Gender & Language in Contemporary Japan(ese)

General

Abe, Hideko. "Lesbian Bar Talk in Shinjuku, Tokyo." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 421–55. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

———. Queer Japanese: Gender and Sexual Identities through Linguistic Practices. Springer, 2010.

Camp, Margaret. "Japanese Lesbian Speech: Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Language." PhD Dissertation, University of Arizona, 2009.

Frank, Heidi. "Identity and Script Variation: Japanese Lesbian and Housewife Letters to the Editor." In Language and Sexuality: Contesting Meaning in Theory and Practice, edited by Kathryn Campbell-Kibler, Robert J. Podesva, Sarah J. Roberts, and Andrew Wong, 207–24. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 2002.

Ide, Sashiko. 1979. Onna No Kotoba Otoko No Kotoba. Japan: Ueno Insatsujo.

Inoue, Miyako. 2002. "Gender, Language, and Modernity: Toward an Effective History of 'Japanese Women's Language.'" American Ethnologist 29 (2): 392–422.

———. "Speech without a Speaking Body: '"Japanese Women's Language"' in Translation." Language & Communication 23, no. 3/4 (2003): 315–330.

———. "What Does Language Remember?: Indexical Inversion and the Naturalized History of Japanese Women." Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14, no. 1 (2004): 39–56.

———. "Where Has 'Japanese Women's Language' Gone?: Notes on Language and Political Economy in the Age of Control Societies." HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 6, no. 3 (2016): 151–177.

Kataoka, Kuniyoshi. "Affect in Japanese Women's Letter Writing: Use of Sentence-Final Particles Ne and Yo and Orthographic Convention." Pragmatics 5, no. 4 (1995): 427–453.

———. "Affect in Letter Writing: Unconventional Conventions in Letter Writing by Young Japanese Women." Language in Society 26, no. 1 (1997): 103–136.

Kinsui, Satoshi. ""Otoko Kotoba" No Rekishi: 'Ore' 'Boku' o Chūshin Ni." In Jendā de Manabu Gengogaku, edited by Momoko Nakamura, 35–49. Kyoto: Sekai Shisōsha, 2010.

Maree, Claire. "Ore Wa Ore Dakara ['Because I'm Me']: A Study of Gender and Language in the  Documentary Shinjuku Boys." Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context 9 (2003). http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue9/maree.html.

———. Queerqueen: Linguistic Excess in Japanese Media. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Matsumoto, Yoshiko. "Gender Identity and the Presentation of Self in Japanese." In Gendered Practices in Language, edited by Sarah Benor, Mary Rose, Devyani Sharma, Julie Sweetland, and Qing Zhang, 339–54. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications, 2002.

———. "Alternative Feminity: Personae of Middle-Aged Mothers." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 240–255. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Maynard, Senko K. Fluid Orality in the Discourse of Japanese Popular Culture. John Benjamins, 2016.

Miyamoto, Setsuko, and Mika Kotera. "Keitai Meiru Ni Okeru Jendā Ishiki: Poraitonesu Sutoratejii No Kanten Kara." Kenkyū Hōkoku 6 (2004): 127–137.

Miyazaki, Ayumi. 2002. "Relational Shift: Japanese Girls' Nontraditional First Person Pronouns." In Gendered Practices in Language, edited by Sarah Benor, Mary Rose, Devyani Sharma, Julie Sweetland, and Qing Zhang, 355–74. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

———. 2004. "Japanese Junior High School Girls' and Boys' First-Person Pronoun Use and Their Social World." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 256–73. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nakamura, Momoko. "Construction of 'Men's National Language' in Japan (1868–1926)." Shizenningenshakai 38 (2005): 91–126.

———. "The Formation of a Sociolinguistic Style in Translation: Cool and Informal Non-Japanese Masculinity." Gender and Language 14, no. 3 (2020): 244–262.

———. Gender, Language and Ideology: A Genealogy of Japanese Women's Language. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2014.

———. "Sei" to Nihongo: Kotoba Ga Tsukuru Onna to Otoko. Tokyo: Nihon Hōsou Shuppan Kyōkai, 2007.

———. Shinkeigo Majiyabaissu. Hakutakusha, 2020.

Nicolae, Raluca. "An Historical Perspective on Women's Speech in Japanese." Journal of Research in Gender Studies 4, no. 2 (2014): 236–250.

Nishida, Takamasa. 2011. "Yakuwarigo Toshite No Tsundere Hyōgen." In Yakuwarigo No Tenkai, edited by Satoshi Kinsui, 265–278. Kuroshio.

Ohara, Yumiko. "Prosody and Gender in Workplace Interaction: Exploring Constraints and Resources in the Use of Japanese." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 222–239. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Okamoto, Shigeko. "'Tasteless' Japanese: Less 'Feminine' Speech among Young Japanese Women." In Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self, edited by Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, 297–328. New York: Routledge, 1995.

———. "Wakai Josei No 'Otoko Kotoba': Kotobazukai to Aidentiti." In Jendā de Manabu Gengogaku, edited by Momoko Nakamura, 129–143. Sekaishishōsha, 2010.

Okamoto, Shigeko, and Maho Morimoto. "Gender Norms and Styling in Japanese Conversation: A Multilevel Analysis." Journal of Sociolinguistics (2022): 1–24.

Okamoto, Shigeko, and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith. "Constructing Linguistic Femininity in Contemporary Japan: Scholarly and Popular Representations." Gender and Language 2, no. 1 (2008): 87–112.

Ono, Tsuyoshi, and Sandra A. Thompson. Japanese (w)Atashi/Ore/Boku 'I': They're Not Just Pronouns." Cognitive Linguistics 14, no. 4 (2003): 321–347.

Robertson, Wesley C. Scripting Japan: Orthography, Variation, and the Creation of Meaning in Written Japanese. Routledge, 2020.

Shibamoto Smith, Janet S. "Japanese? Language? Gender?" Gender and Language 15, no. 4 (2021): 582–590.

Sturtz-Sreetharan, Cindi. "Gentlemanly Gender? Japanese Men's Use of Clause-Final Politeness in Casual Conversations." Journal of Sociolinguistics 10, no. 1 (2006): 70–92.

———. "'I Read the Nikkei, Too': Crafting Positions of Authority and Masculinity in a Japanese Conversation." Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16, no. 2 (2006): 173–193.

———.  "Japanese Men's Linguistic Stereotypes and Realities: Conversations from the Kansai and Kanto Regions." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 275–290. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

———. "Language and Masculinity: The Role of Osaka Dialect in Contemporary Ideals of Fatherhood." Gender and Language 11, no. 4 (2017): 552–574.

———. "Students, Sarariiman (Pl.), and Seniors: Japanese Men's Use of 'manly' Speech Register." Language in Society 33 (2004): 81–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2014.09.004.

Sunaoshi, Yukako. 2004. "Farm Women's Professional Discourse in Ibaraki." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 187–204. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Togashi, Junichi. "Tsundere Sokusei Ni Okeru Gengohyōgen No Tokuchō." In Yakuwarigo No Tenkai, edited by Satoshi Kinsui, 279–295. Kuroshio, 2011.

Washi, Rumi. "'Japanese Female Speech' and Language Policy in the World War II Era." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 76–91. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Yoshimitsu, Ozaki. "Onna No Kotoba/Otoko No Kotoba." In Keisu Sutadi: Nihongo No Baraetei, edited by Tomoko Ueno, Toshiyuki Sadanobu, Kazuyuki Satou, and Harumi Noda, 6–11. Tokyo: Fuji Repro, 2005.

Language in Fiction and Media

Aizawa, Manami. "Shōjo Manga Ni Miru Onna Kotoba." Meikai Nihongo 8 (2003): 85–99.

Armour, William S. "Representations of the Masculine in Tagame Gengoroh's Ero SM Manga." Asian Studies Review 34, no. 4 (2010): 443–465.

Chinami, Kyoko. "Manga Ni Miru Jendā Hyōgen No Kinō." Nihongo to Jendā 3 (2003): 17–36.

———. "Manga Ni Miru Jendā Hyōgen No Kinō." In Jendā de Manabu Gengogaku, edited by Momoko Nakamura, 17–36. Sekaishishōsha, 2010.

Dahlberg-Dodd, Hannah E. "Voices of the Hero: Dominant Masculine Ideologies through the Speech of Japanese Shōnen Protagonists." Gender and Language 12, no. 3 (2018): 346–371.

———. "O-Jōsama Kotoba and a Stylistics of Same-Sex Desire in Japanese Yuri Narratives." Mechademia 13, no. 1 (2020): 6–23.

Fraser, Lucy. "Gendered Language in Recent Short Stories by Japanese Women, and in English Translation." New Voices 2 (2008): 1–20.

Furukawa, Hiroko. "A Feminist Woman with a Given Female Language: A Contemporary Figure in the Japanese Translation of Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman." Babel 58, no. 2 (2012): 220–235.

———. "Intracultural Translation into an Ideological Language: The Case of the Japanese Translation of Anne of Green Gables." Neohelicon 42 (2015): 297–312.

———. "Connie's Language and Sexuality: Lady Chatterly's Love in Japanese." Studies in Translation Theory and Practice 26, no. 3 (2018): 337–390.

Hiramoto, Mie. "Slaves Speak Pseudo-Tōhoku-Ben: The Representation of Minorities in the Japanese Translation of Gone with the Wind." Journal of Sociolinguistics 13, no. 2 (2009): 249–263.

———. "Hey, You're a Girl?: Gendered Expressions in the Popular Anime, Cowboy Bebop." Multilingua 32, no. 1 (2013): 51–78. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2013-0003.

Kinsui, Satoshi. Vācharu Nihongo Yakuwarigo No Nazo. Japan: Iwanami, 2003.

Konei, Rikiya. 2011. "Kaze No Tani No Naushika to Yakuwarigo." In Yakuwarigo No Tenkai, edited by Satoshi Kinsui, 173–80. Kuroshio.

Konstantinovskaia, Natalia. "Creation of Femininity in Japanese Televised 'Beauty Ads': Traditional Values, Kawaii Cuteness, and a Dash of Feminism." Gender and Language 14 (3): 305–325, 2020.

Matsuoka, Rieko, Keiko Okabe, and Gregory Poole. "Gender, Power, and Face in Nursing Communication: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Speech Events in a Japanese Healthcare Manga Series." NCNJ 10, no. 1 (2011): 1–10.

Mizumoto, Terumi. 2005. "Terebi Dorama: Doramago Toshite No Onna Kotoba." In Jendā de Manabu Gengogaku, edited by Momoko Nakamura, 89–106. Sekaishishōsha, 2010.

———. "Terebi Dorama Niokeru Josei Kotoba to Gendā Firutā." Nihongo to Jendā 5: 23–46.

Nakamura, Momoko. "'Let's Dress a Little Girlishly!' Or 'Conquer Short Pants!' Constructing Gendered Communities in Fashion Magazines for Young People." In Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People, edited by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet Shibamoto Smith, 131–148. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

———. Honyaku Ga Tsukuru Nihongo: Heroin Wa "onna Kotoba" Wo Hanashitsuzukeru. Tokyo: Hakutakusha, 2013.

———. "Language, Gender and Sexuality in Japanese Popular Media." Gender and Language 14, no. 3 (2020): 221–225.

Occhi, Debra J., Cindi Sturtz-Sreetharan, and Janet Shibamoto-Smith. "Finding Mr Right: New Looks at Gendered Modernity in Japanese Televised Romances." Japanese Studies 30, no. 3 (2010): 409–425.

Robertson, Wesley C. "He's More Katakana than Kanji: Indexing Identity and Self-Presentation through Script in Japanese Manga." Journal of Sociolinguistics 21, no. 4 (2017): 497–520.

———. "Scripted Voices: Script's Role in Creating Japanese Manga Dialogue." Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics 10, no. 1 (2019): 87–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2018.1431799.

Saito, Junko. "Contesting and Advocating Gender Ideologies: An Analysis of Sararīman (Salaried Men) Characters' Hegemonic Masculinities in a Japanese TV Drama." Gender and Language 14, no. 3 (2020): 286–304.

Shibamoto-Smith, Janet S. "Translating True Love: Japanese Romance Fiction, Harlequin-Style." In Gender, Sex and Translation: The Manipulation of Identities, edited by José Santaemilia, 97–116. St. Jerome, 2005.

Suzuki, Satoko. "Asian Masculinity Celebrated and Otherised: Representations of Chinese and Korean Men in Japanese Written Media." Gender and Language 16, no. 2 (2022): 173–194.

———. "Masculinity, Race and National Identity: Representations of Non-Japanese Men’s Speech in Contemporary Japanese Novels." Gender and Language 14, no. 3 (2020): 226–243.

———. "Nationalism Lite? The Commodification of Non-Japanese Speech in Japanese Media." Japanese Language and Literature 49 (2015): 509–529.

Takahashi, Sumire. "Akujo No 'Yakuwari': Shōjo Manga 'Raifu' Ni Miru Shōjo No 'Onnakotoba.'" Gender and Sexuality 4 (2009): 17–37.

Ueno, Junko. "Shojo and Adult Women: A Linguistic Analysis of Gender Identity in Manga (Japanese Comics)." Women & Language 29, no. 1 (2006): 16–25.

Unser-Schutz, Giancarla. "Influential or Influenced? The Relationship between Genre, Gender and Language in Manga." Gender and Language 9, no. 2 (2015): 223–254.

———.  "Redefining Shōjo and Shōnen Manga Through Language Patterns." In Shōjo Across Media: Exploring Girl Practices in Contemporary Japan, edited by Jaqueline Berndt, Kazumi Nagaike, and Fusami Ogi, 49–82. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

———.  "What Text Can Tell Us about Male and Female Characters in Shōjo- and Shōnen-Manga." East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 1, no. 1 (2015): 133–153.

Notes

The foundations of this reading list were generously provided by Wes Robertson.

Suggest Additions

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