일본 대중교통 다언어표기 양상에 대한 고찰 ― 간사이(関西) 지역의 철도회사를 중심으로 ―

초록

The current research aimed to examine the multilingual sign patterns of railway companies in the Kansai region and identify the ideal form of the multilingual sign. The research methodology involved random selection of stations based on passenger statistics provided by each company, and comparing and analyzing the language sign of the railway facilities. The findings showed that most facilities use bilingual sign in Japanese and English, while some display trilingual sign including Korean, and some even display quadrilingual sign adding Chinese and Korean. There were also cases of sign in only Japanese, pictograms, or no sign at all, leading to six types of signs. Overall, the facilities with four or two languages were more common, and most followed the guidelines provided by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). However, signage in languages other than English was often used as needed, showing variations across the railway companies. Furthermore, guidelines suggest that multilingual sign should be used only when it does not affect legibility or aesthetics. Overloading sign with multiple languages may make it harder to read at a glance. Therefore, it is recommended to standardize the frequently encountered signs into one type, and for proper nouns like station names, it is preferable to use languages other than English.

키워드