Email this article 
Masculinity and Femininity in Yuriko Koike's Speech Style
Abstract
This study aims at describing Yuriko Koike’s speech style in conducting verbal interaction in public in relation to her profession as a politician and the Governor of Tokyo. In relation to gender stereotypes, women have a feminine speech style while men have a masculine speech style. The activities as a woman politician and leader will indeed affect Yuriko Koike’s language use in public communication, whether she fully incorporates a feminine style or also employs a masculine style. The data of this study is Yuriko Koike’s utterances in verbal interaction taken from YouTube, comprising informal talk shows, formal talk shows, and press conferences. The data are analyzed with the theories of gender and language, as well as speech style, proposed by Holmes and Stubbe (2003) and Talbot (2003). From the data obtained, it can be deduced that Yuriko Koike’s speech style is androgynous, which combines masculine and feminine speech styles. Her speech style, therefore, does not reflect the stereotypical style of the traditional Japanese women, which is polite, soft, unassertive, and indirect. Instead, Yuriko Koike is the depiction of the deconstruction of Japanese women’s communication today, by which she shows herself as a respected leader to her political opponents. Koike generally has a communication style of a leader, that is public, report, lecturing, referentially oriented, problem-solving, dominating, and task/outcome-oriented. Specifically, her masculine speech style includes direct, competitive, independent-autonomy, and dominant, while her feminine styles were effectively oriented-sympathy, rapport, intimacy-connection, collaborative, and supportive feedback.
Keywords: speech style; feminine; masculine; Yuriko Koike
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Abe, H. (1995). From Stereotype to Context: The Study of Japanese Women's Speech. Feminist Studies, 21(3), 647-671. doi:10.2307/3178206
Abell, Jackie & Myers, Greg. (2008). Analyzing Research Interviews. In Ruth Wodak & Michal Krzyzanowski (eds). Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Science. (pp. 145-161). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Azuma, S. (2011). Soapbox Speeches in the Summer of Seiken Kōtai. Japanese Language and Literature, 45(1), 141-167.
Berko, Roy., Aitken, Joan E., Wolvin, Andrew. (2010). Icomm Interpersonal Concept and Competencies Foundation of Interpersonal Communication. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Inc.
Cangara, Hafied. (2018). Komunikasi Politik Konsep, Teori, dan Strategi. Depok: PT Rajagrafindo Persada.
Dalton, E. (2013). More "Ordinary Women": Gender Stereotypes in Arguments for Increased Female Representation in Japanese Politics. U.S.-Japan Women's Journal, (44), 24-42. www.jstor.org/stable/42771844
Dubuc, C. (2012). When Women Are in Charge: The Language Japanese Women Speak at Work. Anthropologica, 54(2), 293-308. www.jstor.org/stable/24467409
Eckert, Penelope & McConnel-Ginet, Sally. (2006). Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eto, M. (2016). ‘Gender’ Problems in Japanese Politics: A Dispute over a Socio-Cultural Change towards Increasing Equality. Japanese Journal of Political Science, 17(3), 365-385. doi:10.1017/S1468109916000141
Forbes, Moira & McGrath, Maggie. (2020). The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Retrived from
https://www.forbes.com/profile/yuriko-koike/?sh=754c3bc05f7e
Hidayati, Nurul. (2020). Yuriko Koike, Gubernur Perempuan Pertama Tokyo, Terpilih Lagi. Retrieved from https://kumparan.com/kumparannews/yuriko-koike-gubernur-perempuan-pertama-tokyo-terpilih-lagi-1tkYBC5sRPD/full.
Holmes, Janet. (2005). Power and Discourse at Work: Is Gender Relevant? in Michelle M Lazar (ed). Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Gender, Power, and Ideology in Discourse. (pp. 31-60) New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Holmes, Janet. & Stubbe, Maria. (2003) “Feminine” Workplaces: Stereotype and Reality. In Janet Holmes & Miriam Meyerhoff (eds). The Handbook of Language and Gender. (pp. 573-599) United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Huddy, L. & Terkildsen, N. (1993). Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates. American Journal of Political Science, 37(1), 119-147. doi: 10.2307/2111526
Inoue, Miyako. (2016). 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(3), 151-177. DOI:10.14318/hau6.3.014
Iwao, Sumiko. (1993). The Japanese Women: Tradisional Image and Changing Reality. New York: Macmillan.
Kage, R., Rosenbluth, F. & Tanaka, S. (2019). What Explains Low Female Political Representation? Evidence from Survey Experiments in Japan. Politics & Gender, 15(2), 285-309. doi:10.1017/S1743923X18000223
Klebanov, B., Diermeier, D. & Beigman, E. (2008). Lexical Cohesion Analysis of Political Speech. Political Analysis, 16(4), 447-463.
LEE, Jinah & LEE, Kwangho. (2016). Gendered Reactions to Women Politicians in Japan: The Role of Media Use and Political Cynicism. Keio Communication Review, 38, 21-38.
Mashun, M.S. (2007). Metode Penelitian Bahasa Tahapan Strategi, Metode, dan Tekniknya. Jakarta: PT Raja Grafindo Perkasa.
Merchant, Karima. (2012). "How Men And Women Differ: Gender Differences in Communication Styles, Influence Tactics, and Leadership Styles". CMC Senior Theses. Paper 513. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/513
Meyner, Saranya. (2013). Do The Speechs of Japanese Female Politicians Feature Japanese Women’s Language–Political Language from a Gender Perspective. Götenborgs Universitet Inst För Spark Och Litteraturer Japanska. (Bachelor’s Thesis) https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/35327
Mooney, Annabelle & Evans, Betsi. (2019). Language, Society and Power an Introduction. New York: Rouledge.
Nakano, Yuko. (2013). Among Equal? Women in Japanese Politics. Center for Strategic and International study CSIS https://www.csis.org/analysis/japan-chair-platform-among-equals-women-japanese-politics
Okamoto, Shigeko (2004). Ideology in Linguistic Practice and Analysis: Gender and Politeness in Japanese Revisited. In Shigeko Okamoto & Janet Shibamoto (eds). Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology. (pp. 24-38) New York: Oxford University Press
Okamoto, Shigeko & Janet Shibamoto. (2004). Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology. New York: Oxford University Press
Osako, M. (1978). Dilemmas of Japanese Professional Women. Social Problems, 26(1), 15-25. doi:10.2307/800429
Park, Ju-Min & Kim, Chang-Ran (2020). Japan’s Ruling Party Invites more Women to Meetings, as long as They don’t Talk. Retrived from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-idUSKBN2AH08E
Snow, Nancy. (2017). Why Yuriko Koike is New Face of Brand Japan. The Japan Times. Retrived from https://www.academia.edu/33871486/Why_Yuriko_Koike_is_the_new_face_of_brand_Japan
Talbolt, Mary. (2003). Gender Stereotypes: Reproduction and Chalenge. In Janet Holmes & Miriam Meyerhoff (eds). The Handbook of Language and Gender. (pp. 468-489) United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Tanaka, Lidia. (2004). Language and Culture (A Study of Japanese Television Interview Discourse). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Tannen, Deborah. (1994). Gender and Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tannen, Deborah. (2005). Conversational Style. New York: Oxford University Press.
van Dijk, Teun A. (1997). Discourse as Structure and Process. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Weatherall, Ann. (2002). Gender, Language and Discourse. New York: Routledge.
Wilson, John. (2001). Political Discourse. in Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen & Heidi E Hamilton (eds). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. (pp. 398-415). Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers.
Wodak, Ruth. (1996). Disorder of Discourse. London: Longman
Yoshida, Mitsuhiro. (2001) Joking, Gender, Power, and Professionalism among Japanese inn workers. Ethnology 40(4), 361-369.
Forbes, Moira & McGrath, Maggie. (2020). The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Retrived from
https://www.forbes.com/profile/yuriko-koike/?sh=754c3bc05f7e
Data sources:
(Cafesta) 自民党女性局スマイル ウーマン. (Jiminto Joseikyoku- Smile Women). Retrived from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYkYWvt8b8w
“Talking Tokyo/ CityLab Paris”. Retrived from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok0YN_6kqFc
“ Yuriko Koike: The State of the Governor’s Administration and What Lies Ahead”. Retrived from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Gw0wqDRzw&t=3787s
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18326/rgt.v14i1.139-156
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2021 Parwati Hadi Noorsanti
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.