However, is this truly in effect
at ground level? Morita (2013) explored how this concept is affecting
Japanese university students’ attitudes toward globalization and
English, yet found those attitudes to be mixed in nature.

English Language Learners’ ‘Global’ Outlook in

Japan
Having a global identity and being a ‘global citizen’ is a rather complex
sociological and psychological issue, so within this section discussion is
limited to how learning English may be a global, international act
and/or how it forms part of non-Japanese identity. Of course, to learn
and speak English does not simply make one globally minded either,
and this should not be presupposed (Polyzou, 2015).
A sense of purpose and self-direction in modern societies is
important for university students as we deal with global
“transformations [which] are so messy and unpredictable that we can
only understand globalization as a complex of processes” (Rubdy &
Alsagoff, 2014, p. 1). It is these ‘processes’ which also may be evident in
Japan, such as learning a/the ‘global’ language of English. Phillipson’s
(1992, 2009) cynicism of the term ‘global’ English and his critique of
the global power of the English language seems questionable when
there is such “a desire for English” (Seargeant, 2009, p. 106) in Japan
and the stark reality that “the language operates as an influential
cultural force within Japanese society” (Seargeant, 2009, p. 43).
Kubota’s (2002, 2017) discussion of the impact of globalization on
language teaching in Japan is also testament to the huge role English
plays in modern language education. For example, it is assumed that
“learning English leads to international and intercultural
understanding,” which Kubota (2002, p. 22) strongly critiques.
However, it seems that this is driven in Japan by educational reform and
continues to be a dominant kokusaika discourse. Another question to
ponder is whether globalization is simply a term for ‘Westernization’
and the breaking down of cultural boundaries, which is an argument
Phillipson also implies. Thus, we must consider the effect that “the
other side of globalization is increased nationalism” (Kubota, 2002, p.
13), with major influences such as reforms to English language
education (MEXT, 2011) and the ‘McDonaldization’ of English in
eikaiwas (private English conversation schools) in Japan (Hooper &
Hashimoto, 2020) contributing to this complex situation. I argue that
processes which affect language learning, like the above, are evidence
that Japan is trying or struggling to deal with “the general tension
between nation-state and globalization” (Wodak et al., 1999, p. 5).
Kawai’s (2007) discussion of Japanese nationalism and the global
spread of English is also a prime evaluation of the social reality
occurring in Japan with regards to the views on the power of global
English and its effects on Japanese cultural identity. Grounding this
more in an educational context, if learners of English are ‘happy’ or at
least satisfied to co-exist with their learner-self, appreciate national
tradition, and globalize through learning English at the same time, then
surely this is admirable and/or a phenomenon which needs further
investigation. In contrast though is the possibility, through continued
internationalization (in Japan), that English language learners’
discursive constructions of the self and others confound stereotypes
further. As an example, Kubota (2017, p. 292), states that the following
conceptual linkages are commonplace in Japan: “foreign language =
standard (American) English = being global/international = spoken by
native speakers = white people,” and such essentialism is a danger that
needs action through further education to counteract such beliefs.
Consideration of how “individuals may be ‘more or less’ members of
ideological groups” (van Dijk, 2006, p. 119) could be a differentiating
factor to how commonplace views like the above are in Japan though.
For example, discourse in the interviews conducted in this study could
also be interpreted just at the individual level and people have their
own agency to react to different discourses in society. This chapter
therefore investigates how Japanese learners of English conceptualize
national and global identity, and these were my two main research
questions:
(a) How do Japanese university EFL students’ discursively construct
their national and global self-identities?

(b) How are Japanese, ‘Western’ or non-Japanese identity and

discourses about Others discursively constructed?

While the focus of this study is students’ national and global self-
identities, it is important to note that other identity features, including
gender, sexuality, social, multilingual, and online, contribute to the
formation of their self-identities.

Methodology
Overview
This chapter reports on a study with three interviewees who were
Japanese university students. Interviews were performed in English,
and this inevitably had an impact upon the students’ range of language
available. The rationale behind this was twofold: I am not a fluent
Japanese speaker and it is precisely how such discourse is
communicated when using English that I wished to investigate.
Employing a qualitative multiple case study approach, informal semi-
structured interviews were held within a large self-access learning
centre (SALC) at a Japanese foreign languages university in the Kanto
region. Interviews were between 20 and 30 minutes long, and I tried to
remain as casual, interactive, and conversational as possible in this
SALC environment, which promotes independent learning and
autonomous choices in study and use of English. However, my
researcher positionality may have been an influential factor in the
interviews. My role as a white British male teacher within the
university may have inevitably affected the power domains which were
in place. Nevertheless, I had never taught these students before and I
was unfamiliar with their background until the interviews were
conducted. The main aims while collecting data were to focus on
“managing subjectivity” and “to delve deep into the subjective qualities
that govern behaviour” (Holliday, 2016, p. 6), being led by student
discourse while appreciating “the importance of listening” (Mann,
2016, p. 116). However, in ‘managing subjectivity,’ issues such as being
from a different culture to the students, my age, my stereotypically
native speaker background and appearance, having different beliefs
about Japan, and my role as a teacher interviewing students were all
elements which may have affected the interviews and the
interpretations I have made later on.
The following questions are examples which guided the semi-
structured interviews:
What is ‘being global’?
Do you think English is a global language? Why/Why not?
Do you think you are a global person? Why/Why not?
What parts of your identity are important to you?
How important is your Japanese identity to you? Why?
If you met someone who didn’t know anything about Japan, what
would you tell them about Japan and Japanese people?
The aim of asking these questions was to see “how people create,
sustain, change, and pass on their shared values, beliefs and behaviour”
(Heigham & Sakui, 2009, p. 93).

Participants
Interviewees were recruited by informally approaching them in the
SALC. They were asked whether they would like to chat about the role
of English in Japan and how it may affect their Japanese identity. No
appointments were made per se, and these interviews were therefore
spontaneous. Typically, students have four years of English language
education at this university, they have had study and/or travelling
abroad experience, and they get regular opportunities to communicate
with exchange students and non-Japanese ‘native-speaker’ teachers
predominantly from the US and the UK.

Tatsuki
Tatsuki was two months into his first semester of his second year at the
time of interview. He was majoring in International Business
Communication. Tatsuki was a local student to this university in the
Kanto region.

Daiki
Daiki was a third-year student who had just spent a year studying
abroad in the US at a community college. He studied in the English
Department for his major. He was from Tokyo, and his family owned a
restaurant in the tourist hotspot area of Asakusa in Tokyo.

Shion
Shion was a fourth-year student also from the English Department. At
the time of interviewing, she was in her final few weeks of her time at
university almost ready to graduate. Shion was from a rural part of
Yamanashi prefecture.

Framework for Analysis

The analysis applied elements of the framework of the Discourse-
Historical Approach (DHA) (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016). When analyzing
discourse using this framework, important categorization can be
applied in order to better analyze particular discourses and, in turn,
potentially unravel the discursive strategies that have been employed.
Reisigl and Wodak (2016, pp. 42–44) categorize these discursive
strategies which can be summarized as follows and are those which I
used to analyze each data extract:
1. Nomination—focusing on agency, social actors, and the way that
persons, objects, phenomena, events, and processes are referred to
linguistically.

2. Predication—focusing on what characteristics, qualities, and

features are attributed to the above nominations.

3. Argumentation—focusing on arguments employed within the

specific discourses and the qualification of views, beliefs, and
ideologies that have been espoused.

4. Perspectivization—focusing on what positionality or perspectives

these nominations, attributions, and arguments are made from.

5. Mitigation and intensification—focusing on whether utterances are

articulated explicitly, intensified, or mitigated.

Data Analysis and Findings

The following four data samples are examples which were of particular
interest in light of the literature review. Discursive strategies were
employed and are identified following each excerpt.

Tatsuki
In this section of the interview, we were discussing the role that
learning English plays in affecting identity and how there may have
been a separation or hybridity between national and global
markedness:

T: So when I use English in Japan, I am Japanese and

English is just tool to communicate but when, for example, in
this summer when I went to India, I used English to
communicate with Indian people. Of course, their mother tongue
is Hindi, or some other language, but they also used English, so
in this case I felt like I’m Japanese and I’m global, kind of global
person.
1. In this excerpt, we see forms of nomination such as ‘I’m Japanese
and I’m global’. He references India and the Hindi language, and he
constructs language ideologies about English.

2. Predication is made by implying that a global person is someone

who speaks English with a non-Japanese person. In this case, it is
probably not a native speaker, in his belief, as he implies that Hindi,
“of course,” is their first language, not English.

3. Argumentation is qualified by the reductionist assessment of the

power of English when used in Japan, as it is “just tool,” but when
used abroad, elements of his identity open up to become more fluid
and global, in his view. This may have been qualified as a language
belief at school (date unknown) because he later mentions why
English works as an important international communicative tool:

T: Learning English is interesting for me because to

get a new knowledge I think is good, when I communicate
with foreign people I can use English and we can
communicate, communicate very enjoyable.
M: Right okay, so why did you choose English and
not another language?
T: (3 seconds) Why? Why? Because my teacher
told me “you should learn English not Chinese or any other
language” and then I asked him “why we have to learn
English?” He said “because the English nowadays a lot of
countries using English as a second language” or something
like this so “if you can use English, you can communicate or
talk with them” he said.

1. Tatsuki’s positionality is to acknowledge his national identity, even

when abroad using English, so he still maintains the core element of
national identity while traveling. This is mentioned twice but being
global to him seems in tandem with his Japaneseness.

2. Intensification is manifest in sentence stress highlighted in italics.

He somewhat mitigates having global identity through using
 English as being a “kind of global person” at the end.

Daiki
At the start of the interview, I had very openly asked him which aspects
of his identity were most important to him. He then reflected upon his
time studying abroad and the importance of the Japanese language to
his identity:

M: Okay, so do you feel that’s an important part of your

identity to use Japanese to talk about things personally?
D: Yeah…true, true, because Japanese language is my
identity so I wanna speak Japanese for some reason because
when I speak Japanese I feel most like I’m Japanese. That comes
from my experience, you know, like at first I didn’t wanna speak
Japanese with my friend in the US, that wasn’t the reason, I
wanted to improve my English so I don’t wanna speak Japanese
and I just ignore my friend but I, three months passed, and I
realised I feel like I’m alone because I stopped speaking
Japanese. For some reason, I feel like I wanna speak Japanese so
I started Japanese and I realised it’s like one of my identity so…
M: When did you start feeling anxious or you felt like
you wanted to speak Japanese more?
D: It’s like a situation because I ignore my friend,
Japanese friend, and then I was isolated and I feel like my
identity was not sure because I’m Japanese actually, I cannot
ignore that right? But like I don’t have any opportunity to feel
like I’m Japanese as a Japanese.

1. Nomination of the word ‘Japanese’ is made 13 times in reference to

his national identity, Japanese language , and his Japanese friend.

2. Predication is constructed rather directly in examples such as

“Japanese language is my identity” and through the claim that when
he speaks Japanese, he feels ‘most’ Japanese.

3. Argumentation is given in a primordial sense such as “I’m Japanese

actually” and through the claim that “I feel like I’m alone because I
 stopped speaking Japanese.” The importance of the connection
between language and identity is most prominent throughout.
4. Daiki’s perspectivization comes from studying abroad in the
‘Western,’ American, native speaker context. By studying abroad
and reflecting upon his experiences, he constructs how his national
identity was eroded through the lack of use of his first language.

5. There are examples of where Daiki mitigates the reasoning for

feeling the need to speak Japanese such as “for some reason, I feel
like I wanna speak Japanese”. Yet later he is explicit with his
references by saying he felt “alone.” He also uses a rhetorical
question to garner support for his logical reasoning in the example,
“I’m Japanese actually, I cannot ignore that right?”

Shion
Earlier in the interview, we were discussing the issues of global English
and native-speakerism and, later, how speaking English with a Japanese
accent marked her identity. This led her to construct ideas about her
national identity quite explicitly:

M: Yeah, so your Japanese accent when you speak English,

do you feel that’s part of your identity then also?
S: Yes…
M: And how important is that to you?
S: Hhmm…(4 seconds)…I’m..still..Japanese…and I’m
proud of being Japanese but as a person who speaks English so I
was born and grew up in Japan and learn another language so I
don’t want to, how do you say, abandon or give up the Japanese…
M: Yeah, you don’t want to lose those parts?
S: Yeah, yeah.
M: So what are the important parts of your Japanese
identity then that like you said, you don’t want to lose?
S: I still love this country and this, don’t like some
parts, haha, but I like this country and the people and the
cultures and if I try to be different person like English native
speaker, I wouldn’t be able to see Japanese beautiful things like
 cultures and how we interact with people is different from
different countries so…I still want to cherish my experience but
my heart beats Japanese people. As a Japanese, we are different
people so…(3 seconds).
M: It’s still very important to you I can see.

1. Nomination in this excerpt is complex. She makes reference to

being Japanese numerous times but also with the caveat as a
“person who speaks English.” She references Japanese “people,”
“country,” “different countries,” “cultures,” her “heart” or kokoro
(see Rear, 2017, p.9), and English native-speakerism.

2. Predication of her Japanese identity is constructed as prideful, and

as a person who speaks English in tandem. However, there is clearly
some conflict as she states she doesn’t want to “abandon or give up”
her Japanese traits. The reference to an “English native-speaker”
seems essentialist as she claims that if she were a native speaker,
she “wouldn’t be able to see Japanese beautiful things like cultures.”
She also claims that “as a Japanese, we are different people” and
that Japanese people interact differently to people in other
countries, much of which is in line with the nihonjinron thesis
discussion in the literature review, and this is indicative of a
“discursive construction of difference” (Wodak et al., 1999, p.174;
also see Dale, 1986, p.38).

3. Significantly, there is little argumentation or supporting evidence

for her claims. This is probably because they are based on
nihonjinron-based myth. She claims, “I still love this country,” which
may act as a basis for the rationale of such claims.

4. Shion’s perspective comes after four years of university education,

study and traveling abroad experience, and communication with
exchange students and non-Japanese teachers, yet she still adopts a
somewhat essentialist tone, particularly about English native
speakers.

5. Most answers are direct and claims about Japaneseness are made
explicitly. She intensifies her claims through using the word
Other documents randomly have
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Title: Our Cavalry

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COPYRIGHT
 PREFACE
In this book no attempt has been made to produce
an exhaustive treatise on Cavalry; it has been written
principally for junior officers of all arms.
M. F. R.
 CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Introductory
Cavalry in past ages—Drawn from horse-lovers,
success followed on fixed principles, these are as
applicable to-day—Ballistics from horseback—
Always a sign and cause of weakening—The
charge of good moral—Gunpowder and other
improvements notwithstanding—Good scouts
always available—Best lessons are learnt in war—
Expense of cavalry—Duty of cavalry leader Page 1

CHAPTER II

Armament

Constant changes—Cut v. thrust—Gerard’s

experience—Point more deadly—The case for the
lance—The revolver—Confidence in the arm
selected is of highest importance—The rifle—The
insistence of continental writers inapplicable to
British cavalry Page 10
 CHAPTER III

The Horse
Colossal bill for horse-flesh in South Africa largely
due to national ignorance of horses—The suitable
horse, two classes—Chest measurement test for
stamina—Small blood horse stands work best—
Arabs bred for war—English and Australian
horses for size—Care of horse in war—An
exception to this Page 18

CHAPTER IV

Tactics of Cavalry v. Cavalry

The squadron attack—Cohesion—And its result in

moral—Tactics—Cunning—The rally—Cromwell—
Supports—Conclusions Page 29

CHAPTER V

Cavalry v. Cavalry

Forming to the Flank

I. The squadron—Forming to the front or flank—

Defensive or offensive flank.
II. The regiment, advantage of Echelon attack.
III. The Brigade—Training of leaders—Co-operation
of R.H.A.—Two forms of attack, when both forces
get away from the guns—Formations for moving
to a flank—Relative effect of artillery fire on the
two formations—Column of masses preferred—
Formation for the attack—Time for horse artillery
to unlimber—Form of attack must be simple—
Conclusions Page 37

CHAPTER VI

Fire Action in Tactics of Cavalry v. Cavalry

Not a question to be shirked—Danger of recourse to
fire action weakening our leaders’ desire for
shock action—An instance of fire versus shock
action—Rifle fire against charging horsemen is
ineffectual—Contradictory memoranda on the
subject—Henderson’s dictum—Dismounted action
of cavalry—German regulations—Prince Kraft
Page 50

CHAPTER VII

Cavalry Brigade in Action

First objects in the attack—Concentric shock of fire

and horse—Plan to get a good field of fire by
alternate advance of two squadrons—Desiderata
in artillery position—Broad principles—Utilization
of ground—Deception—Get away from our
artillery—An example of attack—The action of the
artillery—Moral necessary to leader—Unreasoning
hasty advance deprecated—If anticipated by
 enemy, how we may have to act—Passage of
defiles—Dribbling squadrons into a fight—Cure
for dissemination Page 59

CHAPTER VIII

Action of Cavalry in the General Engagement

Independent cavalry, danger of their detachment at
inopportune times—Cavalry and horse artillery at
Loigny-Poupry—Unsatisfactory direction of cavalry
in 1870–71 followed by peace belief in rifle—
Fallacy of tendency to dismounted action shown
by South African and Manchurian Wars—The line
our training should take—Cavalry instructional
rides—Value of initiative—Conclusions—Frederick
the Great’s cavalry compared with our South
African cavalry—Pursuit—Neglect of, a British
failing—The parallel pursuit—Its value—Blücher
at Katzbach on cavalry pursuit Page 69

CHAPTER IX

The Disposition of Cavalry in a Campaign

FIRST PART
Dependence on forage—Principles on which cavalry
is placed in the front—Want of direction in 1870
—Galliffet’s influence—Service of information
separated from that of security—The Napoleonic
traditions revived—And generally adopted—
 French view—The cavalry of exploration—The
cavalry of army corps—The divisional cavalry—
Generalissimo’s use of his independent cavalry—
Movement en bondes—The effect of modern rifle
—Difficulties in the attack of protective cavalry
and mixed detachments. Page 86

SECOND PART

The modern disposition is theoretical—Tendency to

increase independent cavalry at the expense of
protective, for sake of initial advantages—
Difficulty of weaker cavalry rôle—Von Bernhardi
on German cavalry strength—Improvisation of
cavalry—Dilemma—Cyclists—Difficulty of training
for non-professional cavalry—Danger of amateur
cavalry officers—The Ulm Campaign—Effect of
first success—Boer tactics unsuitable to European
war Page 93

CHAPTER X

Horse Artillery and Cavalry in the General

Engagement

Deficiency in peace training—The energy of the

attack—An instance—Plan of the attack—In the
defence—Value of artillery in the retreat Page 101

CHAPTER XI
 Co-operation of Horse Artillery and Cavalry

German tendency in 1870 to deprive cavalry of

horse artillery—Reversed by 1907 regulations—
Effect of modern horse artillery—Probable
necessity to allocate horse artillery—Mukden—
Arrangement of artillery support in attack on
infantry—Sir Douglas Haig on the counter-attack
—Principles—Conclusions Page 108

CHAPTER XII

Horse Artillery Fire Effect compared with

Rifle Fire

Comparative efficacy in bullets—Reasons of

Henderson’s advocacy of mounted infantry—
Demand for exceptional arrangements—An
instance of masked fire—Von Bernhardi’s plan—A
suggested alternative Page 117

CHAPTER XIII

In Contact with the Enemy

Duties of the Commander—A day in the outposts—At
night—The men—The horses—Care of men’s
health—Wet weather—Hints for scouts—Moral—
Sending out scouts at night—Sniping by nervous
sentries—Fireflies—Ruses and duplicity—Value of
a knowledge of strategy and tactics—To picket an
 enemy—Security and information—Instances of
picketing the enemy—Practice in peace—
Difficulty of instruction—Practice preferred to
theory—Honest outpost work—Night work—
Regiment’s practice of outposts Page 122

CHAPTER XIV

Some Detached Duties of Cavalry

Despatch-riding, value in instruction—An instance of
a scheme—Napoleon’s despatches—Tracking, etc.
—Value of maintaining interest—Boy scouts—
Influence of regimental moral in detached work—
Prisoners—Convoy duty Page 139

CHAPTER XV

Raids

Diverse views of the value of Stuart’s raid—Japanese

raid on railway line—Vulnerability of railways—
Boer and British Raids—Country which favours
raids—Inopportune raids, Wheeler’s—Futile raids
by De Wet and Botha—An exception to them—
Mischenko’s raid—Rennenkampf’s reconnaissance
—Von Pelet Narbonne—Japanese methods—
Conclusions Page 145

CHAPTER XVI
 The Training of the Cavalry Officer

The cavalry candidate—Causes of scarcity—Work

now and thirty years ago—Pay—Duties on joining
—Hunting—The sense of duty—Pretence
impossible in a regiment—The effect of a slack
commanding officer—Counteracted by four or
five good officers—Value of drill—Characteristic
faults—The practice of possible situations in war
—Officer without imagination is a bad trainer—
Conclusions Page 154

CHAPTER XVII

Training of Officer (continued)

Restless activity—The effect of hardship—Training—

Preparation—Cynicism—Desirability of education
for senior officers—A rearguard device—Study
and discussion—A doctrine—Napoleon’s doctrine
—He honoured bravery—Bis dot qui cito dat—The
selfish officer—Comradeship—ConclusionsPage 167

CHAPTER XVIII

Training of a Squadron
Frederick the Great’s stern methods—How a good
leader is trained—Description of his squadron at
work—Compared with an indifferent leader—Five
points in training a squadron: (i.) Efficiency for
war of man and horse; (ii.) Avoid samples; (iii.)
 Use of weapons; (iv.) Self-reliance; (v.) The
offensive spirit—The section system—Value of
individual instruction—Dismounted work—Holding
the balance—Problems as a means of training in
resolution—Napoleon’s genius—The Zulu system
—Conclusions Page 177

CHAPTER XIX

Training of the Horse

Value of a well-trained horse on service—Ill-
tempered horses—The ideal of training—
Seydlitz’s leap—The mameluke—The aids, how
arrived at from nature—Their adaptation to our
needs—Progress towards the campaigning horse
—A Boer method—Officers training horses—The
wrong leg leading in a race—The free-jumping
lane—Remount competition—Noisy instructors—
Method of teaching horses to walk quickly—Duty
of squadron leader—His value if he has ability
Page 191

CHAPTER XX

Training of the Man

Standard of proficiency—Riding, the old and the new

system—Instruction in care of horse—Most
difficult to teach or check—Result of a bad
system—Napoleon’s cavalry in Russia—The care
of horses must be the result of system—Long
rides for recruits as a method of instruction—
Riding to hounds—Care of horse now more
necessary—Shooting—Is good, but fire discipline
is essential—The personal weapon—Method of
instruction—Mental and muscular development—
The handy man—Influence of sports—Swimming
—Pioneering—Cooking—Seaside work for a
cavalry brigade—Squadron competition—Regular
soldiers and colonials—The practical instruction—
Theory—Instruction in moral—A Japanese view—
Demonstration—Intercourse between officers and
men—Grumbling Page 202
 DIAGRAMS
NO. PAGE
I. Defensive and Offensive Flanks 40
II. The Two Forms of Attack 43
III. Column of Regimental Masses compared
with Column of Squadrons 45
IV. The Formation for the Attack 47
V. Squadrons en bondes 60
VI. Cavalry Brigade in Action 64
VII. The Passage of a Defile 67
VIII. Cavalry Attack on Dismounted Men
holding a Kopje 104
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY

“We study the past to foresee the future.”

In these bustling days of headline-up-to-date newspapers, one

shrinks from reminding one’s readers that Xenophon gave excellent
advice to cavalry trainers and leaders—advice which a cavalryman
will recognize is quite as applicable to-day as it was in those distant
ages; since details with regard to grooming horses on hard stones,
exercising cavalry in rough ground, and so on are by no means out
of date. There is every reason to believe that Alexander, and later
Rome and Carthage at their zenith as military nations, had
proportionately as highly-trained cavalry as is possessed by any
nation of to-day. Those who have fought in rearguards and running
fights realize that the Parthian method of fighting must have
required the highest training and moral. The cavalry of the
predominant nations were drawn from those who kept horses for
their own sport and amusement, and for the gratification of their
pride, and who felt they were better fighting men on a horse. The
descendants of the horse-lovers of those ages are with us to-day;
they are those who love danger, excitement, and pace, and who find
in the blood-horse an animal which shares their love for these, and
will generously sacrifice its life or limbs in the co-partnership.
Those who have never felt the sensation of a really good horse
bounding and stretching away under them, and the consequent
elation, the wonder as to “what could stop us?” cannot grasp what a
cavalry soldier’s feelings are in the “Charge.”
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