This volume will be of particular interest to those working in the field of Japanese linguistics and language teaching but also of interest to those working in comparative fields. Apart from the introductory survey chapter, the other 13 chapters are original treatments of Japanese from a systemic functional (SF) perspective from scholars in Australia and Japan. Essentially the overarching aim of the book is to fill a gap in the publication of research in the area.

While there have been the occasional chapters on SF treatments of Japanese in monographs, this is the first volume dedicated to Japanese from a systemic functional perspective. The monograph is composed of two parts: Part I descriptions and Part II applications. Part I is further divided into the three metafunctions: textual, interpersonal and ideational.

Part II is divided into applications of the descriptions in Education and in Computing. The Education contributions are a mixture of: work on genres in Japanese and English and applications of SF theory to teaching Japanese as a second/foreign language. The Computing contributions present the application of SF theory to the development of a Japanese language based computer operating system.

The volume also includes a Foreword by Professor Noboru Yamaguchi, Tohoku University, considered to be one of the first linguists to explore systemic-functional perspectives of Japanese.