Japanese language

===Official status===
Japanese has no [[official language|official status]] in Japan,<ref>{{Cite web |script-title=ja:法制執務コラム集「法律と国語・日本語」 |url=http://houseikyoku.sangiin.go.jp/column/column068.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225073508/http://houseikyoku.sangiin.go.jp/column/column068.htm |archive-date=25 December 2018 |access-date=9 November 2012 |publisher=Legislative Bureau of the House of Councillors |language=ja}}</ref> but is the ''de facto'' [[national language]] of the country. There is a form of the language considered [[Standard language|standard]]: {{nihongo|''hyōjungo''|標準語}}, meaning "standard Japanese", or {{nihongo|''kyōtsūgo''|共通語}}, "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times.<ref name=":2" /> The meanings of the two terms (<nowiki>''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo''</nowiki>) are almost the same. ''Hyōjungo'' or ''kyōtsūgo'' is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the {{nihongo|[[Meiji Restoration]]|明治維新|meiji ishin|1868}} from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see [[Yamanote]]). ''Hyōjungo'' is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pulvers |first=Roger |date=2006-05-23 |title=Opening up to difference: The dialect dialectic |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2006/05/23/language/opening-up-to-difference-the-dialect-dialectic/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617135203/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2006/05/23/language/opening-up-to-difference-the-dialect-dialectic/ |archive-date=2020-06-17 |access-date=2020-06-17 |website=The Japan Times}}</ref> It is the version of Japanese discussed in this article.

Formerly, standard {{nihongo|Japanese in writing|文語|[[Bungo (Japanese language)|bungo]]|"literary language"}} was different from {{nihongo|colloquial language|口語|[[Kogo (Japanese language)|kōgo]]}}. The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. ''Bungo'' was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then ''kōgo'' gradually extended its influence and the two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. ''Bungo'' still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived [[World War II]] are still written in ''bungo'', although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). ''Kōgo'' is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although ''bungo'' grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect.

The 1982 state constitution of [[Angaur]], [[Palau]], names Japanese along with [[Palauan language|Palauan]] and English as an official language of the state<ref name="const">{{Cite web |title=Constitution of the State of Angaur |url=http://www.pacificdigitallibrary.org/cgi-bin/pdl?e=d-000off-pdl--00-2--0--010-TE--4-------0-1l--10en-50---20-text-Japanese--00-3-1-00bySR-0-0-000utfZz-8-00&d=HASHa4b7077d472c4cdb9c8ddf.10&p=text |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924063100/http://www.pacificdigitallibrary.org/cgi-bin/pdl?e=d-000off-pdl--00-2--0--010-TE--4-------0-1l--10en-50---20-text-Japanese--00-3-1-00bySR-0-0-000utfZz-8-00&d=HASHa4b7077d472c4cdb9c8ddf.10&p=text |archive-date=24 September 2015 |access-date=4 August 2014 |publisher=Pacific Digital Library |at=Article XII |quote=The traditional Palauan language, particularly the dialect spoken by the people of Angaur State, shall be the language of the State of Angaur. Palauan, English and Japanese shall be the official languages.}}</ref> as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the [[South Seas Mandate]] over the island<ref>{{Cite report|title=The Japanese Language in Palau|last1=Long|first1=Daniel|last2=Imamura|first2=Keisuke|last3=Tmodrang|first3=Masaharu|date=2013|page= |publisher=National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics|location=Tokyo, Japan|pages=85–86|url=https://www.ninjal.ac.jp/research/cr-project/project/a/creole/files/creole_Palau.pdf|access-date=July 11, 2022}}</ref> shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese,<ref name="1958 Census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands">{{cite web |title=1958 Census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands|url=https://pacificweb.org/DOCS/cnmi/1958%20Census/1958%20Census%20tables.pdf|access-date=22 March 2024 |publisher=The Office of the High Commissioner}}</ref> but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home.<ref name="2005census">{{Cite web |title=2005 Census of Population & Housing |url=http://palaugov.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2005-Census-of-Population-Housing.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140424211256/http://palaugov.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2005-Census-of-Population-Housing.pdf |archive-date=24 April 2014 |access-date=4 August 2014 |publisher=Bureau of Budget & Planning}}</ref>