Final Project Proposal

I am planning on doing my map on the branches of the Japonic language family and the different ethnicities in Japan. I chose this because my grandmother is from Japan. Her ethnicity is Ryukyuan (Amamian), a Japanese ethnic minority, and though she currently speaks Japanese and English, she spoke Southern Amamian, a Ryukyuan language, when she was younger. Many people do not even realize that there is more than one language or ethnicity in Japan. I hope this map will show the diversity of the Japanese people.

Endangered languages of Japan

This is the main data I will be mapping

            Main Ethnicites:

-Yamato, largest ethnic group, “Japanese”, mainland Japanese

-Ryukyuan, minorities, indigenous people in Ryukyuan islands

-Ainu, minorities, indigenous people in northern Japan/Russia

                        Languages

                                    -Japanese, official language, spoken by all ethnic groups

                                    -Ryukyuan languages, from the Ryukyuan Islands

                                    -Ainu Languages, few left, spoken by a handful of Ainu

The data I will be using is from a mixture of Japanese censuses along with data from academic sources and various organizations. I will be using a mix of government and private/not for profit organizations because discrimination against Ryukyuans and Ainu is common in Japan. Many people from these ethnicities lie about their heritage or what languages they can speak on Japanese government censuses.

The audience of the map would be the general public. I would think this map would be in a magazine similar to National Geographic or Smithsonian Magazine rather than a scientific publication. The point is to educate the average person on the subject instead of studying the languages or the people. It will be created to give a general overview of Japan.

The type of visualization I envision is a map with various pop outs to give a history or explanation of each ethnic group. Within these pop ups, there will be links, photos, video clips, etc. to show what each group looks like and their culture. The multilayer map will be used to show where the different groups overlap, as well as where the languages overlap.

The production steps will be as follows:

1)      Gather data

2)      Organize data into chart, so information does not get mixed up

3)      Find a base map of Japan that includes Ryukyuan Islands

4)      Place data on map

5)      Clean up map, finalize it

6)      Present presentation

An obstacle I foresee is getting the data confused with each other. Many of the languages have similar names, and pictures could get confusing. Another obstacle could be having too much data in one map. There is a possibility I will have to make this into two more detailed maps, then take simplified versions of the data to make one less complex map.

This is an interactive map of the world that is similar to the type of map I want. My pop-ups would be very different though, but would have similar content. My map also would not be as colorful.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-map-viewer.html

Another example of a map:

Japanese map