ABSTRACT
The terms hyoonha (supporters of phoneticisation) and hyoiha (supporters of character retention) began to be used about this time to designate reformers and conservatives respectively, encapsulating the polarisation of views on language policy. The former group was represented by scholars of language and linguistics such as Kindaichi Kyosuke (1882-1971), Hoshina Koichi and Ando Masatsugu who had been instrumental in the reforms, the latter by Fujimura Tsukuru, Tokieda Motoki and others. The objections of Fujimura and Tokieda related to their own interests of classical language and literature, while the reformers, as we have seen in earlier chapters, grounded their case in the science of linguistics, starting from the basic premise that written Japanese was difficult and in need of simplification. After 1958, the new okurigana rules and all that they implied brought the conflict between the two camps to a head, sparking off a major row which was to end in the partial reversal of the postwar reforms and a rejection of the ideas which had motivated them.
