Paper short abstract:

The presentation focuses on the analysis of public notices used by Minato Ward, Tokyo, from the viewpoint of Plain Japanese. We argue that official notices should clearly indicate their target audience to ensure that those who require the information can easily read the minimum necessary information

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, Local governments are promoting efforts to provide information in "Plain Japanese" in Japan. In this presentation, the presenters, who are involved in Japanese-language education, analyzed public notices used by Minato Ward, Tokyo, from the viewpoint of "Plain Japanese".

The main content of the document is to encourage late-stage elderly people who are financially affected by the covid-19 to apply for a reduction or exemption of medical insurance premiums if certain conditions are met.

The results of the analysis revealed that although many efforts were made to make important parts of the notification document stand out by using colors and explaining specific examples, it was difficult to understand who the eligible persons were and in what cases they would receive the reduction or exemption from the content of the description. It became clear that there was a possibility that some people would be disadvantaged by not receiving the information. In addition, there was too much information, and some of the descriptions seemed unnecessary at the stage of picking up this notice.

In this presentation, we argue that such an official notice document should first clearly indicate who the target audience is, so that those who need it can read the minimum necessary information without difficulty. The presentation then visualizes and presents the analyzed notice document, rewritten from the perspective of "Plain Japanese". It should be noted that this practice was commissioned by those in charge of Japanese language education in response to the needs of residents who actually want to make official documents easier to understand. This is a report of an on-time practice, which is about to change into a society that is easy to live in for all people, as the practice of Japanese language education is recognized in society, albeit gradually. Through this presentation, we would like to consider what we can do from the standpoint of Japanese language education to help everyone live together in a diverse society, and what this means in Europe.