The purpose of this study is to explore the language life of Japanese expatriate spouses and to elucidate factors that affect their life satisfaction. Despite it is reported that family adjustment is a key success factor for expatriates' assignment, empirical studies for expatriate spouses are limited. A survey with 126 valid responses from Japanese spouses living in Shanghai is conducted. The survey indicates that Japanese is their daily language, while the use of Mandarin is highly required for some official communication scenes where the respondents have low communication satisfaction level. ANOVA analysis shows that the higher level of Mandarin proficiency has a positive relationship with "communication satisfaction", "life satisfaction" and "need for Mandarin". "The length of stay" is also positively related, but English proficiency does not significantly affect "life satisfaction".
Considering positive relationship with spouses' local language proficiency and "life satisfaction", it would be important for companies to encourage learning of local language not only for expatriates but also for their spouses, as it links to a success of expatriates' assignment. This "evidence" shows clear need of foreign languages other than English, showing the importance of multilingual education in Japan.

研究論文