Linguistic Landscape of Akihabara Based on Fieldwork in 2010:A Test Case for Establishing Regional Typology

Abstract

With an eye toward establishing a regional typology based on linguistic landscape research, this paper reports research carried out in 2010 on Akihabara, or “Akiba”, a district that attracts many tourists from abroad and is known as a “sub-culture” area.

Fieldwork and observation of store websites revealed the following.

①Aside from “Japanese” and “English”, “Chinese” (written in simplified characters) is common on signs and websites for stores. On the other hand, “Korean” is not often seen in either monolingual or bilingual contexts.

②Multilingual texts are prominent at electronics and duty-free stores, but in sub-culture stores, the monolingual Japanese type is prevalent.

These results confirm that Akiba is in a state of multilingualization that differs from the “standard” type seen in other areas. The study also points out that the distinctive multilingualism of Akiba reflects characteristics of the area, such as the type of tourists it attracts and the genres of its stores.