Invitation to the NINJAL

Taro Kageyama
Director-General of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics

  The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) is a research institute for studying the universality and individuality of Japanese as one of the world’s approximately 6,000 languages from multilateral and comprehensive viewpoints and disseminating the results widely to society, with the ultimate goal of contributing to a deeper understanding of what human beings are.

  While the genus Homo, which became differentiated from Australopithecus about two million years ago, developed some similar species, only the present human race (Homo sapiens) survived and built today’s advanced human society and civilization. There is no question that one of the vital factors that made this possible was the “language” produced by the large-capacity brain and the vocal organs adapted for speech. Language is not only a communication tool to turn the wheels of human society smoothly, but also the source of every intellectual creation such as science, culture, philosophy, and art. In other words, the study of language is the study of humanity itself, and deepening the study of language will lead to the enrichment of our lives. It is recognized that the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics plays a vital role in Japan and in the world because the Institute deals directly with language, especially our Japanese language, which is such an important human legacy. To meet these expectations, our staff members will pursue various activities together and contribute both to academic fields and to society. In the following, I would like to introduce you to the newborn NINJAL by providing an overview of our current activities.

What’s the NINJAL?

  Originally established in 1948, the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics was October 1, 2009, to the National Institutes for the Humanities in the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation as part of the reform of independent administrative agencies. In its 62-year history, it has moved from its birthplace, Meiji-jingu Gaien, to Kanda Hitotsubashi, to Nishigaoka, Kita Ward, Tokyo, and to the current modern glass-and-steel building constructed in Midori-cho, Tachikawa City, Tokyo, in 2005. (For details, please refer to the History). Although its Japanese name, Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyusho (lit. “Japan national-language research institute”), has remained intact during its whole history, its English name has been changed in response to the demands of the times from “The National Language Research Institute” at its inception to “The National Institute for Japanese Language,” and to the “National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics” at present. Although superficially only the word “Linguistics” was added at the end, this addition of one word has enormous significance for the Institute, implying that the research fields and approaches have been modernized and increased in variety. In other words, the Institute has now grown into an academic organization not only for the study of the national language, but also for the study of Japanese linguistics. I would be pleased to see the acronym “NINJAL” spread widely among international as well as domestic researchers.

NINJAL as an Inter-University Research Institute

  Expansion of the research fields from the Japanese language in particular to Japanese linguistics in general, as explained in the preceding paragraph, promises to make the research activities themselves far wider and deeper than before. Unfortunately, however, the 30 or so full-time investigators at the Institute will not be sufficient to promote such enhanced research, and it is therefore necessary to cooperate with domestic and foreign researchers and research organizations. The Inter-University Research Institute Corporation provides an ideal platform for this.

  The Inter-University Research Institute Corporation is an organization with the major mission of functioning as a core research center (Center of Excellence or COE) in Japan by providing researchers across the country not only with an abundance of academic information and research materials, but also with a place for conducting network-based collaborative research and developing new fields of research, thereby promoting cooperation and exchanges among domestic and foreign front-line researchers and research organizations. There are four different organizations, one for each research field: the National Institutes of Natural Sciences, the National Institutes for the Humanities, the Research Organization of Information and Systems, and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization. NINJAL joined the National Institutes for the Humanities as its sixth member, following the National Museum of Japanese History, the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, and the National Museum of Ethnology.

Research system

Those who have known about NINJAL for many years may be interested in how exactly its research activities have changed. Our traditional fundamental mission of “scientific research on the national language, the language life of people, and Japanese language education for foreigners” has not changed. Now that the Institute’s basic role is that of an Inter-University Research Institute, however, the entire Institute has been restructured as follows.

  First, dialectology and corpus construction, which were two main fields of the earlier NINJAL, have been positioned respectively in the research departments called the “Department of Language Change and Variation” and the “Department of Corpus Studies.” With the addition of the “Department of Linguistic Theory and Structure,” which deals with basic properties of the language (grammar, vocabulary, meaning, phonetics, orthography, and discourse), and the “Department of Crosslinguistic Studies,” which makes comparisons with foreign languages, a four-department system has been established. As a core for Japanese language studies, these departments promote large-scale joint research projects with domestic and foreign researchers and research organizations. As a matter of course, the research has gone in many new directions, and the range of research perspectives and methods has become much wider than before, thanks to extensive alliances with domestic and foreign universities and research organizations. (For details, refer to the Collaborative Research page).

  One of the important missions of the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation is the enhancement of collaboration with the community of researchers and society. As bridges between the Institute and the outside world, the “Center for Research Resources,” the “Center for Corpus Development,” and the “Center for JSL [Japanese as a second language] Research and Information” have been set up. These three centers are intended to put on the Web new research results and research information/materials as well as the language resources and databases produced by the former NINJAL and the research information included in previous publications such as Kokugo Nenkan [Japanese Language Studies Annual Survey and Bibliography] and Nihongo Kyouiku Nenkan [Annual Review of Japanese Language Education], so that they may be easily used not only by experts in Japanese language studies/education, but also by the general public, including foreigners who are learning Japanese.

Four core groups of collaborative research projects

Large and small collaborative research projects have been started. They may be classified roughly into the following four groups, which constitute the "billboard" of the Institute.

(1) Descriptive and theoretical research on the characteristics of the Japanese language

  Focusing on various phenomena of grammar, lexicon, and phonetics that are considered characteristic of the Japanese language as compared with other languages in the world, these projects aim to clarify their nature theoretically and descriptively, and deliver the research results globally.

(2) Research on dialects in danger of extinction

  These projects engage in intensive investigation, preservation, and analysis of dialects in danger of extinction in Japan by recording diverse forms of the Japanese language, thereby contributing to the research on endangered languages being carried out by UNESCO and linguists in various countries throughout the world.

(3) Construction of the modern Japanese corpus, and design and development of the older Japanese corpus

  While completing the construction of the Corpus of Modern Japanese as early as possible, researchers in this area have started designing and developing the Corpus of Older Japanese so that these corpora may be used effectively not only in language study, but also in various other areas, including Japanese language education/learning, the media, and machine translation.

(4) Research on Japanese language education

  These projects aim at factual surveys and empirical research on various issues surrounding the teaching and learning of Japanese as a second language in present-day Japan, where multicultural symbiosis is required because of a rapid increase of foreign residents. The research is expected to contribute to promoting the efficient learning of the Japanese language for foreigners and resolving cross-cultural conflicts.

  Each of these collaborative research groups holds open meetings for presenting research papers several times a year. While most of them are held at the Institute in Tachikawa City, some are held at universities involved in the research networks. All these meetings are open to the public, welcoming the participation of researchers who are not directly involved with the research projects, including graduate students. It will take time for these projects to bear fruit, but both comprehensive and specific results can be expected over the next two or three years.

The Institute is conveniently located from central Tokyo.

Many of you who know old Tachikawa may be thinking that the Institute is difficult to get to. On the contrary, it is now only about 40 minutes by express train from Tokyo Station. Present-day Tachikawa is a convenient city with a dramatic contrast between the vibrant shopping and business area near the J.R. Tachikawa Station and the quiet and serene research area of the Institute. Mt. Fuji is visible from the Institute on a clear day, and three other Inter-University Research Institute organizations are close by: the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Institute of Polar Research, and the Institute of Statistical Mathematics.

  Other than the meetings for presenting research papers, the Institute regularly holds small internal meetings for presentations (the NINJAL Salon series) and a series of lectures by front-line external researchers (the NINJAL Colloquium series), and is also planning to organize seminars (a NINJAL Tutorial series) to acquaint graduate students and prospective researchers with the basics of Japanese language studies and Japanese language education. Information about the events open to the public will appear on this Website periodically, so please visit often.

  Finally, I would like to ask again for your support, cooperation, help, and encouragement. The new NINJAL has just started operations, and the contents of this Website will continue to expand. Providing the results of large-scale joint research projects to the research community and the general public is the strength of this Institute, and this kind of work cannot be done at individual universities. It is my greatest hope as Director-General that the "fans/supporters of NINJAL" and all the staff members will join together to elucidate the nature and essence of the fascinating Japanese language.