Item Details

Masculinity, race and national identity: representations of non-Japanese men’s speech in contemporary Japanese novels

Issue: Vol 14 No. 3 (2020) Special Issue: Language, gender, and sexuality in Japanese popular media

Journal: Gender and Language

Subject Areas: Gender Studies Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/genl.39953

Abstract:

Language ideologies have been of central concern to the study of Japanese language, gender and society. Many scholars have researched ideologies surrounding representations of Japanese women’s speech; however, investigations of representations of men’s speech have been limited. This study contributes to filling this gap through the analysis of non-Japanese male characters found in contemporary Japanese novels. The article reveals that authors assign strongly masculine expressions to their East Asian characters much more frequently than to their white characters and argues that these differentiated representations of non-Japanese male characters’ speech reproduce and are influenced by ideologies concerning cultural nationalism, racial determinism, class and sexuality. Linguistic data are presented that both unsettle the constructed image of Asian males as asexual beings and question the historically assumed relationship between gendered language and authenticity.

Author: Satoko Suzuki

View Original Web Page

References :

Abe, Hideko (2010) Queer Japanese: Gender and Sexual Identities through Linguistic Practices. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Dahlberg-Dodd, Hannah E. (2018) Voices of the hero: dominant masculine ideologies through the speech of Japanese shōnen protagonists. Gender and Language 12(3): 346-371. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.32536

 

Doerr, Neriko Musha (2015) Standardization and paradoxical highlighting of linguistic diversity in Japan. Japanese Language and Literature 49(2): 389-403.

 

Ekuni, Kaori (2013) Mahiru nanoni kurai heya [Dark Room in the Midday]. Tokyo: Kodansha.

 

Fukuda, Chie (2014) Identities and linguistic varieties in Japanese: an analysis of language ideologies as participants' accomplishments. Pragmatics 24(1): 35-62. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.24.1.02fuk

 

Fukuda, Chie (2017) Gaijin performing gaijin (‘A foreigner performing a foreigner'): co-construction of foreigner stereotypes in a Japanese talk show as a multimodal phenomenon. Journal of Pragmatics 109: 12-28.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.12.012

 

Fukui, Harutoshi (2007) 6 Sutein [6 Traces of Stains]. Tokyo: Kodansha.

 

Fung, Richard (2005) Looking for my penis: the eroticized Asian in gay video porn. In Kent A. Ono (ed) A Companion to Asian American Studies 235-253. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996928.ch15

 

Hagiwara, Shigeru (1990) Can we really talk in Japanese? Japan Quarterly 37(2): 158-163.

 

Hase, Seishu (1998) Yakoochuu [Sea Sparkle]. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.

 

Hiramoto, Mie (2009) Slaves speak pseudo-Toohoku-ben: the representation of minorities in the Japanese translation of Gone with the Wind. Journal of Sociolinguistics 13(2): 249-263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00406.x

 

Hiramoto, Mie (2010) Anime and intertextualities: hegemonic identities in Cowboy Bebop. Pragmatics and Society 1(2): 234-256. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.1.2.03hir

 

Inoue, Miyako (2003) Speech without a speaking body: ‘Japanese women's language' in translation. Language & Communication 23(3): 315-330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00011-9

 

Inoue, Miyako (2006) Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.

 

Itakura, Hiroko (2008) Attitudes towards masculine Japanese speech in multilingual professional contexts of Hong Kong: gender, identity, and native-speaker status. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 29(6): 467-482. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434630802147932

 

Itakura, Hiroko (2015) Constructing Japanese men's multidimentional identities: a case study of mixed-gender talk. Pragmatics 25(2):179-203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.25.2.03ita

 

Iwasaki, Noriko (2011) Learning L2 Japanese ‘politeness' and ‘impoliteness': young American men's dilemmas during study abroad. Japanese Language and Literature 45(1): 67-106.

 

Jorden, Eleanor H. (1983) Masculine language. In Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, vol. 5 124-125. Tokyo: Kodansha.

 

Jung, Sun (2010) Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption: Yonsama, Rain, Oldboy, K-Pop Idols. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. https://doi.org/10.5790/hongkong/9789888028672.001.0001

 

Kawai, Yuko (2016) Using diaspora: Orientalism, Japanese nationalism, and the Japanese Brazilian diaspora. In Regis Machart, Fred Dervin and Minghui Gao (eds) Intercultural Masquerade 97-117. Heidelberg: Springer.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47056-5_7

 

Kelsky, Karen (2001) Who sleeps with whom, or how (not) to want the West in Japan. Qualitative Inquiry 7(4): 418-435. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107780040100700402

 

Kinsui, Satoshi (2003) Vaacharu nihongo yakuwarigo no nazo [Virtual Japanese: The Mystery of Role Language]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

 

Kinsui, Satoshi (2010) ‘Otoko kotoba' no rekishi: ‘ore' ‘boku' o chuushin ni [The history of men's language: with a focus on ‘ore' and ‘boku']. In Momoko Nakamura (ed) Jendaa de manabu gengogaku [Linguistics Learned from the Gender Perspective] 35-49. Kyoto: Sekai Shisosha.

 

Kinsui, Satoshi (2014) Kore mo nihongo aru ka: Ijin no kotoba ga umareru toki [Is This Also Japanese? When a Foreigner Language Is Born]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

 

Kitahara, Minori (2013) Sayonara, hanryuu [Good-bye, Korean Wave]. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo.

 

Louie, Kam (2015) Chinese Masculinities in a Globalizing World. London: Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315884646

 

Maree, Claire (2008) Grrrl-queens: onee-kotoba and the negotiation of heterosexist gender language norms and lesbo(homo)phobic stereotypes in Japanese. In Fran Martin, Peter Jackson, Mark McLelland and Andrey Yue (eds) AsiaPacifiQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities 67-84. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

 

Maree, Claire (2013) ‘Onee kotoba' ron [‘Drag Queen Talk' Theory]. Tokyo: Seidosha.

 

McVeigh, Brian J. (2006) Nationalisms of Japan: Managing and Mystifying Identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

 

McVeigh, Brian J. (2014) Interpreting Japan: Approaches and Applications for the Classroom. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315850559

 

Miller, Laura (1995) Crossing ethnolinguistic boundaries: a preliminary look at the gaijin tarento in Japan. In John A. Lent (ed) Asian Popular Culture 189-201. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

 

Miller, Laura (2004) Those naughty teenage girls: Japanese kogals, slang, and media assessments. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(2): 225-247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.225

 

Miyamoto, Teru (1998) Suisei monogatari [Comet Story]. Tokyo: Bungei Shunju.

 

Miyazaki, Ayumi (2004) Japanese junior high school girls' and boys' first-person pronoun use and their social world. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (eds) Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People 256-274. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa (1998) Re-Inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation. Armonk, ME: Sharpe.

 

Nakamura, Momoko (2007a) ‘Onna kotoba' wa tsukurareru [‘Women's Language' Gets Constructed]. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobo.

 

Nakamura, Momoko (2007b) ‘Sei' to nihongo: Kotoba ga tsukuru onna to otoko [‘Sex/gender' and Japanese: Women and Men That Language Constructs]. Tokyo: Nihon Hoso Shuppan Kyokai.

 

Nakamura, Momoko (2010) Women's and men's languages as heterosexual resource: power and intimacy in Japanese spam e-mail. In Janet Holmes and Meredith Marra (eds) Femininity, Feminism and Gendered Discourse: A Selected and Edited Collection of Papers from the Fifth International Language and Gender Association Conference 125-144. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.

 

Nakamura, Momoko (2013) Hon'yaku ga tsukuru nihongo: Hiroin wa ‘onna kotoba' o hanashitsuzukeru [The Japanese Language That Translation Creates: Heroines Keep Speaking Feminine Language]. Tokyo: Hakutakusha.

 

Niyekawa, Agnes (1991) Minimum Essential Politeness: A Guide to the Japanese Honorific Language. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

 

Occhi, Debra, SturtzSreetharan, Cindi and Shibamoto-Smith, Janet S. (2010) Finding Mr Right: new looks at gendered modernity in Japanese televised romances. Japanese Studies 30(3): 409-425.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10371397.2010.518605

 

Oh, Chuyun (2017) ‘Cinderella' in reverse: eroticizing bodily labor of sympathetic men in K-pop dance practice video. In Xiaodong Lin, Chris Haywood and Mairtin Mac an Ghaill (eds) East Asian Men: Masculinity, Sexuality and Desire 123-141. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55634-9_8

 

Ohta, Amy S. (1993) The foreign language learner in Japanese society: successful learners of Japanese respond to Miller's ‘Law of inverse returns'. Journal of Association of Teachers of Japanese 27: 205-228.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/488925

 

Okamoto, Shigeko and Shibamoto Smith, Janet S. (2008) Constructing linguistic femininity in contemporary Japan: scholarly and popular representations. Gender and Language 2(1): 87-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.v2i1.87

 

Okamoto, Shigeko and Sato, Shie (1992) Less feminine speech among young Japanese females. In Kira Hall, Mary Bucholtz and Birch Moonwoman (eds) Locating Power 478-488. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group, University of California.

 

Rosa, Jonathan (2019) Looking Like a Language, Sounding Like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190634728.001.0001

 

Saito, Junko (2013) Gender and facework: linguistic practices by Japanese male superiors in the workplace. Gender and Language 7(2): 233-261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.v7i2.233

 

Saito, Minako (2002) Bunshoo tokuhon-san e [Dear Writing Manuals]. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo.

 

Shibamoto Smith, Janet S. (2004) Language and gender in the (hetero)romance: ‘reading' the ideal hero/ine through lovers' dialogue in Japanese romance fiction. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (eds) Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People 113-130. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Shibamoto Smith, Janet S. (2005) Translating true love: Japanese romance fiction, Harlequin-style. In José Santaemilia (ed) Gender, Sex and Translation: The Manipulation of Identities 97-116. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.

 

Shoji, Yukiya (2008) Tokyo bando wagon [Tokyo Band Wagon]. Tokyo: Shueisha.

 

SturtzSreetharan, Cindi L. (2004a) Japanese men's linguistic stereotypes and realities: conversations from the Kansai and Kanto regions. In Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith (eds) Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People 275-289. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

SturtzSreetharan, Cindi L. (2004b) Students, sarariiman (pl.), and seniors: Japanese men's use of ‘manly' speech register. Language in Society 33: 81-108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0047404504031045

 

SturtzSreetharan, Cindi L. (2017a) Academy of devotion: performing status, hierarchy, and masculinity on reality TV. Gender and Language 11(2): 176-203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.21361

 

SturtzSreetharan, Cindi L. (2017b) Language and masculinity: the role of Osaka dialect in contemporary ideals of fatherhood. Gender and Language 11(4): 552-574. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/genl.31609

 

Sugimoto, Yoshio (2014) An Introduction to Japanese Society, fourth ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Suzuki, Satoko (2015) Nationalism lite? the commodification of non-Japanese speech in Japanese media. Japanese Language and Literature 49(2): 509-529.

 

Suzuki, Satoko (2018) Nationalism and gender in the representation of non-Japanese characters' speech in contemporary Japanese novels. Pragmatics 28(2): 271-302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.00008.suz

 

Suzuki, Satoko (2019) Bunka nashonarizumu to dansei-go: Nihon shoosetsu ni okeru gengo-teki henken [Cultural nationalism and masculine language: Linguistic stereotypes in Japanese novels]. In Naomi McGloin, Naomi Geyer and Yoshiyuki Hara (eds) Proceedings of the 27th Central Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference 43-52. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

Tamanoi, Mariko (2000) Knowledge, power, and racial classifications: the ‘Japanese' in ‘Manchuria'. Journal of Asian Studies 59(2): 248-276. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2658656

 

Yano, Christine R. (2010) Becoming prodigal Japanese: portraits of Japanese Americans on Japanese television. In Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Eva Tsai and JungBong Choi (eds) Television, Japan, and Globalization 217-239. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan.

 

Yoda, Megumi (2011) Yakuwarigo to shite no katakoto nihongo [Broken Japanese as role language]. In Satoshi Kinsui (ed.) Yakuwarigo kenkyuu no tenkai [Development of Role Language Research] 213-248. Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan.

 

Yoshida, Shuichi (2014) Taiyoo wa ugokanai [The Sun Does Not Move]. Tokyo: Gentosha.

 

Yoshino, Kosaku (1992) Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A Sociological Enquiry. London: Routledge.

 

Yoshino, Kosaku (1997) Bunka nashonarizumu no shakaigaku: Gendai nihon no aidentiti no yukue [Sociology of Cultural Nationalism: Future of Contemporary Japan's Identity]. Nagoya: Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai.