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Paper short abstract

This study examines emerging Japanese ethnolects among South American, South and Southeast Asian residents in Japan. Based on interview and baseline data, it analyzes syntactic variation, which shows reduced case marking, preference for simple sentences and suggests emerging Japanese ethnolects.

Paper long abstract

The number of non-Japanese residents in Japan has recently reached approximately 4.0 million. Since the late 1980s, Japanese government policies have facilitated the migration of descendants of Japanese emigrants (Nikkei), particularly from Brazil and Peru, through labor visa programs. Alongside earlier migrant groups (e.g., Koreans and Chinese) and more recent groups (e.g., Vietnamese and Filipinos), many of these migrants have now lived in Japan for over three decades, working as permanent or contract laborers, skilled workers, or interpreters. While some continue to move between Japan and their countries of origin, others have settled permanently, purchasing homes and securing long-term employment.

This study examines ways of speaking Japanese among non-Japanese residents in Japan. Since 2023, a new project has aimed to deepen our understanding of the social contexts of language contact in these communities. Extended fieldwork in Kanto Nagoya and its surrounding regions has involved semi-structured interviews conducted in both Japanese and participants’ heritage languages, as well as recordings of family conversations in collaboration with community members. The focus is on South American, South Asian, and Southeast Asian migrants who were either born and raised in Japan without visiting their ancestral homelands or who immigrated to Japan later in life.

Drawing on 85 semi-structured interviews with 86 speakers (40 Brazilians, 33 Peruvians, 9 South Asians, and 4 Southeast Asians) conducted by December 2025, this study explores participants’ language biographies, including migration histories and reflections on growing up in Japan. The analysis focuses on syntactic variation in Japanese, using 49.5 hours of baseline sociolinguistic interview data collected in Aikawa, Kanagawa. The results indicate that (1) case markers are more frequently omitted, (2) simple sentences are preferred over compound and complex sentences, and (3) noun phrase structures tend to be shorter. Based on these combined syntactic features, the paper discusses the possibility of an emerging ethnolectal variety of Japanese.