This book presents a comprehensive analysis of one of the most pressing challenges facing Japan today: population decline and ageing.

It argues that social ageing is a phenomenon that follows in the wake of industrialization, urbanization and social modernization, bringing about changes in values, institutions, social structures, economic activity, technology and culture, and posing many challenges for the countries affected. Focusing on the experience of Japan, the author explores:

• how Japan has recognized the emerging problems relatively early because during the...

The problem of reducing language to writing and conversely that of interpreting written signs as language has been resolved through the development of different writing systems. This illustrated textbook introduces the major writing systems of the world (from cuneiform to English spelling) and analyzes their structure and function. It includes a review of the history of writing and a discussion of the literate mind and society.

This book is an account of the writing systems of the world from earliest times to the present. Its aim is to explore the complex ways in which writing systems relate to the language they depict. Writing, Coulmas contends, is not only the guide or garment of spoken language, but has a deep and lasting effect on the development of language itself.

His study takes in Egyptian hieroglyphics and the cuneiform system of the ancient Near East; he describes Chinese writing, discussing why an apparently cumbersome system has been used continuously for more than 3,000 years; he ranges...

In 28 newly- commissioned chapters, distinguished contributors provide an up-to-date overview of sociolinguistics.

This is an encyclopedia of writing systems, scripts and orthographies of all the world's major languages, past and present. It provides both a fully illustrated description of over 400 writing systems and an account of the study of writing in many different disciplines, from anthropology to psychology.

This glossary is an up-to-date research tool for the study of population. Based on the technical literature in the three languages listed, it comprises more than 7500 technical terms accessible in three directions: English-Japanese -German, Japanese-English-German and German-Japanese-English.

This Handbook explores the challenges demographic change poses to today's Japan. The first part provides the fundamental data involved, and the subsequent two parts address the social and cultural aspects of Japan's demographic change. Parts four and five are dedicated to the political, economic and social security aspects of demographic change. The Handbook brings together a group of international scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds to take issue with the world's fastest demographic transition. Topics include the dynamics of gender roles, images of age, policy formation, labour...

The problem of reducing language to writing and conversely that of interpreting written signs as language has been resolved through the development of different writing systems. This illustrated textbook introduces the major writing systems of the world (from cuneiform to English spelling) and analyzes their structure and function. It includes a review of the history of writing and a discussion of the literate mind and society.

Language Adaptation examines the process by which a speech community is forced to adopt an active role in making its language suitable for changing functional requirements. This wide-ranging collection of essays looks at this phenomenon from a variety of historical and synchronic perspectives, and brings together the work of a number of leading scholars in the field. Several different languages are examined at different stages of their history, including Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Kiswahili, German and Hindi. This well-informed book is a significant contribution to the existing...