基調講演　2

​Languages and Cultures Network Nurtured in Australia: Community Language Practices for Children Connected to Japan
オーストラリアで育まれるネットワークのことばと文化
―日本語につながる子どものためのコミュニティ言語実践（仮題）

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Chihiro Kinoshita Thomson  (Professor, University of New South Wales)  
トムソン木下千尋（ニューサウスウェールズ大学）

Abstract

Australia hosts a large number of Japanese nationals—over 100,000 as of 2025—making it the country with the second-largest number of Japanese nationals outside Japan, after the United States. Many of these individuals are children born in Australia to international families comprising Australian and Japanese parents. These children grow up in multilingual environments, surrounded by the languages of their families, schools, and wider society. They naturally acquire English as the dominant language of the host society while also learning Japanese.

This form of Japanese is often described as a heritage language inherited from their parents. However, the term “heritage language” has its limitations. We also observe emergent and creative uses of Japanese within Japanese-speaking communities in Australia that cannot be fully captured by this concept. We refer to this as KEISHO-GO, or Japanese as community language—a lived, shared, and evolving linguistic practice.

In this lecture, I will introduce the Australian environment that nurtures the development of KEISHO-GO, and discuss the activities of the Australian Network for Japanese as a Community Language. This network engages in educational and research initiatives that provide information and resources to support communities of KEISHO-GO speakers.