Among the many things he has done since retaking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a 大統領令 (daitōryō-rei, executive order) making English the official language of the United States.
While more than 30 U.S. states have already taken similar steps, this marks the first time in history that the country will have a national language recognized at the federal level — and a good opportunity to look at how all of this “translates” into Japanese.
At the heart of the discussion is the term 公用語 (kōyōgo, official language). The situation in the U.S. has been comparable to that in Japan, as neither country specifies an official language in its 憲法 (kenpō, constitution). The closest equivalent in Japan is article 74 of the 裁判所法 (saibansho-hō, Court Act), which simply states: 裁判所では、日本語を用いる (Saibansho dewa Nihongo o mochiiru, In court, Japanese is used).
