Frontmatter -- Preface -- Introduction to the Handbooks of Japanese Language and Linguistics -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction -- Part I: History -- 1 Research methodology -- 2 Japan and the international sociolinguistic community -- 3 Language life -- Part II: Sociolinguistic patterns -- 4 Style, prestige, and salience in language change in progress -- 5 Group language (shūdango) -- 6 Male-female differences in Japanese -- Part III: Language and gender -- 7 Historical overview of language and gender studies: From past to future -- 8 Genderization in Japanese: A typological view -- 9 Feminist approaches to Japanese language, gender, and sexuality -- Part IV: Honorifics and politeness -- 10 Japanese honorifics -- 11 Intersection of traditional Japanese honorific theories and Western politeness theories -- 12 Intersection of discourse politeness theory and interpersonal communication -- Part V: Culture and discourse phenomena -- 13 Subjective expression and its roles in Japanese discourse: Its development in Japanese and impact on general linguistics -- 14 Style, character, and creativity in the discourse of Japanese popular culture: Focusing on light novels and keitai novels -- 15 Sociopragmatics of political discourse -- Part VI: Language contact -- 16 Contact dialects of Japanese -- 17 Japanese loanwords and lendwords -- 18 Japanese language varieties outside Japan -- 19 Language contact and contact languages in Japan -- Part VII: Language policy -- 20 Chinese characters: Variation, policy, and landscape -- 21 Language, economy, and nation -- Subject index