Agency for Cultural Affairs releases FY2025 Japanese language opinion survey results
On October 2, 2026, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan published the results of the Reiwa 7 (FY2025) Survey on Japanese Language Opinions. Since many people who care about language look forward to this survey every year, I want to summarize the published overview.
The survey aims to understand how Japanese people think about and understand the Japanese language, to help shape language policy, and to stir public interest in the language. It targeted Japanese nationals aged 16 and over across the country and was carried out by mail in March 2026. The survey sample was 6,000 people, valid responses numbered 3,777, and the response rate was 63.0%.
The survey covers six topics: interest in the language; the habit of handwriting and attitudes toward vertical writing; attitudes toward standard Japanese and dialects; honorifics and speech style; the notation of loanwords; and the meanings of idioms and similar expressions.
The percentages for each answer are in the "overview of results" PDF attached to the publication page, so I won't go into the numbers here. Still, just seeing items such as handwriting, vertical writing, dialects and loanword notation side by side shows where today's Japanese is in flux.
For people learning Japanese, the fact that honorifics and the meanings of idioms are survey topics is a clue that even native speakers find these parts confusing. Are surveys like this conducted in your language?
Source: Agency for Cultural Affairs
The survey aims to understand how Japanese people think about and understand the Japanese language, to help shape language policy, and to stir public interest in the language. It targeted Japanese nationals aged 16 and over across the country and was carried out by mail in March 2026. The survey sample was 6,000 people, valid responses numbered 3,777, and the response rate was 63.0%.
The survey covers six topics: interest in the language; the habit of handwriting and attitudes toward vertical writing; attitudes toward standard Japanese and dialects; honorifics and speech style; the notation of loanwords; and the meanings of idioms and similar expressions.
The percentages for each answer are in the "overview of results" PDF attached to the publication page, so I won't go into the numbers here. Still, just seeing items such as handwriting, vertical writing, dialects and loanword notation side by side shows where today's Japanese is in flux.
For people learning Japanese, the fact that honorifics and the meanings of idioms are survey topics is a clue that even native speakers find these parts confusing. Are surveys like this conducted in your language?
Source: Agency for Cultural Affairs
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