日本基本上是單一語言、單一族群的國家，大和民族佔其人口超過九成，自然而然牙成單一語言環境。然而約從二十年前起，各地學者開始在首都的東京進行各種規模的語言景觀研究，不少研究結果發現市區大部分的路牌均非單語路牌，而是配有英、中、韓文甚至少數歐洲、東南亞語言，他們相信日本政府推行的「觀光立國」政策便是其中一個造成多語言路牌急增的主因。然而當時的研究幾乎只集中在東京進行，研究過程中學者以相機拍下路牌的照片，並加以分析及分類，再整理成圖表以撰寫論文，習慣性的做法除了導致以小城市為對象的研究稍有不足外，量化研究數量亦遠遠超過質化研究。因此，本研究融合了量化及質化方法，以探索山口縣下關市（日本核心市）的語言景觀和探討本地居民對當地語言政策及多語言路牌的態度為主要研究目的進行了田野調查與訪問。過程中總共在下關JR車站、下關站前公車交匯處及下關站南口交通廣場拍攝了506張標有語言的路牌照片。量化研究結果顯示下關較為看重韓語，因此呈現了「日．英．韓．中」的語言偏好順序；質化研究結果則指出了當地居民均有意識到多語言路牌的存在及其形成原因，大多數亦偏向支持相關政府指引。而雖然由政府所提供的語言政策在一定程度上塑造了現時的語言景觀，但亦有例子顯示在地商家在選擇語言時有一定的傾向，指引因此並未被全然接納、使用。

Japan as a largely monoethnic nation with only one official language, has always been given the image of its monolingual environment. Not until the 2000s, researchers began to conduct linguistic landscape studies in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. A high percentage of public signs were found written not only in Japanese but also other foreign languages, including mostly English, Chinese, and Korean, along with a small number of European and Southeast Asian languages. To a great extent, the blast out of multilingual signs could be related to the idea of “Making Japan a Tourism-oriented Nation” promoted by the Government of Japan. However, studies were mainly done in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Data was categorized, calculated and put into tables to present the languages used on signs. In other words, less attention was given to smaller cities and the use of qualitative methods. Thus, this study aims at contributing to a richer picture of linguistic landscape in Japan by applying both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the linguistic signs in Shimonoseki, a core city located at Yamaguchi Prefecture. In order to investigate the languages used on signs at the public area of Shimonoseki JR station, the South Traffic Square, and the Shimonoseki-ekimae Bus Terminal, a total of 506 photographs were taken through fieldwork. After that, interviews were conducted to examine local residents’ attitudes towards the language policy and how they perceived the linguistic landscape. he main findings show that, different from previous studies in Tokyo, Shimonoseki favors the language preference of “Japanese-English-Korean-Chinese (JEKC)”. Local community was revealed to have a high awareness of the multilingual signs and mostly supportive towards the government’s language guidelines. It also implies that language policy on signs does have a certain level of influence on the language choices, yet, may differ due to local businesses’/authorities’ preferences.

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