Resumen de Politics, the media, and Korean language acquisition in Japan
This paper explores the impact that media coverage of current events has on the identity and language maintenance of language minorities by examining recent coverage of two major events related to the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea which were heavily covered by Japanese news media: the joint hosting of the 2002 soccer World Cup by Japan and South Korea during the early summer of 2002, and the admission by Kim Jong Il that North Korea had abducted a number of Japanese during the 1970s and 1980s. A small-scale survey of resident Koreans and interviews with the principals of three Korean schools in Kyoto as well as a teacher at one of these schools focused on the effects media reports of these events had on resident Koreans in Japan and the Korean language schools they maintain. Although the overall response to the survey was rather subdued, when it is considered together with the interviews with the school principals, the results give a glimpse of the strong impact media coverage can have on heritage language maintenance programs.
