Cover not available
Part of
Questioning and Answering Practices across Contexts and Cultures
Edited by Cornelia Ilie
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 323] 2021
► pp. 71–106

Japanese politicians’ questions in parliament

Being polite yet forceful?

ORCID logo | Honorary Associate La Trobe University
This chapter addresses the paucity of research on parliamentary discourse in Japan by examining questions used in The House of Representatives Plenary Meetings (2014–2017). This study looks at grammatical, functional and turn-taking aspects to explore Japanese politicians’ questioning strategies and to ascertain whether the canonical ka-question is favored over other types of question forms. It also examines linguistic impoliteness which is noticeable in the discourse on both sides – the questioner and the answerer – or the opposition and the government. The analysis shows that Japanese politicians draw on very polarized questioning and answering strategies. Very polite forms are used but also aggressive linguistic strategies are deployed showing how language is used as a tool to attack the opposing members of Parliament and to defend own policies.
Keywords: Japanese, canonical questions, politicians, impoliteness, politeness, The House of Representatives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Primary characteristics of the language in political settings with a focus on question-answer sessions
    • 2.1Politeness and impoliteness in parliament
  • 3.Syntax, function, turn-taking and politeness
  • 4.The language of Japanese politicians
  • 5.Characteristics of questions in Japanese
  • 6.The Japanese political system
    • 6.1House of Representatives committee meetings
  • 7.The data
  • 8.Results
    • 8.1Statistical results
    • 8.2Qualitative results
  • 9.Polite and impolite questioning-answering
    • 9.1Politeness strategies
    • 9.2Aggressive questioning: Impoliteness in parliamentary discourse
    • 9.3Use of irony or overt criticism at the start of politicians’ questions
  • 10.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 26 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.323.03tan
References (73)
References
Agha, Asif. 1998. “Stereotypes and Registers of Honorific Language.” Language in Society 27: 151–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aoki, Mizuho. 2015. “Abe Forced to Apologize After Heckling DPJ Lawmaker.” The Japan Times, June, 1. [URL]
Bates, Stephen, Peter Kerr, Christopher Byrne and Liam Stanley. 2014. “Questions to the Prime Minister: A Comparative Study of PMQs from Thatcher to Cameron.” Parliamentary Affairs 67: 253–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bavelas, Janet Beavin, Alex Black, Nicole Chovil, and Jennifer Mullett. 1988. “Political Equivocation: A Situational Explanation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 7 (2): 137–145. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bilmes, Jack. 1999. “Questions, Answers, and the Organization of Talk in the 1992 Vice Presidential Debate: Fundamental Considerations.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 32 (3): 213–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blas, Arroyo José. 2000. “Mire usted Sr. González….Personal Deixis in Spanish Political Electoral Debate.” Journal of Pragmatics 32: 1–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2003. “Perdóneme que se lo diga, pero vuleve usted a faltar a la verdad, señor González: Form and Function of Politic Verbal Behaviour in Face-to-Face Spanish Political Debates.” Discourse and Society 14 (4): 395–423. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bull, Peter. 1994. “On Identifying Questions, Replies, and Non-replies in Political Interviews.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 13 (2): 115–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2008. “Slipperiness, Evasion and Ambiguity: Equivocation and Face-work in Non-committal Political Discourse.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 27: 333–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bull, Peter, and Wells, Pam. 2012. “Adversarial Discourse in Prime Minister’s Questions.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 31 (1): 30–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bull, Peter, and Anita Fetzer. 2006. “Who Are We and Who Are You? The Strategic Use of Forms of Address in Political Interviews.” Text & Talk 26 (1): 3–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Steven Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chilton, Paul. 2004. Analyzing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London/New York: Taylor and Francis. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clayman, Steven. 1988. “Displaying Neutrality in Television News Interviews.” Social Problems 335: 479–92.Google Scholar
. 1992. “Footing in the Achievement of Neutrality: The Case of News Interviews Discourse.” In Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew and John Heritage, 163–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. 1993. “Reformulating the Question: A Device for Answering/Not Answering Questions in News Interviews and Press Conferences.” Text 13: 159–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clayman, Steven, and John Heritage. 2002. The News Interview. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cook, Haruko Minegishi. 1990. “The Sentence-final Particle ‘Ne’ as a Tool for Cooperation in Japanese Conversation.” In Japanese and Korean Linguistics Vol 1, ed. by Koji Hajime, 29–45. Stanford: Stanford Linguistics Center.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1989. Language and Power. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Feldman, Ofer, Ken Kinoshita, and Peter Bull. 2015. “Culture of Communicative Conflict? The Analysis of Equivocation in Broadcast Japanese Political Interviews”. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 34 (1): 65–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2016. “‘Ducking and Diving’: How Politicial Issues Affect Equivocation in Japanese Political Interviews.” Japanese Journal of Political Science 17 (2): 141–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fenton-Smith, Ben. 2008. “Discourse Structure and Political Performance in Adversarial Parliamentary Questioning.” Journal of Language and Politics, 7 (1):97–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fetzer, Anita and Gerda Eva Lauerbach, eds. 2007. Political Discourse in the Media: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Vol. 160). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fukushima, Tatsuya. 2005. “True Colors of Japanese Prime Ministers: A Linguistic Approach to Political Profiling.” Journal of Language and Politics 4 (3): 421–442. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gnisci, Augusto, and Marino Bonaiuto. 2003. “Grilling Politicians. Politicians’ Answers to Questions in Television Interviews and Courtroom Examinations.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 22 (4): 385–413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gnisci, Augusto, and Clotilde Pontecorvo. 2004. “The Organization of Questions and Answers in the Thematic Phases of Hostile Examination: Turn-by-Turn Manipulation of Meaning.” Journal of Pragmatics 36 (5): 965–995. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gnisci, Augusto, Pierpaollo Zollo, Marco Perugini, and Angiola Di Conza. 2013. “A Comparative Study of Toughness and Neutrality in Italian and English Political Interviews.” Journal of Pragmatics 50 (1), 152–167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greatbatch, David. 1992. “On the management of disagreement between news interviewers”. In Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew and John Heritage, 268–301. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1967. Interaction Ritual. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.Google Scholar
Goody, Esther. 1978. Questions and Politeness Strategies in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haddad, Mary Alice. 2012. Building Democracy in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harris, Sandra. 2001. “Being Politically Impolite: Extending Political Theory to Adversarial Political Discourse.” Discourse and Society 12 (4): 451–472. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haugh, Michael. 2005. “What Does ‘Face’ Mean to the Japanese? Understanding the Import of ‘Face’ In Japanese Business Interaction.” Asian Business Discourse, 211–239.Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael, and Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini. 2009. “Face and Interaction. Face, Communication and Social Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics: 1–30.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Makoto. 2010. “An Overview of the Question-Response System in Japanese.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (10): 685–702. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John. 1985. “Analyzing News Interviews: Aspects of the Production of Talk for an Overhearing Audience”. In Handbook of Discourse Analysis Vol. 3, ed. by Teun van Dijk, 95–119. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
. 2002. “The Limits of Questioning: Negative Interrogatives and Hostile Question Content.” Journal of Pragmatics 34:1427–1446. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John and David Greatbatch. 1991. “On the Institutional Character of Institutional Talk: The Case of News Interviews.” In Talk and Social Structure, ed. by Deidre Boden and Don Zimmerman, 93–127. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Heritage, John and Andrew Roth. 1995. “Grammar and Institution: Questions and Questioning in the Broadcast News Interview.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 28 (1): 1–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hbrenar, Ronald and Mayumi Itoh. 2014. “Japan’s Changing Party System.” In Party Politics in Japan, ed. by Akira Nakamura and Ronald Hbrenar, 1–21. Abindgon, Oxon: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Ide, Sachiko. 2005. “How and Why Honorifics Can Signify Dignity and Elegance.” In Broadening the Horizon of Linguistic Politeness, ed. by Sachiko Ide and Robyn Lakoff, 45–64. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ikeda, Keiko. 2009. “Audience Participation through Interjection: Japanese Municipal Council Sessions.” The Journal of Language and Politics 8 (1): 52–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ilie, Cornelia. 2004. “Insulting as (un) parliamentary practice in the British and Swedish parliaments.” Cross-cultural Perspectives on Parliamentary Discourse 10: 45–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2010. “Strategic Uses of Parliamentary Forms of Address: The Case of the U.K. Parliament and the Swedish Riksdag”. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (4): 885–911. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015a. “Questions and Questioning”. In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, ed. by Karen Tracy, Cornelia Ilie and Todd Sandel, 1–15. Boston: John Wiley & Sons. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015b. “Follow-ups as Multifunctional Questioning and Answering Strategies in Prime Minister’s Questions.” In The Dynamics of Political Discourse: Forms and Functions of Follow-Ups, ed. by Anita Fetzer, Elda Weizman and Lawrence Berlin, 195–218. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015c. “Parliamentary Discourse.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Bernard Forchtner, 309–325. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2017. “Questioning the Questionable: Arguments and Counter-Arguments in Political Accountability Interviews.” In Argumentation Across Communities of Practice: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, ed. by Cornelia Ilie and Giuliana Garzone, 73–98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jucker, Andreas. 1986. News Interviews: A Pragmalinguistics Analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kienpointner, Manfred. 1997. “Varieties of Rudeness: Types and Functions of Impolite Utterances.” Functions of Language 2:251–287. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Makino, Seichi and Michio Tsutsui. 1992. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times.Google Scholar
Matsuda, Kenjiro. 2008. Kokkai Kaigiroku o Tsukatta Nihongo Kenkyuu. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shoboo.Google Scholar
McClain, Yoko. 1990. Handbook of Modern Japanese Grammar. 15th Edition. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press.Google Scholar
Moriyama, Takuro. 1992. “Nihongo ni okeru suiryo o megutte [About inference in Japanese].” Gengo Kenkyuu 10: 64–83.Google Scholar
Nakada, Seiichi. 1980. Aspects of Interrogative Structure: A Case Study from English and Japanese. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Google Scholar
Obana, Yasuko. 2020. Japanese Politeness: An Enquiry. Abindgon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez de Ayala, Soledad. 2001. “FTAs and Erskine May: Conflicting Needs? – Politeness in Question Time”. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 143–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rasiah, Parameswary. 2010. “A Framework for the Systemic Analysis of Evasion in Parliamentary Discourse”. Journal of Pragmatics 42: 661–680. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roth, Andrew and David Olsher. 1997. “Some Standard Uses of “What About”- Prefaced Questions in the Broadcast News Interview.” Issues in Applied Linguistics 9 (1): 3–25.Google Scholar
Rozenberg, Olivier and Shane Martin. 2011. “Questioning Parliamentary Questions.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 17 (3): 394–404. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sanchez de Dios, Manuel and Matti Wiberg. 2011. “Questioning in European Parliaments.” The Journal of Legislative Studies 17 (3): 354–367. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shibamoto-Smith, Janet. 2011. “Honorifics, “Politeness”, and Power in Japanese Political Debate.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 3707–3719. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, Lidia. 2006. “Turn-taking in Japanese Television Interviews: A Study on Interviewers’ Strategies.” Pragmatics 16 (2): 361–398. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2015. Japanese Questions. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
The House of Representatives Rules. Chapter 7, article 54–2. [URL]
The Japan Times. “Kagoikes Arrested Over Alleged Subsidy Fraud Involving Moritomo Gakuen Schools Plugged by Abe’s Wife.” July 31, 2017. [URL]
Tracy, Karen. 2017. “Facework and (Im)politeness in Political Exchanges.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im) Politeness, ed. by Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh, and Dániel Z. Kádár, 739–757. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Usami, Mayumi. 2002. Discourse Politeness in Japanese conversation: Some Implications for a Universal Theory of Politeness (Vol. 26). Tokyo: Hitsuji Shoboo.Google Scholar
Yokota, Mariko. 1994. “The Role of Questioning in Japanese Political Discourse.” Issues in Applied Linguistics 5(2): 353–382.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yonezawa, Y. 2016. “Nexus of Culture and Language: A Study of Person Reference Terms in Japanese with Special Focus on Anata ‘You’”. PhD diss., Australian National University.Google Scholar
Wetzel, Patricia. 2004. Keigo in Modern Japan: Polite Language from Meiji to the Present. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wodak, Ruth and Bernard Forchetner. 2017. “Introducting the Language-Politics Nexus”. In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics, ed. by Ruth Wodak and Bernard Fochetner, 1–14. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Feldman, Ofer & Ken Kinoshita
2024. Beyond acceptable criticism. Language and Dialogue DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.