Japanese as a "common" language

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My belief: 

  - Aiming at understandable Japanese, not native-like Japanese

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The concept, Japanese as a "common" language was introduced by National Language Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, Japan in 1959. This concept is different from Japanese as "standard" language in terms of not having a prescriptive view toward the use of Japanese. "Common" Japanese is existing actual forms spoken by people in order to achieve mutual understanding, while "standard" Japanese is the ideal form and the concept that does not really exist as the actual spoken form (Suzuki & Hayashi, 1995). Common Japanese includes language varieties beyond the differences of accents, intonations, and vocabulary as long as people can communicate one another. I believe Japanese learners' spoken Japanese can be included in this common Japanese. In this case, Japanese as a common language would be denationalized, and no country would have ownership of Japanese as a common language.  

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References

Suzuki,K., & Hayashi,O. (1995). Gaisetsu nihongogaku [An Outline of Japanese

      Linguistics]*. Tokyo: Meiji-syoin

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*All translations of article, journal, and book titles in the reference list are my own.

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