In existence since 1966, Japanese Language and Literature (JLL) provides a scholarly forum for its members and the larger academic world in the area of Japanese literature, Japanese linguistics, teaching Japanese as a second or foreign language, and Japanese culture. Two issues are published each year. Before 2001 (volume 35), the journal was entitled the Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese. 

JLL is an official publication of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese.

Japanese Language and Literature is abstracted in all major abstraction services, including the JSTOR archive, which offers a full-text retrieval capability of past issues (those dated up to one year previous to the current volume).

The journal welcomes full-length articles that report new analyses, research findings, and insights. Strong preference is given to articles that engage primary source material in Japanese.