I took this picture from an important train station in Osaka. I noticed that English took a big part in the add and the Japanese was just a small part under. It came to my attention that there were no strict rules on regulating the English Language in Japan in advertisement. In Quebec, English must always have a secondary and smaller position compared to French, greatly in order to preserve the French culture and language and Quebec. This does not seem to be a concern for Japanese people here though. There are many borrowed words from different languages in Japanese such as arubaito (part-time job) from German, Pan (bread) from Portuguese, kurakushon (honk) from French and a great number of English words (kuuru - cool, konpyuutaa - computer, ect..) but these words are Japanized - (converted to Japanese phonetics and written in a special Japanese alphabet for loan words). So they end up becoming an integral part of the language. I have heard though, of a group fighting for the abolition of Katakana, the Japanese written system used for foreign words. All foreign names are written in Japanese (including mine) so if you want to see how to write your name in Japanese, you can check this website: http://www.takase.com/Names/NameInJapanese.htm.
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