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Nanette Gottlieb, Kanji politics: Language policy and Japanese script. London & New York: Kegan Paul International, 1995. Pp. 245. [Distrib. by Columbia University Press, hb $76.50.] J. Marshall Unger, Literacy and script reform in Occupation Japan: Reading between the lines. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. xi, 176. Hb $39.95.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 1999

Timothy J. Vance
Timothy J. Vance
Affiliation:
Box 5617, Connecticut College, New London, CT 06320-4196, tjvan@conncoll.edu
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Abstract

The Japanese writing system is frequently singled out for the dubious distinction of being the modern world's most complex, and the amount of time and effort that public figures in Japan have spent promoting and resisting script reform in this century seems to have been in direct proportion to the system's complexity. The two books under review are important contributions to the documentation and interpretation of this protracted and acrimonious struggle.

Type
REVIEWS
Information
Language in Society , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , January 1999 , pp. 141 - 145
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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