Summarizes developments of attempts to standardize written and spoken Japanese, from World War II to the present. (AM)

Discusses the popularization of Putonghua, the common language of the People's Republic of China, and the creation and popularization of a national phonetic alphabet. These two issues are related by the fact that romanization is seen as an important vehicle for the popularization of Putonghua. (CLK)

Since the Japanese writing system seems to frighten secondary school students as a compulsory study, the author recommends teaching only Romanized Japanese at the high school level. (PMP)

This paper explores the range of arguments and sentiments regarding the promotion and/or abolition of types of Chinese scripts. The written representations of Cantonese in Hong Kong, Mandarin in Taiwan as well as Mandarin in China are examined via issues of identity and of discourse both at national and international levels. Chinese scripts are…