SciFi 1970s or 1980s Japanese colonists/possible generation ship

This was a book I picked up in a public library in the mid to late 80s. It was fairly new at the time and fairly thick and by a "serious" sf writer of the time. I don't remember a lot about the plot, but I seem to recall that it alternated between two or more distantly separated locales, likely different planets. I think a generation ship may have been involved.
The main thing I remember is that there were Japanese characters who spoke English with an accent, and the accent was represented in the spelling of the dialogue. It was one of the first SF books that I came across that had characters who were not American or European. It's also one of the first books I remember reading that attempted to show what a future English might look like.
I don't remember being terribly impressed back then. I don't think I finished it. But I'd really like to find this book and give it another evaluation as a more mature read, with a lot more linguistics and cultural experience. It may be that it just didn't have enough action for a teen reader. It may be that it is entirely cringe-worthy.
I've looked through a lot of books by Benford, Bear, Bova, Pohl, Silverberg and others trying to find this book for many years. I'm starting to think I hallucinated it!

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Looking for your book I stumbled over Paradises Lost by Ursula K. Le Guin, so thanks for the inspiration, but unfortunately that‘s probably not it as published later than described.

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On My Way To Paradise, Dave Wolverton, has a segment of the story aboard a ship crewed by Japanese, and later a war on a planet colonized by Japanese. The lead characters are Hispanic. I remember the translation machines do not work perfectly. But I don't recall if that imperfection was represented in the spelling of the dialogue.

Thanks. I'll check that one out. That is close enough that I need to get ahold of a copy and look through it to see if it's right or not. I really thought I read this book earlier than 1989, but that was still before college, so it's possible.

The Wolverton book sounded likely enough that I bought a copy so I could look through it. It looks like an interesting book, but doesn't appear to be the one I was trying to find.

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