Japanese Female Aidoru Identities

Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation

Authors Yamamoto, Shiho

Publisher The University of Arizona.

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Download date 02/10/2021 05:56:52

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/631935 JAPANESE FEMALE AIDORU IDENTITIES

by

Shiho Yamamoto

______Copyright © Shiho Yamamoto 2019

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the

DEPARTMENT OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

In the Graduate College

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

2019

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I have dreamt about writing the acknowledgements for a long time during my dissertation process. I am extremely happy that I am writing it, because it means that I am in the very last phase as a PhD candidate and able to finally express my gratitude to everyone who has supported me. First of all, I would like to acknowledge my wonderful committee members. I remember the very first day that I visited Dr. Jones, my advisor and committee chair. It was right before my first semester at the University of Arizona. She was the first professor that I visited and she has always been willing to meet with me and guide me since then. I could not have come this far without having weekly meetings with her. I would also like to thank my committee members. I have taken several classes from Dr. Camp. This dissertation topic of aidoru identity was initially developed in one of her classes. I had an opportunity to work as a TA for “Languages and Cultures of East Asian Studies” under her supervision. She has constantly motivated me and her encouragement and compassion has kept me pursuing my graduate studies. I am also truly grateful to have Dr. Diao as one of my committee members. She has constantly provided me with resource and guidance. Thanks to Dr. Karatsu, I am interested in the field of sociolinguistics. I took her class during the very first semester at the UofA not knowing what sociolinguistics was about. After taking her class, my interest has shifted from phonetics to sociolinguistics. She was also my supervisor at Japanese language courses; therefore, she has helped me to grow as a researcher but also a teacher. I am very fortunate to have these wonderful committee members who are knowledgeable, encouraging, and patient. With their constant support, I am finally able to complete this important step in my life. I also would like to thank all my supervisors, colleagues and mentors. The Department of East Asian Studies is such a pleasant place to be, especially after Theresa Jensen joined EAS. Her joyful attitude and caring for the faculties and students definitely lightened up my struggling days. I was blessed to be a part of the Japanese section, and they were like my family, Ishikawa-sensei, Keller-sensei, Yuri Piskula, Ayu Sasayama, Kayo Shintaku, Megumi Iida, Ayana Hatsuda, Tadaomi Enami, and all other previous and current members. They are always supportive, and they have given me both educational advice and lifetime tips. Another EAS colleague, Ryan Redmond, has been my designated editor, and he is always willing to read my long papers and to give me constructive feedback. Special thanks to my friends/study buddies Rie Maruyama, Miki Murakami and Noriko Noma. I will never forget many hours in a study room, be it a library, office, cafe or lab, tackling homework and working on writing. I owe thanks to UofA services: SafeRide to commute, Campus pantry for free food, and The campus recreation center to release my stress. In addition, I am grateful to have discovered Jennifer Glass at Writing Skills Improvement Program. I have known her over a year, and she has taught me many useful writing techniques and given me precise suggestions and encouragement. I am always motivated after having in-person and online tutor sessions with her. Tremendous appreciation goes to my friends outside of the school as well. My dearest friend, Mana Ohkura, surely helped me to get rid of stress and recharge. My longtime roommate, Chiew Hwa Poon was the person to run to whenever I was feeling down. With her presence and her delicious homemade meals I could feel that our little apartment was a 4 perfect home. I am lucky to have my friends in Tucson including Amelia, Aya-chan, Yan, Miriam and Kristin to have an occasional get-together. The conversation with them helped me to develop my ideas. Also, thank you, Tucson for the last several years. The long lasting three digit temperature did not help much, but blue sky and bright sunshine were one of the reasons that I was able to maintain my happiness and focus on my study. Many friends and family in Japan have supported me emotionally from a different time zone. Even if I was staying up to work on my dissertation in Tucson, I was not alone because of them. In particularly, the daily chat with Nicola Strambini kept me positive during the high-stress moments. His linguistic background and IT skills have also helped me out of hardships and technical problems. I would also like to extend a warm thanks to all of his family in Italy, and my family in Japan. I was able to push myself because of their support. It is very fortunate to have amazing people around me. Thank you so much! 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES 8 LIST OF TABLES 9 ABSTRACT 10 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 12 CHAPTER 2. IDENTITY AND STYLE 18 2.1 Identity, style and social meaning 18 2.2 Previous studies of gender and language 23 2.3 The historical positions of women and gender roles in Japan 25 2.4 Gendered language development in Japan 27 2.5 Multiple styles in Japanese and empirical studies 30 2.5.1 Pronouns 30 2.5.2 Sentence-final particles (SFPs) 32 2.5.3 Speech levels in Japanese 34 CHAPTER 3. AIDORU IN JAPAN 39 3.1 A few meanings of aidoru 39 3.2 A brief history of career aidoru in Japan 41 3.3 Aidoru fans, otaku 44 3.4 Prevailing expectations for Japanese female aidoru in Japan 46 CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH QUESTION AND DATA SOURCE BACKGROUND 53 4.1 Goal and research questions 53 4.2 Data source background 53 4.2.1 Onyanko Club (OC) 54 4.2.2 AKB48 55 CHAPTER 5. CRAFTED IDENTITIES IN IMAGES AND LYRICS 64 5.1 Introduction 64 5.2 Methodology 65 5.2.1 Data (CD jacket covers and song lyrics) 65 5.2.2 Observation on CD jacket covers 66 5.2.3 Qualitative analysis on personae and behaviors in song lyrics 66 5.2.4 Coding system for quantitative analysis on ending forms in song lyrics 67 5.3 Results 74 5.3.1 Visual images on CD covers 74 5.3.1.1 Clothing, accessories and fashion style 75 (i) Kawaii style 75 (ii) Not so kawaii style 82 6

5.3.1.2 Facial expressions and facial traits 88 5.3.1.3 Title texts on CD covers 91 5.3.2 Descriptions of personae’s identities in lyrics 97 5.3.2.1 Youth identity in both groups’ songs 98 (i) Student identity 101 (ii) Inexperienced identity 102 5.3.2.2 Passive and coquettish identity in OC songs 106 5.3.2.3 Assertive and motivating identity in AKB48 songs 111 5.3.3 Gendered language expressions in lyrics 116 5.3.3.1 Direct reference to gendered nouns 116 5.3.3.2 Indirect reference to gendered expressions 120 (i) Ending forms 120 (iii) Lexemes 132 (iv) Gendered descriptions and motifs 132 (v) Pronunciation modification 134 5.4 Chapter summary and discussion 134 CHAPTER 6. HOW AIDORU VIEW AIDORU IDENTITY 145 6.1 Introduction 145 6.2 Methodology 145 6.2.1 Data 145 6.2.2 Thematic analysis 147 6.3 Findings 147 6.3.1 Youth 148 6.3.2 Innocence 151 6.3.3 Cheerfulness and beyond 156 6.3.4 Mediocrity 161 6.3.5 Professionalism 163 6.3.6 Leadership 167 6.3.7 Dream 169 6.3.8 Self-directed opportunities 172 6.4 Chapter summary and discussion 178 CHAPTER 7. EXPRESSIONS OF IDENTITY IN AIDORU TALK 180 7.1 Introduction 180 7.2 Methodology 180 7.2.1 Data 180 7.2.2 Coding system for quantitative analysis on ending forms in aidoru talk 181 7.2.3 Observation gendered expressions in sentence medial positions 185 7.2.4 Observation non-gendered identities 186 7

7.3 Results 186 7.3.1 Gendered expressions in aidoru talk 187 7.3.1.1 Ending forms in aidoru talk 187 7.3.1.2 Personal pronouns 197 7.3.1.3 Lexemes 201 7.3.1.4 Pronunciation 202 (i) [i]/[r] deletion as feminine pronunciation 202 (ii) Lengthening and high pitch as feminine pronunciation 203 (iii) Liquid [l] as feminine pronunciation 204 (iv) [ē] instead of [ai]/[oi] as masculine pronunciation 206 (v) Trilled [r] 206 7.3.2 Non-gendered identities 208 7.3.2.1 Regional identity 208 7.3.2.2 Wakamono kotoba “youth language” and young identity 215 (i) Lexemes 215 (ii) Intonation 222 7.4 Chapter summary and discussion 226 CHAPTER 8. DISCUSSION, IMPLICATION AND FUTURE RESEARCH 234 8.1 General summary and discussion 234 8.2 Implications 246 8.3 Areas for future research 251 REFERENCES 257 8

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2-1. First singular pronouns in Japanese 31 Figure 2-2. Second singular pronouns in Japanese 31 Figure 2-3. Sentence-final particle continuum 33 Figure 4-1. AKB48 recruiting flyer 57 Figure 5-1. School uniforms (OC) 76 Figure 5-2. School uniforms (AKB48) 77 Figure 5-3. Kawaii costumes (OC) 79 Figure 5-4. Matsuda’s hairstyle (Miura, 1980) 80 Figure 5-5. Kawaii styles (AKB48) 80 Figure 5-6. Un-aidoru-like styles (OC), Ueding doresu “Wedding dress” 82 Figure 5-7. Un-aidoru-like styles (AKB48) 82 Figure 5-8. Various facial expressions (AKB48) 89 Figure 5-9. Kawaii facial traits 90 Figure 5-10. Titles on CD covers (OC) 93 Figure 5-11. Titles on CD covers (AKB48) 93 Figure 5-12. Comparison of gendered ending forms in lyrics (Era appropriate chart) 121 Figure 5-13. Comparison of gendered ending forms in lyrics (Modern chart) 126 Figure 7-1. Comparison of gendered endings in talk (Era appropriate chart) 187 Figure 7-2. Distribution of top four members who produced the most sentences in OC and AKB48 members 195 Figure 7-3. Comparison gendered endings in talk (Modern chart) 197 Figure 7-4. The generation difference in the use of yabai as a positive way 221 Figure 7-5. “Jumping intonation” on yatte naku nāi➚? by Akimoto (AKB48) 223 Figure 7-6. Comparison of ending forms in lyrics and talk between OC and AKB48 232 Figure 8-1. Nakamura’s dynamic model of language and gender studies 244 Figure 8-2. Level of participation in the aidoru industry (AKB48) 249 Figure 8-3. AKB48 anime a.k.a. AKB0048 254 9

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2-1. Politeness continuum of directive expressions 36 Table 3-1.“Cuteness” powerlessness vs. “anti-cuteness” power 47 Table 5-1. Onyanko Club (OC) song titles 65 Table 5-2. AKB48 song titles 66 Table 5-3. “Original” classification of gendered ending forms in OC song lyrics 72 Table 5-4. “Modern” classification of gendered ending forms in AKB48 song lyrics 73 Table 5-5. Brief preview of visual images on CD jacket covers and song lyrics 74 Table 5-6. Different orthographic types for the song titles 94 Table 5-7. Direct gendered nouns in OC songs 117 Table 5-8. Direct gendered nouns in AKB48 songs 119 Table 5-9. First-person pronouns appearing in songs 129 Table 5-10. Second-person pronouns appearing in songs 130 Table 5-11. Indirect gendered descriptions and motifs about personae in lyrics 133 Table 6-1. Recurrent themes and shifting trends between OC and AKB48 148 Table 7-1. “Original” classification of gendered ending forms in OC talk 183 Table 7-2. “Modern” classification of gendered ending forms in AKB48 talk 184 Table 7-3. First-person pronouns and self-referring terms in aidoru talk 197 Table 7-4. Second-person pronoun “you” in aidoru talk 199 10

ABSTRACT

Identities are constructed using various tools, both linguistic and non-linguistic. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationship between ideologies (images/ understandings/views), linguistic styles, other aspects of style (e.g., clothing and physical appearances) and identity construction in the social interactions of Japanese female pop-idols

(i.e., aidoru), taking as its basis theories and methods from sociolinguistics and anthropology.

In this research, CD jacket covers, song lyrics and documentaries were analyzed from two aidoru groups from different time periods, Onyanko Club in the 1980s and AKB48 in the present era of the 2010s. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses reveal (1) how aidoru are portrayed in the images on CD covers and song lyrics, and whether contemporary portrayals of aidoru images differ from those in the past, (2) how aidoru view aidoru identity and position themselves accordingly, (3) has the aidoru ideology, including images and social expectations, have changed over time, and (4) what kind of linguistic features aidoru use to project certain identities, and whether contemporary language use of aidoru differ from the past. The findings in the present study point to a multitude of identities for aidoru. Images on

CD jacket covers, lyric content, and linguistic features in lyrics suggest that Onyanko Club embodies young female, kawaii “cute” identities, based on the members’ smiling faces, school uniforms, colorful accessories, and cutesy costumes. On the other hand, AKB48 demonstrates not only kawaii images, but also more complex traits including sexy, kakkoii

“cool,” and even toughness, drawing from their various expressions which depict the members as sometimes smiling, but also sometimes serious and stern; their costumes including both cutesy and boyish school uniforms, bikinis, and tough martial arts’ garb.

Thematic discourse analysis has demonstrated how AKB48 members maintain some aspects of cute and innocent aidoru identities but additionally, they portray seemingly atypical aidoru 11 identities including demonstrating professionalism and leadership. Turning to the use of language in conversation, the quantitative results indicate that Onyanko Club members employ both masculine and feminine expressions more frequently than AKB48 members.

Japanese pop culture has seen intense globalization and has therefore received much attention worldwide. However, research on aidoru from a sociolinguistic standpoint has, as of yet, been underperformed. The present research argues that such analysis is an important step in revealing the links between language use, identity construction, and social ideologies. The findings generate implications for researchers interested in sociolinguistics, gender studies, anthropology, Japanese pop culture, and media studies.

Keywords: gender, aidoru, identity, pop culture, song lyrics, sentence-final particles, Japanese 12

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

“Identity” has been explored in various fields, and it can encompass multiple layers of characteristics including, but not limited to, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, personality, and social status. The purpose of my dissertation is to explore social identities and investigate the relationships between ideology, linguistic styles, other aspects of style (such as clothing and physical appearance) and identity construction. Employing theories and methods from sociolinguistics and anthropology, this research explores how social identities are constructed in the social interactions of Japanese female idols through various stylizing resources.

The connection between styles (both linguistic and non-linguistic) and meanings is socially constructed, and as such the link is not static but dynamic in the sociohistorical process. For example, the “Country Talk” expression “y’all” is a sign which indexes “rural,”

“unsophisticated” and “lazy,” but it also indexes identities of “Southern.” This becomes important when viewed in the social context that Southern speech is often seen as a stigmatized identity in American language ideologies (Hall-Lew & Stephens, 2012). Any sign must inherently be interpreted through the culture and language in which it is being perceived and described. For example, the check mark (√) means “correct” on exams in the U.S.A

(Checkmark, n.d.); however, the exact same mark (√) can mean “incorrect” in Japan (Chekku māku, n.d.). This shows that the correlation between the symbol and meanings is culturally dependent.

Words also carry constructed, conventionalized meaning. Importantly, the correlation between a linguistic sign and its meaning is not one-to-one. A linguistic sign can index multiple meanings, and the meanings can change over time as well, as seen with the meaning of the word “gay” in English. Originally “gay” was synonymous with “happy,” however the meaning shifted to “homosexual” through the course of time, but lately it has also become 13 synonymous with “lame,” itself being a word which has undergone similar semantic shifts.

The BBC Board of Governors claims that “(t)he word ‘gay’ now means ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’ among young people and need not be offensive to homosexuals” (“BBC accepts,” 2006). In short, a linguistic sign itself can have multiple meanings, and linguistic styles similarly are culturally constructed.

A speaker uses a wide range of linguistic styles depending on the situation and context. The choice of a specific style does not necessarily imply that a given speaker will be limited to only that style, as speakers often shift even when conversing about the same addressee within a single topic (e.g., Jones & Ono, 2008; Cook, 2008; Geyer, 2008; Hudson,

2008). Jones and Ono state that “speakers are actively shaping context by their use of particular styles of language at particular points in their conversations” (2008, p. 2).

Therefore, a style is chosen from various speech repertoires along with countless other resources regardless of speakers’ intention and awareness. This style selection can be both intentional and unintentional on the parts of the speakers. Choosing specific styles necessarily constructs and projects certain identities. Many of these concepts of identity projection and expression came out of, or were inspired by, work by Erving Goffman. Coupland (2007) summarizes Goffman’s work as follows:

Erving Goffman (1959) makes the distinction between expressions ‘given’ and ‘given off,’ reminding us that identities are not fully controllable and subject to strategy or management. When we ‘give’ expressions or self-identities, we have reasonably strong strategic control. When we ‘give off’ expressions or self-identities, we have low control and they ‘leak’ from our behaviour and our verbal and non-verbal displays (Coupland, 2007, p. 111).

Speakers’ identities are constantly formed through styles, including both verbal and non- verbal displays. Therefore, identity construction is continuous, even when spoken language is not occurring, and is understood through the social context/circumstances, including the 14 identities of the interactants, the society, and the time in which the interaction is occurring.

Simultaneously, listeners also receive both referential (i.e., as is) and non-referential meaning

(i.e., implicit/unspoken yet attached meaning) and negotiate these meanings similarly.

In the case of Japanese, there are rich layers of lexical and grammatical honorific expressions and gendered language which are employed as stylistic resources (Shibatani,

1990; Tsujimura, 2007). These layers are not perfectly laminated, and often interact and affect each other in socially important ways. One example of this is the inseparable aspects of gendered language and politeness. Using honorific expressions can project politeness, and being polite certainly can form a part of one’s social identity. This identity would not seem to be particular to men or women. However, by using polite expressions, one is also employing unassertive and indirect language features, which are considered socially feminine, and thus make up a large part of what is perceived as ‘women’s language’ (e.g., Ide, 1982; Shibamoto,

1987; Shibatani 1990; Matsumoto, 2004). Nakamura (2004) mentions that “a Japanese speaker can perform a variety of identities by using or not using feminine language precisely because the notion of ‘women’s language’ has always existed in Japanese gender ideologies” (p. 135).

This concept of gendered language, and the concept of gender itself, is necessarily rooted in sociohistorical ideologies. It is necessary to take this historical baggage into account when analyzing such social categories and identities. Furthermore, it is never as clear-cut as

‘women speak this way’ or ‘men don’t speak this way,’ and even it were, the rationale that

‘these are just what these people do’ would not prove very satisfying. Coupland (2007) maintains that “gender identity is not accounted for in advance by establishing groups of speakers that we label male and female. What we need is a nuanced understanding of how 15 gender provides part of the historical and ideological backdrop to a particular interaction” (p.

26).

The links and hierarchies that exist between language, gendered meanings, and politeness do not emerge naturally, but they are put in place by those with power and influence. Inoue (2006) argues that “women’s language” does not exist, but rather, that it was actually established by male perceptions and descriptions of female schoolgirls’ speech around 1887-1918. In this sense, the emergence of gendered language in Japanese is because of the inequity of gender roles, expectation and social positions in Japan. Understanding the development of women’s language requires one to explore gender relations sociohistorically.

During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the term ryōsai kembo “Good Wife, Wise Mother” came to prominence, and described the necessity for women to be gentle and submissive to men

(i.e., very similar to modern Japanese gender ideologies). During this time period, the government also took a prescriptive stance on language usage, encouraging women to employ soft and polite feminine speech. Men, on the other hand, were expected to employ tough and coarse masculine speech (Washi, 2004; Inoue, 2006). However, the social positions of women and men are not static, but negotiable by the members of society. Influenced by chains of context, ideologies and identities are dynamic and are constructed and negotiated through time and space by the members of the communities in any given culture, based on the social positions at a specific time period.

In this current study, I investigate Japanese female pop idol groups from two different time periods as the data source, and compare various identities through discourse practice and different linguistic and non-linguistic styles. Before engaging with the data, I hope to give a solid basis of the meaning and context surrounding Japanese pop idols. 16

Pop idols in general can be either solo or members of a group, and the term is indiscriminate of gender. In particular, Japanese idols are singers, dancers and also models who appear in various media (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012). Aoyagi (2003), a pioneer in the study of pop idols from the field of anthropology, states that aidoru “are commodified as public role models in adolescent fashions and lifestyles” (p. 144).

Researchers differ in their preference, either employing the English term “idol,” while others prefer to employ the Romanized Japanese word “aidoru” when discussing Japanese aidoru. It appears to be each researcher’s stylistic choice, but the expression aidoru in

Japanese suggests certain images and expectations that differ from the original English word

“idol” (detailed Japanese aidoru qualities are discussed in Section 3.4). Therefore, “aidoru” will be used in this paper, except for cases of direct quotations. Further, since only Japanese female aidoru are targeted in this paper, hereafter aidoru (when left otherwise unspecified) will refer only to Japanese female aidoru.

Aidoru have been ascribed a plethora of adjectives as descriptors, a few of which are: hyperbolic, artificially sweet, innocent, healthy and friendly looking, cheerful, and slightly sexy (e.g., Aoyagi, 1999; Craig, 2000; Miller, 2004; Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Monden,

2014; Matsue, 2015). While these terms are surely thinly-veiled references to idealized femininity (a topic which will be heavily revisited), Miller (2004) goes a step further and describes aidoru as one of the quintessential example groups who perform a hyper-feminine identity.

Aidoru are examined in many academic fields, from music theory and ethnomusicology, pop culture, economics, but they seem to receive the most focus in the field of socio-cultural anthropology. Researchers have investigated who aidoru are, what they do and what kinds of financial impact they have brought to the domestic and global economy, 17 however analysis of their linguistic behavior has remained cursory at best, especially considering that many of the descriptions and judgements of their behavior and identities surely is grounded in their linguistic presentations. This was specified by Ko (2006) in a review of Aoyagi’s work on aidoru and the aidoru industry, stating that “idol performance is a form of symbolic self-presentation that encompasses the packaging, characterizing, stylizing or modeling of self as practiced by adolescent personalities in contemporary urban

Japan. Performance here is defined as a behavioral strategy to establish linkages between the self and society…Aoyagi argues that the media’s social construction of a legendary idol generates a belief system around an idolized personality. What is missing in this observation is perhaps gender discourse” (p. 624). Therefore, revealing discourse and linguistic use is one of the major goals of this dissertation.

My analysis reveals how aidoru identities are crafted, how aidoru themselves understand aidoru identities and how they perform (or reject) aidoru identity. Furthermore, I compare two aidoru groups from different time periods and investigate differences in images and linguistic use. The present research argues that such analysis is an important step in revealing the links between language use, identity construction, and social ideologies. This dissertation is organized as follows: In Chapter 2, I present the relevant theoretical background on identity and style. In Chapter 3, I explore the phenomenon of aidoru in Japan.

In Chapter 4, I describe the data source used in my analysis. In Chapter 5, I explore identities depicted on CD covers and in song lyrics. In Chapter 6, I demonstrate how aidoru view aidoru identities. In Chapter 7, I reveal expressions of identity in talk, and in Chapter 8 conclusions, discussions, implications, and areas for further research are offered. 18

CHAPTER 2. IDENTITY AND STYLE

This chapter introduces the link between identity and style, and provides an overview of gender theory. The discussion then focuses specifically on Japanese society and Japanese language, and how these are interconnected with notions of gender.

2.1 Identity, style and social meaning

The core of the present research concerns the notion of “identity,” but the definition of identity is abstract, and can differ depending upon the theoretical framework in which the term is being utilized. However, one common trend in studies of identity from various fields including philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and (socio)linguistics, is the assertion that it is hardly ever static or single-faceted, but rather dynamic, and multifaceted.

Identities are constructed through the use of many tools, both linguistic and non- linguistic. Linguistic, or those related to language use, contain both ‘referential meaning’ and

‘non-referential meaning’ (i.e., social meaning), and particular language use can index a speaker’s identities such as social class, gender, and age (e.g., Labov, 1972; Ochs, 1992;

Bucholtz, 2001; Zhang, 2008). Similarly, non-linguistic items such as cosmetic makeup and clothes (i.e., semiotic signs) can also index a speaker’s particular identity as long as members of the community hold the same meaning towards the items (e.g., Eckert, 1989; Mendoza-

Denton, 2008; Chun, 2011). Eckert (2012) connects the linguistic and non-linguistic components by stating that “(l)inguistic variation, in other words, is a very broad-spectrum component of a broader semiotic system” (p. 97). Silverstein (1976) also argues that any kind of behavior can be used to index meaning, and terms this meaning-making process

‘indexicality.’

Regardless of whether a component is linguistic or not, Mendoza-Denton explains that “the articulation of a distinct style” (2008, p. 152) is associated with projecting identities. 19

Coupland (2007) gives an explanation of “style” in a broader sense and states that “[s]tyle refers to a way of doing something… part of our social competence is being able to understand these indexical links - how a style marks out or indexes a social difference - and to read their meanings” (p. 1).

The term, “style” was introduced to the field of variationist sociolinguistics for the first time when Labov (1972) investigated the indexical links between linguistic features and social identity. In his study, style is used in a narrow sense to refer to phonological variants.

For example, he argues that English speakers from New York who belong to a higher social class tend to pronounce ‘th’ at the beginning of words (e.g., ‘thing’) as the voiceless interdental fricative [θ], and people of a lower social class are likely to pronounce it as the voiceless alveolar stop [t]. Earlier studies like Labov’s are seen as the first wave of variation studies, because the scholars regarded social stratification as a variable which was quantifiable and thus measurable by speech style, and the correlation between the predetermined social category and style was rather static (Labov, 1972).

However, in the wake of Labov’s foundational work, researchers have proposed that his interpretation of style, and furthermore the first wave variationist patterns themselves were far too simplistic. As Foulkes (2011) indicates, signs and their associated meanings are collaboratively created by both parties of speakers and listeners in a local community. For example, Giles (1973) reasoned that the rationale behind why the participants in Labov’s study in 1972 manipulated their speech style was not only based on the speakers’ social stratification but also based on the desire to relate to the addressees, known as

‘accommodation theory.’ In short, speakers who have different language/dialect background from their addressees tend to manipulate their own speech style to accommodate to the speech style of their addressee in order to show empathy and to create a good impression 20

(Gile, 1973; Giles, Taylor, & Bourhis, 1973). Even when the addressee is not present when the conversation is taking place, this theory has been shown to still be valid. In this vein, Bell

(1984) proposed ‘audience design,’ and claims that speakers choose a style depending on the intended audience of an utterance. Specifically, he showed how an identical radio broadcaster employed different linguistic features in aiming to align to two different audience groups.

Foulkes (2011) states that “[i]t is clear that what speaker-listeners know about language involves not only abstract symbolic representations of ‘purely linguistic’ structures, but also an extensive repository of social-indexical information. The latter includes knowledge about how to interpret indexical information when it is encountered in listening, and how to encode it within speech production to signal aspects of personal identity and to achieve pragmatic goals in the course of speaking” (p. 6). Thus, identity work is dynamic and performative (e.g., Butler, 1988; Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2003; Cameron, 2005; Eckert,

2012). In other words, the meaning-making process is not conducted only by two parties of speakers and addressees as it must as a requisite be informed by all of the previous experiences these individuals have ever had, which are influenced in no small part by all the experiences in a given society through history. These connections show that meaning-making is truly present at all levels from the micro to the macro.

New approaches came into play in a second wave of studies of style, and researchers emphasized the importance of investigating how styles are actually used and how meaning was created from the insiders’ perspectives; therefore, ethnographic approaches became more prevalent. For example, Eckert (1989) in a Detroit high school observed two major categories among students, the “jocks” and the “burnouts.” She found that students used all sorts of resources as tools to project their social identity depending on the group to which they belonged, including places where they hang out, fashion, accessories, linguistic choices and 21 so on. Mendoza-Denton (2008) conducted similar research at a high school in California, investigating Latino girls who were affiliated with gangs. In addition to language use, these girls also used different kinds of items as indexical signs to project their specific gang group identity, including t-shirt color choice, lipsticks and eyeliner. The first and second waves share among them the concept that the various signs and linguistic features function as indicators of specific social categories.

The third wave approach suggests that the link between social meaning and language is also complicated by the fluidity of these concepts based on the fact that meaning creation is negotiated in a given society at a given time, and thus demonstrating a true one-to-one correspondence between social meaning and a linguistic feature to be unlikely. For this, Agha

(2007) offers the approach of ‘enregisterment.’ He defines a register as “a linguistic repertoire that is associated, culture internally, with particular social practices and with persons who engage in such practices” (Agha, 2001, p. 212), and explains that enregisterment occurs when

“a linguistic repertoire becomes differentiable within a language as a socially recognized register of forms” (Agha, 2007, p. 190). Agha (2007) mentions that enregisterment is not limited to language, and the process can apply to “any other cultural form” (p. 190).

A well-cited phenomenon is how British English (also called Received Pronunciation,

RP) was originally merely a dialect of a region where rich people resided, but became gradually regarded as prestigious and well-educated. Contemporarily, the style is now recognized as the standard English in England, and has been enregistered as sounding higher class in other English-speaking countries (Agha, 2007). The process is similar to the establishment of standard Japanese and also Japanese women’s language (cf., Section 2.4 for a discussion on gendered language development in Japan). 22

Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson (2006) use the concept of enregisterment to explain how a dialect in Pittsburgh has gained a link to the social status of the working class by utilizing Silverstein’s indexical order (Silverstein, 1976). A regional vernacular variation (1st order) existed, then certain features became salient and people started making connections between the variation and the speakers’ salient features (2nd order). Lastly and most importantly, the variation of the local dialect and the social status (low socioeconomic class) connected to it have reinforced each other reflexively and the speakers either use the variation to perform the identity or resist furthering the enregisterment based on the established meaning and the variation (3rd order). In short, the phase of enregisterenment is explainable by drawing from Silverstein’s ‘order of indexicality’ (Silverstein, 1976).

Eckert (2008) claims that there is no fixed order for the process of a variation obtaining various meanings as Silverstein has proposed. She views the process as follows:

“the meanings of variables are not precise or fixed but rather constitute a field of potential meanings – an indexical field, or constellation of ideologically related meanings, any one of which can be activated in the situated use of the variable” (p. 454). She takes hyper- articulated /t/ as an example, as it can index intellectualism, formality, effortfulness, emphasis or exasperation, however these features depend highly on who is utilizing the variation, as not all of these indexes are available to all English-speakers in all situations.

An important notion of the third wave is the variation, or specific style, indexing multiple identities, functioning both reflectively and constructively. In other words, the speaker actively chooses to use variation to index a certain identity. By choosing the variation, the speaker reinforces the potential meaning of the variants. If incongruence arises between the variation, speakers’ intention and recipients’ understanding, then a new meaning may be added to the variation and the speaker may be misunderstood. Simultaneously, the 23 recipient creates a new and unintended interpretation. This is how both variation and members of the society mutually create meanings.

Thus, identities have been constructed both from micro and macro level within discourse-level, interpersonally, intrapersonally, culturally and sociohistorically. Ochs illustrates that social identity encompasses “a range of social personae, including social statuses, roles, positions, relationships, and institutional and other relevant community identities one may attempt to claim or assign in the course of social life” (1993, p. 288). In a similar vein, Coupland (2007, p. 113) takes Goffman’s “framing” notion (1974) into categorizing social identities into three types of framing: (1) socio-cultural, (2) genre and (3) interpersonal framing. First, ‘socio-cultural framing’ (macro-level social frames) relies on a person’s social attributes such as social class, gender, sexuality, age, race, ethnicity, and so on

(e.g., the Japanese people, women). The second, ‘genre framing’ (meso-level social frames), , provides an intermediary, and contains a wide range of parameters including speakers’ role

(e.g., aidoru, leader, student), contextual type (e.g., spoken interview, article in the news), and genre of talk (e.g., official interview, informal chat). Lastly, ‘interpersonal framing’ (micro- level social frames) is the moment-by-moment position or attitude (e.g., confident, intimate).

These three framings are inseparable and are in a constant state of interaction. In my dissertation, I unpack different aspects of identities at different levels among Japanese female aidoru.

2.2 Previous studies of gender and language

Gender is also a part of social identity, which is the vital element for my research.

After Lakoff (1973) claimed that women speak more politely because of their lower social status, earlier studies in gender and language took the ‘essentialism’ approach, in which men use masculine speech and women use feminine speech based on their biological sex category 24

(e.g., Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2003; Cameron, 2005). Male speech has been seen as “the normative language” throughout history, and female speech was usually compared to this norm (Yukawa & Saito, 2004, p. 23). However, from the point of view of “social constructionism,” gender is not innate like binary biological sex, but rather it is socially constructed. Cameron stated that “gender identities and gendered behaviors are produced ongoingly; gender is something you do or perform” (2005, p. 484). The notion of performativity was first introduced by J.L. Austin (1962), a philosopher of linguistics, and

Judith Butler recycled the term and popularized it in analyzing queer theory. Butler (1990) states, “within the inherited discourse of metaphysics of substance, gender proved to be performative — that is, constituting identity purported to be. In the sense, gender is always a doing” (p. 25). Thus, subsequent work has emphasized the necessity of observing actual speech , and taking into consideration the social background that influenced it (Eckert &

McConnell-Ginet, 1992).

Gal (1995) explained that “[t]he study of language and gender is significantly enhanced by simultaneous attention to everyday practice on the one hand, and on the other to the ideological understandings about women, men and language that frame these practices and render them interpretable in particular social contexts, historical periods, and social institutions” (p. 180). Lakoff asserts that “[l]anguage uses us as much as we use language” (1973, p. 45). Language and social context are inexorably entwined, and as such, gender identities (e.g., female/male) are projected through discourse practices (e.g., sentence- final particles) under certain gender ideologies (e.g., “Good Wife, Wise Mother”) that have been created within existing gender relations (e.g., subordinate position of women).

Both the development of variationist sociolinguistics and gender studies share a similar path. Namely, they both grew out of research which focused on a one-to-one 25 correlation between social identity and style (e.g., biological woman - women’s language; the pronunciation of /ting/ “thing” - working class). Gradually, scholars have realized that various styles are available as resources. Individuals select preferable styles and actively shift styles that they want to be identified with in a given context and situation.

2.3 The historical positions of women and gender roles in Japan

Before moving on to gendered Japanese language, the history of the women’s position and gender roles in Japan require addressing. Japanese women have been placed in a subordinate position for the majority of modern history. Since Confucianism and feudalism were introduced into Japan from China during the Edo period (1603-1868), Japan began to become more patriarchal. Feudalistic discipline demanded women to leave their families upon marriage, and serve their husbands and parents-in-law, and this custom helped to position women as subordinate to men; this is known as the ie “house” system (Sugimoto,

2010).

The Meiji Restoration during the Meiji period (1868-1912) saw value being placed on modernity influenced by Western culture, and one goal of this was women’s public education

(Bernstein, 1991; Inoue, 2004). The Japanese government promoted the slogan ryōsai kembo,

“Good Wife, Wise Mother,” and added childrearing as another important role for women, and as a part of the mother’s roles. Kaneko stated that, “women were expected to support their husbands, raise children, and not work outside the home” (1995, p. 5). The imbalanced roles of men working outside and women working inside is thought to have contributed greatly to the imbalanced social power structure between men and women.

A drastic shift in national ideology was seen in the Taishō period (1912-1926). This era is often referred as the “Taishō democracy” (Kaneko, 1995, p. 5) because many social movements demanded democracy after World War I (1914-1918). Women in this era 26 particularly fought to gain equal rights and their freedom of expression by means of their fearlessness and economic independence. Political activists and moga “modern girl(s)” were especially influential in this time period (Bernstein, 1991; Silverberg, 1991; Sato, 2003).

Several female activists, such as Raichō Hiratsuka and Fusae Ichikawa, protested for equal rights including the right to wear Western clothes instead of the kimono, the traditional

Japanese clothing, despite the fact that showing leg was considered taboo for women during this time (Kaneko, 1995, p. 6). The tight wrap of the kimono prevented these active women from working efficiently, and was a symbol rooted in the notions of traditional Japan.

The moga “modern girl” appeared around the same time as female activists striving to raise women’s position in the society. The moga’s quintessential features resembled that of the American flappers who wore bobbed hair, colorful one-piece dresses, high-heels, and floppy hats (Sato, 2003, p. 46). With their new fashion and hairstyles, they brought modernity and “the disruption of gender codes” (Sato, 2003, p. 46) because they challenged the ideological notion of the patriarchal society. Silverberg (1991) described the moga as “the single or married Japanese woman wageworker who was forced into the work force by economic need following the end of the economic boom of World War I years” (p. 258). The moga stood for “free-living and free-thinking” womanhood (Bernstein, 1991, p. 248) and they had “no intention of being a slave to men” (Sliverberg, 1991, p. 241). These ideas were against ryōsai kembo, because the moga were regarded as “anti-motherhood” (Silverberg

1991, p. 247). Thus, these activists and moga instigated other people to question gender- based social roles and expectations.

On the other hand, female activism was put on hold during the war-time in the Shōwa period (Washi, 2004; Kaneko, 1995) because the whole nation focused on supporting Japan’s militaristic policies. Right after the successive wars were over, women’s suffrage was 27 advanced with the help of American colonization, just as female activists had demanded earlier. Starting in the 1960s and reinforced in the 1970s, women’s liberation movements called ūman ribu ‘women’s liberation’ emerged and further challenged socially constructed gender ideologies (Yukawa & Saito, 2004).

During the Heisei period (1989-present), the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was established in 1999 to seek equal gender rights at work. Regardless of the efforts of

ūman ribu and new laws, the idea of ryōsai kembo was still strong in the Heisei period. The equal Employment Opportunity Law was revised to further equal rights for everyone regardless of gender or sexuality in 2013. Compared to women in Western countries such as the U.S., Germany and Sweden, full-time jobs are less available for Japanese women, especially for those who are pregnant and raising children. Instead, “part-time work has dominated as an option for women who wish to return to work after child rearing” (Sugimoto,

2010, p. 155). Earlier in 2015, one Japanese woman, Sayaka Osakabe, received a U.S. award for ‘contribution to women’s empowerment’ acknowledging her activities against matahara

“maternity harassment”. In the news, Osakabe discussed that “Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy of promoting the empowerment of women has given momentum to her work in

Japan…However, that some projects aimed at helping working women and promoting them remain based on men’s viewpoints” (The Japan Times, 2015). As seen in this brief overview, the Japanese women’s social position has been improving slowly but steadily.

2.4 Gendered language development in Japan

The idea of female speech was already present in fourteenth-century documents

(Washi, 2004, p. 83). There were two major kinds of women’s language: yūjo-go “courtesans speech” and nyōbō kotoba “court ladies’ language.” Many courtesans were from poor families, thus their speech was seen as unsophisticated. However, court ladies were 28 considered to be noble; therefore, nyōbō kotoba that consisted of honorific forms came to be enregistered as proper, but also as feminine. Despite their actual social status, women were encouraged to speak nyōbō kotoba and behave “properly” as court ladies (Washi, 2004, p.

87).

The foundation of what the Japanese language is today was established in the Meiji period (1868-1912). During this time the first language councils were established for language planning and research. Around this time, a specific dialect in Yamanote in Tokyo was elected as the standard Japanese language, because this happened to be where the bourgeoisie lived, and the state of language policy regarded their dialect, in other words, the speech of “educated Tokyo middle-class males” as a legitimate variation (Inoue, 2004).

Along with language policy, gembun icchi “writing and speaking unification,” manners and gendered language were established in the late 1880s. Japanese people were trained to behave and speak based on their constructed gender ideologies (Inoue, 2004).

Women were expected to be humble, nice, patient and supportive through their manners when facing men in public, as well as with their husbands at home (Okamoto, 2004, p. 44). The idealized women’s language (or language for women) was “polite, gentle, soft-spoken, nonassertive, and emphatic” (Okamoto, 1995, p. 298). The differences based on gendered language include both phonetic and lexical levels such as sentence final-particles, personal pronouns, honorifics, pitch ranges, and intonation (Okamoto, 1995). Compulsory education and the developing technology of printing industries made it possible to mass-produce magazines and books to allow for nationwide distribution to enhance literacy rates, spread standard Japanese (i.e., national language) and circulate language ideology simultaneously.

However, Inoue (2004) argues that the establishment of the gendered Japanese language, especially what is called ‘women’s language’ leaves an immense mystery. For 29 instance, previous studies indicated that sentence final-particles, one of the most discussed features, was not strictly regarded as gendered language until the Meiji Restoration (Inoue,

2004). There was an understanding that women’s language existed in Japan; however, it is actually arbitrarily created based on male perceptions and descriptions of wealthy female schoolgirls’ speech. These girls were imagined to use sentence-final particles such as teyo and dawa frequently, thus their speech style has called “teyo-dawa language.” Interestingly, the style was considered “linguistic corruption and the cultural loss of an authentic women’s language” at first (Inoue, 2003 p. 156); however, the style gradually came to be seen as an index of modernity. In the end, the development of women’s language is essentially an enregisterment process (or, 3rd order indexicality), but it is not related to how Japanese women actually spoke at that time, but becomes a resource for identity performances of being a “woman.” The historical background to the emergence of women’s language in Japan alone, more specifically how the “teyo-dawa language” used to index “language corruption” have changed to index “modernization” demonstrates that the indexicality is fluid, negotiable and even manipulable with intent in the sociohistorical process.

During the Shōwa period (1926-1989), the Ministry of Education founded the

National Language Association (NLA) in 1931 and released several guidelines for proper gender speech and manners including rēhō yōkō “etiquette and manners.” The government even suggested using specific references and addresses (first- and second-person pronouns).

Regarding the first-person pronoun, for example, everybody should use watakushi which is very formal ‘I,’ and men may use boku among those of equal social status, but not with those of superior social status (Washi, 2004, p. 79). At first, only women in the upper-classes received formal education and learned how to speak properly which entails femininely. Later, 30 their speech style spread widely to other socioeconomic status. These governmental language policies played one of the biggest roles in forming Japanese gendered ideology and language.

2.5 Multiple styles in Japanese and empirical studies

Previous researchers have often discussed variations in Japanese language include phonological features, lexical choices, personal pronouns, ending forms including sentence- final particles, and speech levels. They have claimed that a great numbers of these varieties in

Japanese are easy indexes of gendered linguistic differences (e.g., Shibamoto, 1987; Ide,

1982, 1990; Shibatani, 1990; Tsujimura, 2007; Cook, 2008). It is true that not only the governmental language policies, but these researchers have endorsed the link between language and identity; therefore, linguists as experts also have contributed to the enregisterment processes (Johnston, 2011).

It should be noted that empirical studies indicate that not everyone’s speech falls neatly into the normative gender categories (e.g., Adachi, 1998; Sunaoshi, 2004), because there are other possible factors are closely related such as dialect, social status, formality, conversations setting and sexuality. Therefore, not only social identities but also social settings are constantly intertwined with language choices. That point aside, prevailing social ideologies do ascribe gender to the variations in Japanese.

2.5.1 Pronouns

Figure 2-1 indicates the prescribed norms of first singular pronouns in terms of gender and formality, following these social ideologies. 31

Figure 2-1. First singular pronouns in Japanese

Pronoun Context Formal ——————————————————Informal

1st watakushi watashi atashi Female (atakushi) (atai)

1st watakushi watashi boku ore Male (jibun) (washi) (Smith, 2004, p. 120)

Pronouns without parentheses are standard forms, and those in parentheses are considered non-standard forms (Smith, 2004; Abe, 2004). Depending on the formality, various first-person pronouns are available as women’s language such as watakushi, watashi and atashi. In contrast, that of men’s language include watakushi, watashi, boku, and ore.

Several researches (Shibatani, 1990, p. 371; Tsujimura, 1996, p. 372). Watashi is often presented as a plain/default form of women’s speech and boku is the case of men’s speech

(Smith, 2004, p. 120; Ide, 1990, p. 73). That is why, watashi and boku are located between formal and informal in the Figure 2-1. The morphologically identical words, watakushi and watashi appear both in female and male rows. While watakushi is considered very formal in both speeches, the degree of formality differs when using watashi depending on the speaker’s gender. Watashi is regarded more formal when used by men.

Figure 2-2 indicates the prescribed norms of second singular pronouns.

Figure 2-2. Second singular pronouns in Japanese

Pronoun Context Formal ——————————————————Informal

2nd anata anata anta Female

2nd anata kimi omae kisama

Male (anta) temē (Modified from Smith, 2004, p. 121) 32

For the second-person pronouns, both anata and anta are shared between women and men’s language, but once again the identical words tend to be more formal when they are used in male speech. This shows that women are ideologically expected to use more formal/ polite pronouns and in general. Just as watashi and boku, in theory, the common form for women to use is anata and for men to use is kimi (Ide, 1990, p. 73). Omae, kisama, and temē are to be considered very aggressive and vulgar (Smith, 2004, p. 120; Ide, 1990, p. 73).

Unlike English “you,” second-person pronouns in Japanese are rarely used. Smith

(2004) also notes that speakers are prone to using titles or names instead of second-person pronouns whenever possible, or may simply choose not to use any of them and drop pronouns entirely in natural conversation (p. 121). Although anata “you” is not commonly used in daily conversation (Banno et al., 2011, p. 47; Hatasa et al., p. 51), it is used as an intimate pronoun for a wife to call her husband (Stanlaw, 2000, p. 105), or it can be regarded similarly as

“darling” in songs (Occhi, 2014, p. 130).

Other Japanese language researchers have a different interpretation from Smith’s perception towards personal pronouns as in Figure 2-1 and 2-2. In addition, pronouns in the figures above do not constitute exhaustive lists. Researchers have introduced other first person pronouns, such as uchi for women, and wagahai, oresama and warre for men (e.g.,

Sreetharan, 2004; Azam, 2013). In any case, it is clear that various types of pronoun choices are available to speakers, and each pronoun is a resource that can index certain social meanings to a fellow interlocutor. Therefore, speakers have the option of negotiating and projecting their linguistic identity by selecting which pronouns to use.

2.5.2 Sentence-final particles (SFPs)

Sentence-final particles (SFPs) are also one of the most discussed speech features in

Japanese that are claimed to have a gendered component (e.g., Matsumoto, 2004; Shibamoto, 33

1987). Sentence-final particles appear at the end of a sentence and have several functions

(e.g., emphasis and tag questions). Smith states that SFPs “index a speaker’s stance or attitude toward the propositional information conveyed in the preverbal to verbal portion of an utterance” (Smith, 2004, p. 124). In addition, Smith (2004) asserts that “sentence-final particles (SFPs) are central to ideologies of gendered Japanese, despite the existence of diverse use in real speech” (p. 124), and also illustrated the normative masculine and feminine perceptions of SFPs (shown in Figure 2-3).

Figure 2-3. Sentence-final particle continuum zo ze dayo negIMP na sa V+yo ne kashira no NP~AN mon(o) wa na ø + yo

Masculine ⇦ Neutral ⇨ Feminine (Modified from Smith, 2004, p. 124)

Shibamoto (1987) provides a few examples where wa is feminine, no is feminine/ childish, -te in questions and commands are feminine, and ze, zo and na are masculine. In addition, yo and ne are considered neutral language. For instance, no in nani mo itadakitaku nai no “I don’t want to eat anything” is feminine, and na in zuibun atsui na “It’s really hot, isn’t it?” is masculine. Moreover, yo in iku yo “(I) go” is masculine and wa yo in iku wa yo is feminine (Shibamoto, 1987, pp. 33-34).

Likewise, it’s worth mentioning that different researchers have different criteria for each SFP, and these criteria seem to differ depending on the region and historical period. For example, the SFP no is sometimes regarded as neutral in Tokyo Japanese, but no can be classified as feminine in other situations based on context, grammatical structures and intonation (Smith, 2004; Sreetharan, 2004). However, there are some that are not as commonly disagreed upon, such as wa and no as very feminine SFPs and ze and zo as very masculine SFPs in Tokyo Japanese (Smith, 2004, p. 126). 34

Even though the concept of gendered SFPs were generated by male authorities around

Meiji Restoration in the late 1980s, the gender ideology in SFPs has remained intact. But most importantly, they are based on hegemonic gender norms that are manmade and standardized (Inoue, 2004). Therefore, the correlation between these sentence-final particles and gender is not a direct index, but rather the link is made based on the image of genders.

For instance, ze directly indexes coarse intensity, so it is considered masculine speech.

Conversely at the same time, the use of a set of masculine SFPs indexes aggression, authority, and masculinity (Sreetharan, 2004). Similarly, wa indexes delicate intensity, so it is considered feminine speech (Ochs, 1992, p. 342). As expected, the employment of feminine

SFPs indexes soft, delicate, and femininity.

2.5.3 Speech levels in Japanese

The Japanese language is known for its elaborate systems of formality and politeness, and quite a few previous researchers have claimed that women generally speak more politely

(e.g., Shibamoto, 1987; Shibatani, 1990; Tsujimura, 2007; Ide, 1982; Ide,1990). Therefore, one of the features that polite expressions can index is femininity. The intricacies of honorific expressions are most observable in inflectional endings of predicates, and become more confusing when dealing with other areas of Japanese morphosyntax, and as such, I focus only on predicates in the main clause in the present analysis.

Two fundamental classifications of honorification are referent honorifics and addressee honorifics (Tsujimura, 2007). Tsujimura (2007) states that “referent honorifics serve to make respect for an individual referred to” and “addressee honorifics…are mainly used when a conversation situation calls for some formality” (p. 429). Referent honorifics encompass ‘respect’ and ‘humble’ forms. While there are some exceptions, the prefix o- and suffix -ninaru are attached to a verb-stem to create the respect form, and the prefix o- and 35 suffix -suru are attached to a verb-stem for humble form. As an example, for respect and humble forms for the verb “to write,” one would take the verb kaku, and from it create a verb- stem kaki, which could then be affixed as o-kaki-ninaru “to write (respect form)” and o-kaki- suru “to write’ (humble form).”

Addressee honorifics are also called ‘polite’ language. The inflectional ending of masu is attached to a verb-stem to create the polite level, as in kaki-masu “to write (addressee honorific = polite).” There is also plain level (Jones & Ono, 2008; Cook, 2008), and the form is the same as the dictionary kaku “to write (plain).” Geyer (2008) summarized the basic definition of polite as “deference and/or formality toward the addressee and the presentation of public self” (p. 43), and plain as “lack of such deference, formality, or the need to present a public self” (p. 43).

Furthermore, directives (e.g., “Could you~?,” “Please do (it). ” “Will you?” and “Do

(it).”) are considered to be ranked by speech levels as well. Smith (1992) discusses that there are four classifications: imperative (imp.), request (req.), desiderative (des.), and declarative

(dec.). She places these directive forms based on its degree of politeness level. I use a generic verb of suru “to do” to show examples as shown in Table 2-1. For example, the conjugation of suru “to do” followed by 1. ~te itadakeru in shite itadakeru “Will you do?” is much more polite than 16. shite “Please do.” If it is imperative as in shiro(yo) “Do (it)!” it is a very strong command form and less polite than any other forms. The higher forms in the table above are considered more polite, and the lower forms less so. Therefore, the higher forms are generally ideologically considered to be feminine speech, and the lower forms are considered to be masculine speech (Smith, 1992). 36

Table 2-1. Politeness continuum of directive expressions Directive forms Example and translation req. 1 ~te itadakeru/itadakenai, shite itadakeru “Will you do?” ~te itadakemasu/masenka req. 2 ~te kudasaru/kudasaranai, shite kudasaru. “Will you do?” ~te kudasaimasu/kudasaimasen ka req. 3 ~te kudasai shite kudasai. “Please do (it).” des. 4 ~te itadakitai shite itadakitai. “I want you to do (it).” dec. 5 ~te itadaku/itadakimasu shite itadaku. “I will have you do (it).” req. 6 ~te moraeru/moraenai, shite morareru. “Can I have you do?” ~te moraemasu/moraemasen ka req. 7 ~te kuremasu/kuremasen ka shite kuremasu. “Will you do (it)?” dec. 8 ~te moraimasu shite moraimasu. “I will have you do (it).” req. 9 ~te kureru/kurenai shite kureru. “Will you do (it)?” des. 10 ~te moraitai shite moraitai. “I want you to do (it).” req. 11 ~te chōodai shite chōdai. “Please do (it).” des. 12 ~te hoshī shite hoshī. “I want you to do (it).” dec. 13 ~te morau shite morau. “I will have you do (it).” req. 14 ~te kure shite kure. “Please do (it).” imp. 15 ~te ne/yo shite ne. “Do (it).” imp. 16 ~te shite. “Do (it).” imp. 17 ~koto/yō ni suru koto. “Do (it).” imp. 18 ~nasai shi nasai. “Do (it).” imp. 19 ~tamae shi tamae. “Do (it).” imp. 20 ~no da suru no da. “Do (it).” imp. 21 ~n da suru n da. “Do (it).” imp. 22 ~ro (yo), Aff. +na(yo) shiro “Do (it).” suruna “ Don’t do (it).” (Adopted from Smith, 1992)

Using these variations of as a device, Japanese speakers can perform various identities by employing mainly two axes of gendered language and different polite/formality levels of speech. Once more, recent empirical studies have revealed that some of the actual use of gendered language agree with the conventional breakdowns of gendered language, gendered languages but others do not. Therefore, not all feminine speech shows softness, weakness, or politeness in the actual use of gendered language. For instance, ideologically politeness and feminine speech tend to go hand in hand; however, Matsugu (2008) demonstrates that super feminine speech, which are presupposed to be polite and unassertive, can index maturity in certain situations. In her research, super feminine speech occasionally indexes authoritative 37 power when a mother talks to her daughter, but also among middle-aged female participants.

Female speech was also used even in creating an imagined authoritative woman in a hypothetical situation. Matsugu’s study shows that both female and male Japanese speakers shares the understanding that super feminine speech can be a powerful tool among female participants based on certain contexts.

The participants of a group can influence the selection of gendered language as well.

Terao and Zimmerman (2000) demonstrated that women used fewer feminine SFPs, and men used less masculine SFPs when talking in mixed-sex groups. This shows that it is not the case that only a single language choice is available to be a speaker, and also exhibits the importance of examining not only speakers’ sex, but also the interlocutor’s sex and the relationships between interlocutors. Miyazaki (2004) found that students chose the first- person pronoun based on their persona and identity what they wanted to project, and also shifted the choice of pronoun based on the interlocutors. While stereotypical gendered language indicates there were clear differences between men and women, empirical examinations revealed results that were both typical and atypical use of female speech. In short, empirical studies show a diversity of gender performativity for and against the ideologies.

Lastly, quite a few researchers point out that gendered language has started to be neutralized between men and women, and how women started to talk less femininely and men started talk less masculinely around the time that the Heisei period started in 1989 (e.g.,

Ozaki, 1999; Imaida, 2006; Yamanaka, 2008; Mizumoto, 2011; Nagasaki, 2011). Ozaki

(1999) states that “teyo-dawa language” used to be an alternative nickname of women’s language. However, the representative women’s ending form of teyo as in yokutteyo “It’s good-teyo” is already extinct in contemporary Japanese. According to him, teyo vanished in 38 the 1950s. On the contrary, the other ending form, dawa is still present. In 1997, he examined whether gendered expressions were relevant. He found that although strongly gendered ending forms were becoming less gendered especially among younger speakers, self-referent pronouns were clearly gendered. Furthermore, women employ more polite expressions including honorific expressions and directive expressions, compared to men. Even though the language neutralization is about both genders refraining from using strongly gendered expressions in reality, the term “neutralization” is often referred as how Japanese women talk more like men. The Japanese community has raised big concern towards this phenomenon since the late 1980s and it is often referred as “women’s linguistic corruption” (Inoue, 2006, p. 175).

In this research, I will ascertain what kinds of identities and gender performativity are visible in female aidoru. Female aidoru embody hegemonic femininity, and they are regarded as having an ultra-feminine cuteness traditionally (See more details on aidoru and hegemonic femininity in Chapter 3). There are quite a few studies that investigate aidoru. However, almost all research conducted so far has been in the fields of anthropology, pop culture, or business marketing (e.g., Aoyagi, 1999; Tanaka, 2013; Katsuki, 2014). This paper contributes to the literature by investigating actual discourse, as well as images on CD covers and song lyrics to explore how gender ideologies in Japan are reflected in aidoru’s performativity and construction of various social identities both in micro and macro level in Japan. 39

CHAPTER 3. AIDORU IN JAPAN

In this chapter, I define what aidoru means in Japan, review a brief historical background of the Japanese female aidoru industry, and discuss salient traits of Japanese female aidoru, along with the position of female aidoru in the entertainment industry.

3.1 A few meanings of aidoru

The definition of “idol” is not always clear, and the connotations may vary in different cultures. The term aidoru in Japanese is derived from the English word “idol” (e.g., Aoyagi,

1991, 2005; Katsuki, 2014), but aidoru started to be widely used after the French film

Cherchez l’idole was released in 1964 under the Japanese title Aidoru o sagase,“In Search of

Idol” (Aoyagi, 2005; Galbraith & Karlin, 2012, p. 4). One contemporary English definition of

“idol” is “an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship; in extended usage, a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered” (The Oxford Dictionary of

Phrase and Fable, 2016). Anzai, a researcher of aesthetics, explains that the origin of ‘idol’ is traced back to idolum in Latin, meaning “vision, illusion and ghost” (Katsuki, 2014, p. 28). It is puzzling why the Latin idolum has undergone such a semantic shift as it passed into

English to become “idol”, but Anzai finds both meanings to be present in traditional Japanese aidoru because an aidoru can be the subject of worship, and present the illusion of fake feminine personae (Katsuki, 2014, p. 26).

Katsuki (2014) classifies aidoru in Japan into three groups: aidoru-like personalities, aidoru as stars, and career aidoru. The characteristics can be either independent of or overlapping with each other. Katsuki explains the three types while introducing a few cultural experts’ perceptions towards aidoru. First, anybody can potentially be an aidoru as long as they have aidoru-like lovable features in looks and in personalities, and they are referred to as aidoru regardless of their talent or occupation. The expression of ‘aidoru in the X field/ 40 world’ is prevalent such as Shōgi aidoru, “Japanese chess idol,” and karate aidoru. These kind of aidoru can be ordinary people such as classmates, co-workers, or even non-human.

To illustrate the last point, one can see examples of animals being called aidoru, such as in a news show about a popular otter going viral, with the headline “Chītan as an aidoru in the otter world” (Kanagawa, 2018). Whether human or otter, the most salient quality of aidoru in this group is being popular.

The second classification, aidoru as stars, is the most faithful concept to the definition of “idol” in the dictionary, which is “an object of worship.” Utamaru, a Japanese rapper and aidoru critic, asserts that aidoru are adored by fans fanatically as if the person is an idol of a religious sect (Katsuki, 2014, p. 27). Aku, a songwriter, explains that aidoru as sutā “stars,” includes people who are charismatic and well-known including Elvis Presley and John F.

Kennedy as worldwide aidoru. For national Japanese aidoru, Shigeo Nagashima, a former professional baseball player and later manager of the Yomiuri Giants, and Yujiro Ishihara, a

Japanese male actor are listed as examples.

The third group, career aidoru, is called “pop aidoru” by the media, especially in the entertainment genre. This type of aidoru’s main activities are singing and dancing across various forms of media. Aoyagi (1999) defines aidoru as “young, media-promoted personalities” (p. 30), and Galbraith & Karlin (2012) describe aidoru as “young performers who sing, pose for photographs, and appear frequently in the media. They are popular, and project themselves as clean, healthy, and energetic” (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012, pp. 4-5). The significant difference between aidoru and sutā is the level of familiarity. Aidoru are friendly looking girls (and boys), and sutā are incredibly beautiful and talented, thus beyond reach for the average person (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Katsuki, 2014). This dissertation is only concerned with this third type, career aidoru. 41

3.2 A brief history of career aidoru in Japan

The roots of the phenomenon date back to at least the late 1950s. Fujie (1989) states that with the economic growth after WWII, many people were classified as middle class, and those people appreciated young singers singing about youth and platonic love (p. 207). These young singers were called kawaiko-chan, translated simply as “cute” by Fujie (1989, p. 209).

As a more faithful translation, kawaiko is a “cute child,” and chan is a diminutive honorific of sorts, used particularly for small children or girls, and their description is very similar to that of modern aidoru. While Fujie does not use the term aidoru, the lengthy quote about kawaiko-chan is clearly describing the same phenomenon as aidoru: they project young and innocent images, sing choreographed songs in girly costumes, are easily replaced with newcomer aidoru after a few years, and are promoted by agencies (1989, pp. 209-210). In short, production agencies promote female aidoru as cute, young, and innocent, and they are disposable once they began to age out of the role. After six decades, Fujie’s explanation about kawaiko-chan is still very true of aidoru today. Black (2008) also asserts a similar point as

“(t)he successful Japanese idol is likely to have her or his appeal heavily utilized in a variety of forums, but only until youthful cuteness has started to wane” (p. 197).

The images of aidoru that we picture today have been widely established in the early

1970s in Japan (e.g., Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Katsuki, 2014, p. 77). One of the biggest factors is the influence of TV. In the 1970s, the major medium of cultural consumption had just shifted from the movies to TV, which contributed tremendously to the growth of aidoru culture in Japanese society (Kitagawa et al., 2013, p. 14). Many researchers have discussed that 1971 is an especially important year for two reasons. First, the symbolic female aidoru,

Saori Minami, debuted in 1971 with a hit song called “seventeen years old.” She is often seen 42 as the very first national aidoru, and set the standard for the aidoru to this day: cute and young (Kitagawa et al., 2013; Okajima & Okada, 2011, p. 50).

Second, the TV show called Sutā Tanjō!, “Birth of a Star!,” (Nippon TV, from 1971 to

1983) produced a great number of both male and female aidoru (e.g., Okajima & Okada,

2011, p. 52; Galbraith & Karlin, 2012, p. 5; Katsuki, 2014, p. 30). This TV show is similar to

“American Idol,” with contestants competing in singing. Both the audience of the show and a few judges collaboratively chose winners, and the winners could become sutā, “star.”

Interestingly, many winners were not exceptionally good at singing; rather they were amateurish (Katsuki, 2014, p. 76). Although the word sutā is used for the title of this TV show, the winners were actually aidoru, in other words, TV sutā, in contrast to sutā, because the star quality of “beyond reach” is lacking. Aku, a songwriter who also played a part in creating this TV show, expresses that he is partly to blame for degrading the impression of sutā into something too down-to-earth (Katsuki, 2014, p. 30). (cf., Section 4.3 for more discussion on aidoru’s characteristics and expected behaviors).

Around a decade after 1971, the Japanese aidoru truly boomed in the 1980s. This era is referred to as the “golden age of aidoru” because of the large number of very popular aidoru who appeared on TV in this period of economic prosperity (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012, p. 5). The representative female aidoru in the early 1980s is Seiko Matsuda, who is described as “one of Japan's most celebrated pop-divas” (Aoyagi, 1999, p. 161), “perhaps the most successful woman in the idol genre” (Stanlaw, 2000, p. 54), and “the master and prototype for exemplary burikko style” (Miller, 2004, p. 149). (I will explain what burikko is in the next section.) She had a specific hairstyle that people called the “Seiko-chan cut,” and many women from the time mimicked her hairstyle (Okajima & Okada, 2011, p. 63). Although aidoru were primarily featured on TV music shows, these shows were failing in popularity by 43 the mid-1980s. Simultaneously, aidoru started to lose their opportunities to be in the media.

However, there was one aidoru group, OC, which attracted fans of all ages in Japan due to their extraordinary ordinariness (Okajima & Okada, 2011) (cf., Chapter 4.2.1 about Onyanko

Club).

In the 1990s, the aidoru era then entered an “ice age” for a while, meaning that not very many memorable aidoru appeared after OC broke up in 1987. However, some aidoru in the 1990s demonstrated womanly sexiness and coolness qualities, which were different from the conventional mainstream cute images of the past (e.g., Miller 2004; Watanabe, 2011;

Stanlaw, 2000; Aoyagi, 2003; Kitagawa et al., 2013). They are referred to as “post-aidoru” compared to the traditional cutesy aidoru (Aoyagi, 2003, p. 156). As a result, since the 1990s, two types of aidoru, the traditional cute and innocent type and the atypical sexy and cool type, have coexisted in the entertainment industry.

This “ice age” ended when a group aidoru Mōningu Musume, “Morning daughter,” debuted on a reality TV show called “Asayan” in 1997. The TV audience was able to see all of the screening process, along with background stories and the personal daily routines of the girls, including singing, practicing scenes, and even quarreling with other contestants.

Moreover, many reality shows occasionally contain scenes where aidoru communicate with their childhood friends and family. This kind of disclosure to the audience has become the new trend. Many current Japanese aidoru entertain the audience not only with their songs and performances but with other inclusive content such as personal stories from aidoru (Katsuki,

2014, p. 18).

With the advent of the sensational aidoru group, AKB48, the aidoru world entered the sengoku jidai “the period of warring” in which many new aidoru groups, especially female aidoru groups kept appearing and competing in the media since the 2000s (Okajima & 44

Okada, 2011). Although amateurism among aidoru are still favored, recent popular aidoru groups such as Momoiro Clover Z and Denpagumi.inc flourish because of their singing and dancing talents. They are marketed as being self-determined and genuine. The media has described them as aidoru rashiku nai aidoru, “idols who are not typical idols,” because of their unique talents (Katsuki, 2014, p. 64).

Aidoru figures do not have to be living people, and can be virtual and programmed, i.e. there are computer-generated aidoru with synthesized voices (Black, 2012). One of the most popular virtual aidoru is Hatsune Miku. The product and image were created by

Crypton Future Media (Matsue, 2015, p. 131). On their website, the description of Hatsune

Miku is as follows: the virtual singer, Hatsune Miku, is a Vocaloid (vocal + android) based on voice actress, Fujita Saki, who has a cute and cheerful persona (“Hatsune Miku,” n.d.).

Hatsune Miku gradually grew in popularity both in Japan and worldwide, appearing in concert as a 3D holographic image and even appearing as a guest on an American talk show,

“The Late Show with David Letterman” in 2014 (Matsue, 2015, p. 129). Black describes the virtual aidoru as “a media figure which can be taken as an extreme example of corporate attempts to prefabricate celebrity” (2012, p. 196), and explains how the virtual aidoru attracts many aidoru otaku who appreciate both cute girls in anime and manga and technology.

3.3 Aidoru fans, otaku

The discussion of otaku is inevitable in exploring aidoru fans. The word otaku is literally the polite expression of “home” or it can function as a second pronoun, meaning

“you.” Contemporarily, otaku adds “the meaning of ‘obsessive enthusiast’ and began to be applied to the subcultures of anime, manga, and computer technology, [and] the word had a strongly negative meaning in Japan. There is evidence, however, that the Japanese 45 connotations of otaku are becoming less pejorative, at least based on English writing in

Japanese publications in recent years” (Otaku, 2018).

While the term otaku appearing in English writing may have become less pejorative with its usage increasing as a self-identification marker for English-speaking fans of anime and manga; the impression of otaku in Japan is still creepy, weird, and frowned upon because of the horrific incident which made the term otaku well known in the late 1980s whereby 27- year-old Tsutomu Miyazaki was arrested for molesting and murdering little girls (Hicks,

2012; Kamm, 2015). Because authorities found many manga and anime in his room, the press called him “The Otaku Killer” as one of his nicknames. Galbraith asserts that “the figure of

Miyazaki still haunts the public perception of otaku” (Hicks, 2012).

When otaku are into aidoru, they usually dream of dating one of the aidoru members.

They are regarded as “derided cute-idol fans as lunatics” (Aoyagi, 1999, p. 137). There is also a gender bias in these relationships, as “an idol fan who displays an obsessive loyalty to the idol or idols of his choice (and the idol-otaku) relationship is overwhelmingly one between a male fan and female performer)” (Blake, 2012, p. 216). Simultaneously, aidoru otaku are fanatical fans who contribute to aidoru by purchasing all kinds of aidoru goods such as CDs, photo-books, and magazines. Therefore, otaku are the vital consumers of aidoru commodities, and even if their image might still hold negative connotations in contemporary

Japan, the aidoru industry heavily banks on otaku support.

The relationship between aidoru and fans has shifted, as the platform where aidoru appear has been shifting from TV and magazines to live performances and social networking services (SNS). Compared to the time when fans could see aidoru only on TV, predominantly on music shows in the 1980s, fans have gained more exposure to aidoru and have more 46 opportunities to interact in person and possibly even develop a closer relationship occasionally (Katsuki, 2014, p. 87).

3.4 Prevailing expectations for Japanese female aidoru in Japan

This section explores aidoru qualities that have become conventionalized since aidoru first appeared in Japan, and qualities that are still generally valid today. Aidoru embody femininity (Miller, 2004, p. 149). Femininity is culture-dependent, but hegemonic femininity in Japan is often closely related to the concept of kawaii “cuteness” (Kinsella, 1995).

McVeigh confirms that “being cute is a vital ingredient of feminine self-presentation” (1996, p. 301). In discussing Japanese aidoru, many researchers of Japanese popular culture relate back to the issue of kawaii within Japanese studies (e.g., Treat, 1993; McVeigh, 1996; Miller,

2004; Yano, 2013; Black, 2012).

Importantly, multiple connotations are inherent in the word “kawaii” just as they are in the word ‘femininity.’ McVeigh asserts that “[c]uteness communicates power relations and power play, effectively combining weakness, submissiveness and humility with influence, domination and control” (McVeigh, 1996, p. 291). He lists various keywords that associate with cuteness (in the left column) and the opposites (in the right column) based on the presence of power (e.g., masculinity and strength) and powerlessness (e.g., feminine and weakness) as shown in Table 3-1. 47

Table 3-1.“Cuteness” powerlessness vs. “anti-cuteness” power Powerlessness: controllable/controlled Power: controlling/controller weakness strength females males femininity masculinity cheerful gloomy bright colors dark colors infants, children adults youth maturity light-hearted serious outgoing taciturn small large (Adopted from McVeigh, 1996, p. 296)

The words of “females,” “infants,” “children,” “youth” and “small” in Table 3-1 evoke the concept of shōjo, “little girl.” Shōjo often appears in the literature about aidoru, because shōjo represents all sorts of possible kawaii features in terms of physical traits, personality and behaviors, which pertains to aidoru. Shōjo surely matches hegemonic femininity in Japan, because the ideal image of a girl includes “bone-thin skinniness, wide- eyed innocence, cuteness, and youth” (Ginsberg, 2000, p. 276). McVeigh specifies detailed kawaii facial traits, which are “having features of an infant, such as a wide forehead, small chin, big eyes, low nose, small lips, and white skin” (1996, p. 295). The description brings to mind Caucasian facial features, which are often idealized in Asian cultures (Youn, 2013).

When you look at aidoru today, a large majority of them are thin and kawaii looking, and they gain further kawaii features naturally or even artificially. It is not hard to find online discussions about aidoru before/after plastic surgeries pictures. If aidoru fail to meet certain expectation in looks, media outlets will remark upon why, including if/how they gained weight (i.e., “large” as the opposite of cute in the chart) and/or how they aged (i.e., “adult).

What we think of as kawaii and youthfulness is essential for aidoru and is an important 48 expectation; if aidoru fail to meet the expectation, they cannot gain popularity and may leave their aidoru career or even the entertainment industry altogether.

The shōjo ideal includes not only physical attributes but also a child-like innocent personality. Researchers have discussed innocence as a very crucial concept for aidoru, and aidoru talent agencies strive to keep the image of innocence (e.g., Stanlaw, 2000, p. 55;

Katsuki, 2014, p. 185). Yano translates shōjo as “unmarried young women” (translated by

Yano, 2013, p. 46). Despite this not strictly being a semantic component of the Japanese word, this inclusion of “unmarried” is a very interesting. Aidoru should not be married, and the status of “unmarried” even hints that aidoru should be virgins. Treat says of a “cute girl” that she is “attractive, and thus valorized but lacks libidinal agency of her own” (1992, p.

363). The image of kawaii includes infantilizing women; therefore, having libido for shōjo is out of the question.

In addition, McVeigh, describes three criteria that express personality traits in Table

3-1: “cheerful,” “outgoing,” and “light-hearted.” Again, the qualities of kawaii are not only tied to surface appearances, but can also be manifested by one’s mannerisms. The phenomenon of many aidoru faking very cute and girly and cheerful attitudes is also coming from the desire to be favored by more fans. Miller (2004) describes an often used example of a particular type of woman who is cute in terms of physical appearances, but more so based on her mannerisms. In Japan, these women are called burikko, and are often seen among aidoru (Miller, 2004, p. 149). The term burikko consists of two words, buru, “to pose, to perform, to act, or to fake,” and ko, “child” (Miller, 2004). The burikko comport themselves as cute by pretending to be naive and innocent like a child, and overly feminine, often with high-pitched voices (Miller, 2004). Although some people do not approve of burikko because they are thought of as fake, the quality of cuteness as part of burikko is regarded as a cultural 49 norm of femininity within Japanese ideology as it pertains to the Japanese notions of an ideal woman (e.g., Miller, 2004, p. 150; McVeigh, 1996, p. 293).

As well as “innocent” personality traits, aidoru need to exhibit "innocent" behaviors because being “proper girls” is the ultimate expectation for femininity in Japan, and thus for aidoru. Talent agencies, again, play a major role in projecting that aidoru are innocent and well-behaved. Galbraith and Karlin states that “[aidoru] cannot drink alcohol, smoke, or be seen in the company of men” (2012, p. 6). Many agencies prohibit aidoru from having a partner or going on a date, but aidoru are expected to be single even without having an official rule because many male fans like otaku enjoy imagining themselves as an aidoru’s romantic partner. Ironically, tabloids frequently disclose pictures where an aidoru is having a date, hugging, and/or kissing. One of the unforgettable events is when one AKB48 member stayed overnight at her boyfriend’s house. Soon after a tabloid magazine publicized this news

(“AKB Minegishi,” 2013), the female aidoru released a tearful apologetic video clip

(“AKB48 pop star,” 2013). In this video, she had her hair closely shaved to demonstrate her expression of regret, which is symbolic of the act of apology in Japan, as seen in an idiomatic expression atama o marumeru (lil. shaving one’s head), either “apologize” or “become a priest.” The gesture of shaving her head spread as disturbing news abroad and shocked the world. BBC reported that aidoru “portray an image of cuteness known as “kawaii,” and have become a huge phenomenon both in Japan and increasingly in other Asian countries…The condition for being part of such a successful act is that the girls must not date boys, so as not to shatter their fans' illusions” (“AKB48 pop star,” 2013). When aidoru break the rule, at times they have to suffer the consequences for dating that had occurred even before they started to work as aidoru, such as refraining from any aidoru activities or occasionally 50 withdrawing from their aidoru career. The punishment for Minegishi was demotion from an official member to a trainee (“AKB48 pop star,” 2013).

Lastly, McVeigh lists “weakness” as one of the kawaii features in the top row of Table

3-1, which relates to gender roles and positions in Japan. Cute girls, in other words, powerless girls, are considered nonthreatening to both the male powers that be, and to

Japanese society as a whole (McVeigh, 1996, p. 298). The idea of women as subordinate in

Japanese society, and the existing power imbalance based on gender is omnipresent in the position of female aidoru. Stanlaw (2000) mentions that many of the songs sung by female aidoru are in fact male-centered. Some lyrics are suggestive, and include Japanese male sexual fantasies involving female minors. This is particularly striking when we take into account that aidoru do not typically write their own songs, almost all the lyrics are written by male songwriters (Stanlaw, 2000, p. 56). Especially earlier in aidoru history, around the

1970s, aidoru were described as “puppets” because they perform the exact same things over and over as designed by other people including song producers (primarily men) and choreographers, without expressing their own emotions or passions (Katsuki, 2014, p. 77).

Nonthreatening features are applicable even for certain looks and performing skills.

Aidoru are cute in general, but would not be viewed as exceptionally beautiful. Aidoru sing and dance, but they should not be too skilled (e.g., Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Akimoto &

Tahara, 2013). If they are overly talented, they are regarded more as artists whose salient quality is not necessarily “cute” (Kitagawa 2013, p. 104). The fact that neither outstanding skills in singing and dancing nor exceptional appearances are necessarily appreciated, and the fact that amateurish qualities are greatly valued demonstrate that aidoru should be ultimately nonthreatening figures. As a result, aidoru succeed in evoking the protective instinct from 51 fans, namely otaku, and fans naturally feel like supporting them to witness their improvement.

The concepts discussed in this section regarding cuteness are sometimes overlapping or closely connected, but traditional aidoru are generally expected to be cute in appearances and mannerisms, and indeed respond by projecting cuteness in their performances. This is the fundamental image which has not changed much since the 1950s.

Nevertheless, as I briefly mentioned earlier a slight shift is observable among aidoru since the 1990s. What has been added is atypical images of aidoru expressing unconventional behavior, and also alternative gender performances became more visible. Stanlaw states that an aidoru, “[Nana Kondo] and other young singers are extending the boundaries of the idol category by foregoing the ‘cute’ route to idol stardom and exploring alternative avenues to pop music success” (2000, p. 61) and some female singers started to write songs and sing about non-romantic topics unlike other previous merely cute singers (Stanlaw, 2000, pp.

60-61). The alternative avenues mean “sexy” and “cool,” as discussed in the previous section.

Watanabe states that “the pop queen aidoru of the 1990s seemed to refuse to be ‘happily exploited’ by men” (2011, p. 68). Therefore, compared to the traditional aidoru, current aidoru have, or have the appearance of having, a choice about performing an image based on their (or more likely, their agency’s) desires.

In this chapter, I demonstrated a few meanings of aidoru in Japanese, development of the aidoru career from the 1950s till today, aidoru otaku, and expectations of aidoru. In terms of fan consumption of aidoru, genuine feminine cuteness, which has been favored traditionally, is not the only show in town, and fake cuteness and other canonically unfeminine performances have become acceptable or even preferable recently. My further question is how these shifts have influenced gender performativity both in images and 52 language by exploring commodities and discourse among aidoru. I achieve to answer the question by comparing two aidoru groups from different time periods. In the following chapter, I explore data resources along with research questions. 53

CHAPTER 4. RESEARCH QUESTION AND DATA SOURCE BACKGROUND

4.1 Goal and research questions

The goal of this line of research is to investigate a variety of identities belonging to/ ascribed to Japanese female aidoru in different time periods through the observation of commodities and media. Exploring visual images, song lyrics and linguistic discourse by two sensational aidoru groups, Onyanko Club (OC hereafter) in the 1980s and AKB48 in the

2000s (still present today) enunciates how several styling resources that are negotiated through language ideology and gender ideology in sociohistorical process contribute to the shaping of identities as aidoru.

The research questions to be answered are as follows: (1) How are aidoru portrayed in the images on CD covers and song lyrics and are the present portrayed aidoru images different from those of the past; (2) How do aidoru view aidoru identity and position themselves; (3) Has the aidoru ideology including images and social expectations changed over time; and (4) What kind of linguistic features do aidoru use to project certain identities, and does contemporary language use of aidoru differ from the past?

Prior answering these questions by investigating and comparing two Japanese female aidoru groups of OC and AKB48 from the two separate time frames, I will introduce the background of the two groups and explain how two comparable data have been selected to perform both qualitative and quantitative analyses.

4.2 Data source background

One of the most well-known groups, AKB48, was selected as representative of current female aidoru for this study. OC was chosen to use as a comparison to the omnipresent

AKB48. Galbraith and Karlin (2012) see a resemblance in the two aidoru groups, stating that the “(r)ecent idol group AKB48 is incredibly close in concept and lyrical nature to 1980s 54 idols OC, mostly because they have the same creator, Akimoto Yasushi” (p. 49). Akimoto started his career as a television writer in the late 1970s while still in high school. Although he has worked as a cinematic scriptwriter, lyricist, and novelist, he is best known as a female aidoru group producer. A brief overview of these two groups that he has worked with is given below.

4.2.1 Onyanko Club (OC)

OC is listed as a representative aidoru group of the 1980s, along with Pink Lady of the 1970s, Mōningu Musume (“Morning daughter”) of the 1990s and AKB48 of the 2000s

(Okajima & Okada, 2011). The name Onyanko consists of three morphemes: honorific prefix o-, nyan which is an onomatopoeia for the sound that a cat makes, and ko ‘child’. For this reason, OC is sometimes translated as ‘Little Cat Club’ (Schilling, 1997, p. 167).

In their time, OC was recognized not only by aidoru fans by also by the wider public

(Okajima & Okada, 2011). OC came out as part of a live TV variety show consisting of talk, comedy, game and songs show called Yūyake Nyan Nyan “Sunset meow meow” because it aired around sunset on weekdays (Fuji Television Network, from 1985-1987). Eleven members were chosen to be aidoru at an initial screening, and the number of group members increased gradually to 52 people by 1987, when the group disbanded. The way of selecting aidoru members was very similar to Sutā Tanjō! (“Birth of a Star!”) (Nippon TV, from 1971 to 1983), which the TV guests and audience members participate, during the segment called

Za Sukauto Aidoru o Sagase (‘The scout, Look for idol’) (Sayawaka, 2015, p. 111). Akimoto was involved in the production of this TV program as a writer and songwriter.

Okajima and Okada (2011) discuss that expectations towards aidoru had never been high originally, but Akimoto successfully lowered such expectations even further in forming

OC. OC girls were neither attractive nor particularly cute, and they were not very skilled in 55 singing, dancing or acting. Schilling referred to OC girls as “Ms. Average” (1997, p. 166).

Despite the fact that most aidoru usually appear in music shows and perform in an overly cute manner, OC often appeared in comedy TV programs and behaved just as regular girls.

Schilling (1997) describes OC as “they seemed to be utterly themselves, making no pretense of trying to ‘perform’” (p. 167). Such members’ nonchalant attitudes drew attention (e.g.,

Schilling, 1997; Okajima & Okada, 2011). Kitagawa et al. (2013) assert that OC members reminded him of classmates you see every day at school. In addition, the system of OC reminds him of a class because of the large number of members in the group, and also because they are assigned ID numbers based on their admission order (Kitagawa et al., 2013, p. 57).1 Akimoto proves that even regular girls have a potential to be aidoru and became famous as long as they are given a stage to shine (Okajima & Okada, 2011, p. 79). Although

OC was a public sensation, the group broke up in 1987, only two and half years after their formation because of the decline in ratings of Yūyake Nyan Nyan. Akimoto argues that the audience and fans were getting tired of watching them since the TV program was daily on weekdays, which means that OC members appear on TV everyday as well (Akimoto &

Tahara, 2013, p. 210).

4.2.2 AKB48

AKB48 is the most prevalent aidoru group in Japan currently. Even people in Japan who are not interested in any aidoru groups or AKB48 in particular find themselves unable to ignore this group because they are omnipresent in the media. AKB48 appears on television, news, magazines, flyers and even advertisements on public transit. AKB48 has become a social phenomenon and a kokumin-teki aidoru or “national idol” (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012;

Murayama, 2014). Tanaka asserts that historically aidoru did not influence or interact with

1 Students in Japanese school classes are also assigned numbers. 56 the Japanese community to the extent that AKB48 does (2013, p. 34). Producer Akimoto (the same who had a hand in creating OC) founded AKB48 in 2005.

The name of AKB was taken from the Tokyo district of Akihabara where their concert hall, “AKB Theater,” is located. A staff member was looking for an ideal location for a theater and the only worthwhile option happened to be in Akihabara. The district is known as the center of electronics industry, but Akihabara was becoming increasingly more popular among otaku at that time due to the moe-culture “cute culture” (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013).

Otaku tend to love girls in anime and manga and also aidoru. “Moe” among the otaku is used to indicate “the emotional attachment that otaku feel for their favorite characters” (Hornyak,

2014). The article states that “(a)nyone who has visited Tokyo’s Akihabara district in the past decade will have run into countless images of cartoonish girls: in posters, in figurines and in the form of real women dressed up as French maids” (Hornyak, 2014). Akimoto believed so much in the power and energy of Akihabara that he decided Akihabara should be the base for his aidoru group. Now Akihabara is believed to be the mecca of Japanese popular culture

(Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 21); therefore, the almost accidental selection of Akihabara as a base to build the AKB Theater eventually paid off.

In recruiting AKB48 members, the advertisement included Akimoto’s face photo and a letter-like passage from Akimoto to the possible applicants as shown in Figure 4-1.

According to the flyer, the qualifications are to be women between around 13 and 22-years who do not already belong to any productions and are able to perform at the AKB Theater in

Akihabara. Akimoto mentions that although the upper age limit for the audition was 20 to 21 years old, the lower age limit was less clearly defined. In fact, the youngest successful candidates were around 10 or 11 years old (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013). 57

Figure 4-1. AKB48 recruiting flyer

“AKB48 PROJECT “I want to meet you. Akihabara has energy. I would like to produce new aidoru in this place. The concept of this aidoru group is the aidoru that you can meet. This aidoru group will not be one that only appears on TV, magazines or photos, but I am going to create an aidoru group that (fans) can meet whenever they go to Akihabara. I want to meet someone who has a distinct character.” Akimoto Yasushi (my own translation)

This advertisement was distributed in prints via magazines and flyers at stations in

Tokyo. Through several stages of auditions, 24 people were selected out of 7924 applicants

(Akimoto & Tahara, 2013; Murayama, 2014). These original members were called Team A, borrowing from the initial letter of AKB. After their official selection as a member of the

AKB48 aidoru group, new members had only one month to practice singing and dancing for 58 their live debut concert in December 2006. For this concert, there were only seven audience members in attendance.

Only four months later, Akimoto recruited 17 more members. This group was named

Team K, taking the second letter of AKB. Since Team A thought they were AKB48, they were not welcoming to Team K (Murayama, 2014, p. 121). Staff members even encouraged the girls to consider members of the other team as rivals. As a result, the relationships between these two groups were negative and antagonistic. This tension even extended to their respective fan bases, as demonstrated by a fight between fans of each group at the AKB48 theater (Murayama, 2014, p. 124). Akimoto’s selection of a mixture of members from Teams

A and K for a performance caused panic from members who were not selected, but ultimately lead to bonding between the members of each team. In 2007, the group expanded further with the addition of a Team B with 20 new members.

AKB48 gradually appealed to local fans at Akihabara, and their presence became prominent in 2010, when one of AKB48 songs, “Beginner” became a best-selling hit, breaking records set by previous female aidoru groups (Okajima & Okada, 2011). This brought AKB48 fame nationwide and firmly established their position as the top aidoru group in Japan. The following month that year, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized the 48 members of AKB48 as the world’s biggest pop group (“Ginesu,” 2010).

Akimoto has continued to hold auditions for new members and the deadline for his

16th audition was September 4th, 2016. Drawing from the team name AKB48, Teams 4 and 8 are now added. Team 8 is unique, since it is not a random assortment of members like previous teams. One person from each of the 47 prefectures is chosen as a representative, thus Team 8 consists of 47 aidoru. Additionally, draft sessions in which producers, staff 59 members, and current AKB48 aidoru participate in the selection of newcomers began in

2013.

Besides Teams A, K, B, 4, and 8, Akimoto has formed several sister groups that are usually named after places in Japan including SKE48 (Sakae in Nagoya), NMB48 (Namba in

Osaka), HKT48 (Hakata in Fukuoka), NGT48 (Nīgata prefecture). There are even a few foreign groups including JKT48 (Jakarta in Indonesia) and TPE48 (Taipei in Taiwan). Their concert halls are located in the city from which each group derives its name. In addition to these groups, Akimoto has produced a few more groups based on the groups’ characteristics rather than location, such as the slightly older and sexier group SDN48 (Saturday Night).

New members continue joining these groups and other members are constantly leaving or

“graduating.” Some are occasionally shuffled between groups and others may belong to multiple groups simultaneously. Moreover, there are kenkyūsē, or “trainees,” who strive to become one of the main members of a group. At this point (March 2018), at least 339 girls2 are registered as AKB48 and sister groups including both domestic and overseas (“Member,” n.d.).

Quite a few writers and researchers in academic and non-academic fields have discussed Akimoto’s production and marketing strategies (e.g., Okajima & Okada, 2011;

Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Akimoto & Tahara, 2013; Murayama, 2014). Akimoto himself published a book called “Strategies in AKB48” in the form of a dyadic conversation with

Sōichiro Tahara, who is a journalist, critic, and newscaster.

In this book, Akimoto discusses several successful strategies. First, based on his experience and interactions with otaku and other fans, Akimoto explains that fans want

“closeness” with aidoru members, reinforcing his original concept of his group as “idols that

2 339 girls participated in the AKB world general election on June 6, 2018. 60 you can meet.” AKB48 has live performances at the AKB Theater daily, sometimes multiple times a day, enabling fans to see AKB48 in person. Additionally, fans can meet members by attending handshaking events using tickets that come with purchased CDs (Galbraith &

Karlin, 2012, p. 21). One ticket can provide fans a few seconds to meet while shaking hands.

More devoted fans can buy multiple tickets to line up and secure several turns (Sayawaka,

2015, p. 28).

AKB48 members’ frank attitudes helped to create “closeness” as well. Beattie (2011) mentions AKB48’s ordinary quality, stating that “(t)he biggest difference compared to idols from past generations is, with past idols we think they don’t go to the toilet or eat

McDonald’s. But AKB48 will make funny faces and talk about dirty jokes. They’ve come down to the same level as consumers—that’s the biggest appeal.” The opportunities to observe them in person at handshaking events and at the live concert create friendliness, thus

AKB48 is seen as approachable, which results in attracting more fans.

Second, Akimoto is open to suggestions and he is always willing to listen to other people’s opinions and ideas. For instance, during the selection process, Akimoto mentions that the important thing is that he does not choose aidoru candidates by himself (Akimoto &

Tahara, 2013, p. 24). According to him, this principle is the key to recruiting a wide variety of girls with a wide appeal. Similarly, he welcomes the voices of fans, especially AKB48’s more dedicated fans, ota. As I explained in the previous chapter, otaku has a negative connotation in general in Japan, and as such, otaku of AKB48 do not often want to be identified as or associated with otaku. They want to be distinguished from other otaku, so they refer to themselves as ota with pride in supporting aidoru. Akimoto believes that if ota are involved in producing and nurturing aidoru, they can pioneer an entirely new field and create something exciting and unparalleled in the history of aidoru (e.g., Okajima & Okada, 2011, 61 p. 23; Okajima et al., 2011, p. 56; Murayama, 2014, p. 78; Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 33).

In fact, one popular member, Mariko Shinoda, joined AKB48 because of these ota’s recommendations. She did not pass the first round of auditions at the initial stages of

AKB48’s formation. She did not want to give up right away, so she applied for a job at a cafe at the AKB48 Theater in Akihabara. Many AKB48 fans noticed how cute and cheerful she was, and she gradually gained popularity among fans (Okajima et al., 2011, p. 126). One of the staff members heard gossip about Shinoda, and told Akimoto about her. She was successfully accepted as an AKB48 member soon after. Akimoto and staff have constantly taken fans’ advice in person (Okajima et al., 2011, p. 56).

Another example is the “AKB general election,” in which fans vote to reveal popularity among members. Akimoto introduced this voting system initially due to criticism voiced by his fans. Whenever Akimoto selected members to sing a new song, unsatisfied fans would complain and ask why their favorite members were not chosen. To remedy this,

Akimoto introduced a way for fans to select a member who will sing a new song at least once a year (Murayama, 2014, p. 26). Consumers need to acquire a voting voucher that comes with a purchased CD. The most popular 15-20 members from the election can sing a newly released song. This allows the more popular members to perform in the front while on stage and provides them increased opportunities for media appearances (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012, p. 22). The popularity contest can be particularly difficult for those who are not very popular.

To assist these girls with pressure management, there are a few psychiatrists and school counselors to provide therapy (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 41). Although the system may seem cruel, it affords all AKB members an equal opportunity to become popular.

Consequently, they constantly strive to polish their performing skills and their appearances to gain more popularity and place in a higher rank. 62

The nature of this voting system encourages fans to purchase multiple CDs to obtain the tickets to support their favorite members. Galbraith and Karlin (2012) state that fans can

“feel that they are directly involved in the process of producing and promoting their chosen idols and groups. They are empowered by the idol’s successes” (p. 25). Since the inaugural

AKB general election was held in 2009, it has continued to be annual event. The election has been held at a hall or stadium, so the core fans who purchased an admission ticket can witness the results of vote counting in real time. Moreover, it has been broadcasted since the fourth one in 2012, which indicates this event receives much public attention. The nationwide event influences the Japanese economy tremendously. The economic effect from each AKB election was reported to be over $2.5 billion in 2013 (Ogawa, 2013). In 2016, as soon as the place for the next general election was announced in the media, all the hotels near the venue were completely booked instantly (Shiosawa, 2016).

Akimoto’s marketing strategies are often criticized and called “AKB business” (e.g.,

Okajima & Okada, 2011) because of how overtly commercial he is. However, Akimoto succeeds in establishing a paradigm which works for fans, aidoru, and himself as well. For fans, he provides more opportunities for face-to-face interaction with aidoru and the ability to shape AKB48’s path. For aidoru, they obtain an equal opportunity to become popular. In the process Akimoto has enjoyed increased financial success. Utilizing Akimoto’s unique strategies, AKB48’s fan base has increased and the group has gained national popularity.

In summary, these two aidoru groups, OC and AKB48 are often compared because they share a number of characteristics. Both are large female aidoru groups that make frequent make media appearances, project a cute but ordinary, and thus approachable persona, and have the same producer. For this reason, comparing the data associated with OC 63 and AKB48 will help identify the various identities of two separate aidoru groups over two separate time periods. 64

CHAPTER 5. CRAFTED IDENTITIES IN IMAGES AND LYRICS

5.1 Introduction

This chapter compares Onyanko Club (OC) and AKB48 in terms of the identities portrayed through both images on CD jacket covers and song lyrics. The mainstream popular female aidoru is often associated with the image of kawaii “cute” as discussed in Section 3.4, which encompasses broad qualities such as those given in a list by McVeigh (1996) by including “powerlessness, controllability, controlled, weakness, femininity, cheerfulness, and youthfulness (p. 296)” as ideological association. In addition, he lists “females, bright colors

(especially pink), infants, children, small size and toys (p. 296)” as examples of cute things perceptually. Thus, the concept of kawaii is not only tied to surface appearances but can also be manifested by one’s characteristics and mannerisms.

When describing typical female aidoru, the term burikko (i.e., “childish girl” (Aoyagi,

1999, p. 96) has been translated into “fake child” or “phony girl” (Miller, 2004, p. 148),

“false innocence” (Watanabe, 2011, p. 65), “sugary innocence and cuteness” (Monden, 2014, p. 85) and especially in the 1980s, the term remains prevalent. Like kawaii, burikko also features not only visual images connected to appearance and clothes, but also behaviors, gestures, high-pitched voices, and even orthography called maru moji “round scripts.” Since the 1990s, aidoru images have diverged and, the kawaii image is no longer the only available option among aidoru. Deviating from the typical kawaii aidoru, some aidoru began to project kakkoii “cool” images, which were sexier, stronger, and included more sophisticated performances in terms of singing and dance moves. These new aidoru also demonstrated their self-assertiveness, with some choosing to write song lyrics by themselves (Watanabe,

2011). 65

The OC and AKB48 commodities reveal similarities and differences between the two groups’ portrayed identities. The results from this chapter disclose how the aidoru ideology and expectations have changed and I explore possible factors related to this change.

5.2 Methodology

5.2.1 Data (CD jacket covers and song lyrics)

In order to demonstrate portrayed identities, I analyze nine OC songs (Table 5-1), eleven AKB48 songs (Table 5-2), and their accompanying CD jacket covers.3 All the songs used in this study are scripted by Akimoto, their male producer. The lyrics from only singles

(A-sides only) are included in the analysis. All the nine OC singles were released during their

2.5 years of activity in the mid-1980s. AKB48 has released many singles, but only the best- selling singles of each year from 2006 to 2016 were chosen, in order to make them comparable in number to OC songs.

Table 5-1. Onyanko Club (OC) song titles ID Year Onyanko Club song titles O1 1985 セーラー服を脱がさないで (Sērāfuku o nugasa nai de) “Please don’t take off my sailor uniform” O2 1985 およしになってねTEACHER (Oyoshininattene TEACHER) “Please don’t do it, teacher” O3 1986 じゃあね (Jā ne) “See you” O4 1986 おっとCHIKAN！(Otto CHIKAN!) “Hey, pervert!” O5 1986 お先に失礼 (Osaki ni shitsurē) “Excuse me (for going first)” O6 1986 恋はくえすちょん (Koi wa quesuchon) “Romance is a question” O7 1987 NO MORE 恋愛ごっこ (NO MORE renaigokko) “No more play romance” O8 1987 かたつむりサンバ (Katatsumuri samba) “Snail samba” O9 1987 ウェディングドレス (Uedingu doresu) “Wedding dress”

3 Pictures of CD covers are provided in the analysis section. 66

Table 5-2. AKB48 song titles ID Year AKB48 song titles A1 2006 会いたかった (Aitakatta) “I wanted to meet you” A2 2007 僕の太陽 (Boku no taiyō) “My sun” A3 2008 大声ダイアモンド (Ōgoe daiamondo) “Diamond shout” A4 2009 RIVER A5 2010 Beginner A6 2011 フライングゲット(Furaingu getto) “Flying get” A7 2012 真夏のSounds good! (Manatsu no Sounds good!) “Mid-summer Sounds good!” A8 2013 さよならクロール (Sayonara kurōru) “Good-bye crawl” A9 2014 ラブラドール・レトリバー (Raburadōru retoribā) “Labrador retriever” A10 2015 僕たちは戦わない (Bokutachi wa tatakawanai) “We will not fight” A11 2016 翼はいらない (Tsubasa wa iranai) “No need of wings”

5.2.2 Observation on CD jacket covers

I observe visual images on CD covers to investigate costumes, facial expressions and the title texts for songs. Taking account of McVeigh’s key features of the surface cuteness

(cf., Table 3-1) such as color, body size and youth as a reference, I discuss the similarities and differences between the two aidoru groups.

5.2.3 Qualitative analysis on personae and behaviors in song lyrics

In order to investigate crafted personality traits and behaviors, song lyrics are qualitatively compared between OC and AKB48 songs. In addition, the use of direct reference to gendered nouns such as “girl” and “boy” is contrasted between the two group songs. Subsequently, the use of indirect gendered expressions on ending forms is quantitatively analyzed (Coding system in 5.2.4). I explore the use of indirect gendered 67 expressions of personal pronouns, lexemes, gendered descriptions and motifs such as

“bikini,” and pronunciation.

5.2.4 Coding system for quantitative analysis on ending forms in song lyrics

Quantitative analyses are conducted to compare the distributions of gendered expressions in song lyrics between OC and AKB48. The central investigation of the quantitative analysis is ending forms. Every complete sentence that contains a predicate is coded: following Okamoto and Sato’s classification as a base, and grouped into three- categories of feminine, neutral and masculine. Some researchers have five classifications of super-feminine, feminine, neutral, masculine and super masculine. I take the three category system for the quantitative analysis, but the separate notion of super feminine and super masculine are included in the discussion section. What needs to be emphasized repeatedly is the naming of the categories. Abe explains that “(t)he terms, “masculine” and “feminine” forms should be understood as the “idealized” notion of gender in the Japanese culture. In other words these terms have ideological implications and stereotypes which Japanese native speakers hold” (1998, p. 56). There is no unified single speech style exclusively used by every Japanese woman in every situation. What we have, then, in the concept of women’s language, is not a truly empirical pattern or an essential rule of Japanese, but a particular representation of “how (Japanese) women speak.”

According to Okamoto and Sato (1992), they excluded five types of sentences or fragments from their analysis: (1) interrupted or incomplete sentences; (2) neutral interrogative sentences; (3) fillers (Example 1 below); (4) direct and indirect quotations except for direct quotations of the speaker’s own speech (Example 2); and (5) expressions repeated for emphasis (p. 479). Okamoto and Sato mention that most of the criteria above are considered neutral. Their concern is the possibility of skewing the results because one 68 speaker may use many fillers or repetitions. Following their method, I excluded interrupted or incomplete sentences, fillers and direct and indirect quotations except for the direct quotations of the speaker’s own speech. On the contrary, I included neutral interrogative sentences and repeated expressions as long as they are complete sentences. I believe this category was unnecessarily excluded in previous analyses, as both interrogative sentences and repeated expressions are the speakers’ own production in full utterances, making them dissimilar from other exclusions. Several coding examples are shown. A null mark (ø) means they are excluded from the analysis.

Coding example 1. Fillers (A3) hanarete itemo sōda (ø) mukōgishi wa aru “Even if it’s far, YES! there is (always) the other side”

Coding example 2. Direct quotations (O4) “kimi ga suki” (ø) to love letter motteta “(He) had a love letter (saying) ‘I like you’”

I follow Okamoto and Sato’s treatment for the case of the right dislocation of a phrase or clauses (Example 3), so I examine the ending form of the phrase or sentence in the original syntactic order. I also follow their treatment for dependent clauses and excluded them except when they are used sentence-finally. Technically speaking, some particles can appear either in sentence-final or sentence-internal position. They can index gender just as sentence-final particles can. However, sentence-internal particles can only appear at the end of any phrasal turn construction unit. Including all possible locations in the analysis is not feasible.

Therefore, I limited my data to sentence-ending forms only, which include sentence-final particles but exclude all sentence-internal particles.

There are a few other ending forms from the data. First, nouns followed by a vocative yo are excluded because it is not the typical type of SFP that associated with gender/ politeness (Example 4). Second, set phrases such as apologies and greetings, as in 69 gomennasai ‘Sorry’ and jāne ‘See you,’ were also excluded. Zimmerman and Terao (2000) categorized interjection and set phrases as natural, but determining a specific category of gender/politeness is not as clear cut. Third, classical Japanese expressions were excluded. For example, zu in classical Japanese is a marker of negation, the equivalent to nai in modern

Japanese (Example 5). If nai were to be used in an utterance, it is categorized as neutral, however, classical Japanese grammar is out of the scope for analysis in this research.

Coding example 3. Right dislocation of a phrase (O3) dame yo, naitari shicha (ø) — [dame yo (na-adjective+yo) > feminine ending form] “It’s not good-yo if you cry”

Coding example 4. Vocative yo (A3) boku no itoshi sa yo (ø) — [excluded] “My affection, reach out!”

Coding example 5. Classical Japanese expressions (A5) kowaimono shirazu (ø) — [excluded] “Not fearing anything"

Similar to how set phrases such as greetings or apologies were exclude, systemized chants or saying such as kampai “cheers” were also excluded. Following Okamoto and Sato’s method, other sentence-final characteristics of pronunciations (e.g., [ē] in stead of [ai] and

[oi]) (Example 6), verbal auxiliary expressions (e.g., kashira and deshō) and were also included as well as sentence-final particles (SFPs), thus analyzing ending forms in a more holistic manner than simply categorizing SFPs.

Coding example 6. Phonological modification [ē] in stead of [ai] (A4) yatte minakerya wakannē — [wakannē in stead of wakaranai) > masculine ending form] “You never know until you try.”

Some expressions appeared that were not included in Okamoto and Sato’s list since the list was not exhaustive of all the possible ending forms (even in 1992). I added to the list by referring to similar examples of Okamoto and Sato and also consulting other previous studies as references (e.g., Terao & Zimmerman, 2000; Shibamoto, 1987; Abe, 1998; 70

Matsugu, 2007; Tsujimura, 2014). For example, the ending form ‘negative command

(+ne)’ (Example7) is grouped into the feminine by following Abe (1998), and ‘V.(te-form)

+yo’ (Example 8) is grouped into the neutral by following Smith (1992, p. 68).

Coding example 7. Negative command (+ne) (O1) nugasa nai de — [neutral] “Please don’t take it off”

Coding example 8. V.(te-form)+yo (O7) watashi o tsuretette yo — [neutral] “Pleases take me”

Previous researchers have added and also modified from the previously proposed classification so that the results are more up-to-date at their respective time of publication. It is reasonable to use Okamoto and Sato’s (1992) classification as a base in investigating language of OC of the mid to late 1980s; however, the possible concern is whether using classification systems based on out-of-date norms is relevant when analyzing the current language use of AKB48 especially when quite a few researchers have indicated the tendency of “neutralization,” with both women and men tend to choose more gendered neutral language in daily conversation. Therefore, it is vital to use updated classifications alongside taking into account the shift in language use and language ideology. To solve this issue, two different classifications are employed, and the two classifications are termed “Original” and

“Modern” in the analysis. The “original” classification is primarily based on the previous studies, and the “modern” version is created after consultations with more contemporary studies, as listed in Table 5-3 and 5-4 (e.g., Imaida, 2006; Yamanaka, 2008; Mizumoto, 2011;

Nagasaki, 2011). The following example indicates some ending forms for which the gendered expressions have been reclassified between “original” and “modern” classifications. The reclassified gendered expressions are indicated with asterisk (*) in Table 5-4.

Coding example 9. da+ne/yo/yo ne [masculine (Original) > neutral (Modern)] 71

(A7) oyoida yo — [neutral] “I swam, I tell you.”

Coding example 10. Volition+ka (invitation/offer) [masculine (Original) > neutral (Modern)] (A9) kiss o shiyō ka — [neutral] “Shall we kiss?”

Coding example 11. Question+no [feminine (Original) > neutral (Modern)] (A5) orokana kēsan shite nani o mamoru no? — [neutral] “Vain calculation, what are you protecting?”

The following tables are an exhaustive list of the ending forms which occur in analyzed songs for each group. Table 5-3 is the “original” classification which was used in analyzing OC song lyrics. Table 5-4 is the “modern” classification that was used in analyzing

AKB48 song lyrics. Several abbreviations are used in the tables. The leftmost column indicates gendered expressions of F=Female, N=Neutral, M=Masculine and the S in the parenthesis (S) means super (i.e., F(S)=super-feminine). In the columns of ending form,

V=Verb, A=Adjective (iA= i-adjective & naA=na-adjective), N=Noun. 72

Table 5-3. “Original” classification of gendered ending forms in OC song lyrics ♀♂ Ending forms Example Translation F(S) V/iA+wa(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Iku wa. (I) am going. (mild emphasis, wa with high Oishī wa. (It) is delicious. sustained intonation) F(S) da/datta+wa(+ne/yo/yo ne) Ashita da wa. (It)’s tomorrow. F(S) N/naA+yo Ashita yo. (It)'s tomorrow, I tell you. (yo with high sustained intonation) F(S) N/naA+na+no(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Kirē na no. It is that (it)’s pretty. (statement) Ashita na no. It is that (it)’s tomorrow. F negative command(+ne) Tabe nai de. Don’t eat. Tabe nai de ne. Please don’t eat. F N/naA+ne Ashita ne. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? F V/iA+no(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Iku no. It is that (I)’m going. (statement) Oishī no. It is that (it)’s delicious. F V/N/A+desho/ō (expressing Iku desho. (You) will probably go, (aren’t probability/seeking agreement) Ashita deshō. you)? (It) is probably tomorrow, right? N V/A/N (plain/polite) Iku. (I)’m going. Kirē. (It)’s pretty. N V/iA+ne Iku ne. (You) are going, aren’t you? N wa ↓ (with falling intonation, Oishī wa. (It)’s delicious. mild assertion) N V.(te-form) /yo Matte. Wait. M(S) V/iA+yo Iku yo. (I)’m going, I tell you. M(S) plain imperative(+yo) Ike. Go. (Modified from Okamoto & Sato, 1992, pp. 480-482) 73

Table 5-4. “Modern” classification of gendered ending forms in AKB48 song lyrics ♀♂ Ending forms Example Translation F(S) V/iA+wa(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Iku wa. (I) am going. (mild emphasis, wa with high Oishī wa. (It) is delicious. sustained intonation) FS N/naA+yo Ashita yo. (It)'s tomorrow, I tell you. (yo with high sustained intonation) N V/A/N (plain/polite) Iku. (I)’m going. Kirē. (It)’s pretty. N V/iA+ne Iku ne. (You) are going, aren’t you? N V.(te-form) /yo Matte. Wait. N ja+nai (mild assertion/seeking Ashita ja nai. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? agreement) Oishī ja nai. (It)'s delicious, don’t you janai+ka, janai yo think? *N *V/iA+yo Iku yo. (I)’m going, I tell you. (M ⇨N） *N *no (question) (F ⇨N） *N *da+ne/yo/yo+ne Ahita da ne. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? (M ⇨N） *N *Volition+ka (invitation/offer) Ikō ka. Shall (we/I) go? (M ⇨N） *N *Volition(+ne/yo) Ikō. M N/naA+da (but +SFP=N） Ashita da. (It)'s tomorrow. M *n+da (but n+da + Kirē na n da. It is that (it)’s pretty. anySFPs>N） Iku n da. It is that (I)’m going. M sa (Sentence-final) M V/N/A(plain)+ka (questions/ criticism) M daro/ō Iku darō. (He) will probably go. /(You) (expressing probability/seeking are going, aren't you? agreement/confirmation) M ka i (question) Kita no ka i? Did you come? M(S) [ē] in stead of [ai] and [oi] Shiranē. (I) don’t know. M(S) plain imperative(+yo) Ike. Go. M(S) negative command(+yo) Iku na. Don’t go. M(S) ze Iku ze. (Look), (I)’m going. (Re-modified from Okamoto & Sato, 1992, pp. 480-482)

After coding every sentence into feminine, neutral, and masculine, I tallied the total number of ending forms in each gendered form and calculated the percentages to compare gendered ending forms in OC and AKB song lyrics. 74

5.3 Results

Table 5-5 briefly summarizes the results of visual images. In short, the kawaii “cute” features are fundamental to the visual images that OC portrayed, while AKB48 projects both the kawaii “cute” and the kakkoii “cool” images interchangeably, or even simultaneously,- depending on the song. The question is whether the female aidoru members have been transformed simply from cute cheerful girly girls to girls who are cute yet have sexy and tough qualities. In the analysis of the lyrics, youth identity is present as a feature of both groups. However, personae in OC songs are passive and coquettish, while personae in

AKB48 songs are assertive and motivating. Language use also differs between the two groups. Lyrics from OC songs employ more feminine/soft speech (i.e., female voice), while lyrics from AKB48 songs use more masculine/assertive speech (i.e., male voice).

Table 5-5. Brief preview of visual images on CD jacket covers and song lyrics Category Examined items Onyanko Club AKB48 Visual images Clothing, adornment and style cute cute/cool Facial expressions and traits cute cute/cool Title texts on CD covers cute cute/cool Personae in lyrics Youth identity √ √ Passive and coquettish identity √ Assertive and motivating identity √ Language Direct gendered language more feminine more masculine Indirect gendered language more feminine more masculine

While the generalized trends shown in the above table provide a small glimpse into the difference between these two groups and their methods of identity-creation, a closer observation is still necessary, and is addressed subsequently.

5.3.1 Visual images on CD covers

In the present data, visual images convey multilayered identities and characters.

Various visual components, such as costumes, fashion styles, facial expressions and texts on 75

CD covers reveal the different kinds of identities that are being advertised by the two aidoru groups.

5.3.1.1 Clothing, accessories and fashion style

Clothes are one of the major elements that index both individual and group identities.

If the average person is seen wearing dresses or skirts in a store, the obvious assumption would be that the wearer is identifying as a woman. Monden (2014) discusses the theory of gender performativity (first introduced by Judith Butler), by which a person can perform different genders based on their clothing choices (p. 108). Not only limited to gender, clothing can index more elaborate personal attributes as well. Eckert (1989) asserts as follows, “(t)hroughout society, clothing style signals economic means, access to information, and specific group identity” (p. 62). Monden (2014) states that Japanese performers, including aidoru, project kawaii appearances by wearing cute clothes with girly accoutrements such as frills, ribbons, and laces. The present analysis focuses on costumes/ clothing as the main component, but also considers other aspects including hairstyles, accessories, colors, and both traditional aidoru-like kawaii features and other atypical elements.

(i) Kawaii style

As mentioned earlier, kawaii has a connotation of being found in the age range of children. The most notable costumes of both the aidoru groups are school uniforms because they evoke the image of shōjo “unmarried young women” (translated by Yano 2013, p. 46)

(cf., on Chapter 3.4). Inoue states that “social relations of production are expressed through things and vice versa” (2006, p. 151). In other words, the social notion of school-age boys and girls is expressed through and identified by a sign, namely Japanese school uniforms.

Japanese school uniforms mainly index the youth identity alongside certain other identities, 76 such as gender because typical female uniforms contain skirts while male uniforms have pants. Ashcraft (2010) precisely states that “(i)f clothes makes the man, uniforms make the schoolgirls. Whether it’s those sailor suits with big red ribbons, blue blazers and loose socks, the Japanese schoolgirl uniform is more than a wearable ID. It’s a statement” (p. 11). School uniforms have been commonplace in Japan since 1885, after the custom was brought to the country and was adopted through imitating European military uniforms (McVeigh, 1997, p.

200). McVeigh states that “(t)he typical female student uniform, called a sērāfuku (sailor uniform), might consist of a navy blue pleated skirt and a middy blouse” (1997, p. 200).

Both OC and AKB48 have CD covers in which their members wear school uniforms.

Many members of these groups are indeed teenagers, so in reality, they are still school age, and thus the appropriateness of the school uniform is not in question. However, quite a few members are in their early twenties, so canonically speaking, they would be considered too old to wear school uniforms. However, their goal in wearing school uniforms is to manipulate audiences into imagining youth identity, and thus connecting the members with this notion.

Figure 5-1 shows three OC covers that display school uniform pictures.

Figure 5-1. School uniforms (OC) (1) O-yoshini natte ne TEACHER (2) Jā ne (3) NO MORE renai gokko “Please don’t do it teacher” “See you” “No more play romance” 77

The setting of Figure 5-1(1) is a tennis club room. A few members are wearing sailor school uniforms, while the remaining members are wearing tennis uniforms, which include polo tops and pleated miniskirts. Japanese schools usually have small clubrooms, especially for sports clubs, and are primarily used to store club equipment. Students may also go there to change clothes from their school uniforms to club activity uniforms. Therefore, this tennis club picture captures a typical school scene in Japan. Members in Figure 5-1(2) are wearing a blazer type school uniform with black leather loafer-style shoes. Along with sailor uniforms, this type of school uniform is also quite common. The clothing style of Figure 5-1(3) is not a very typical school uniform; however, these examples of a “middy blouse,” as McVeigh describes, are sometimes used as part of a school uniform, and would still evoke such notions of school-agedness in the consumer.

Cute school uniforms are found on AKB48 CD covers as well. Figure 5-2 shows two examples of school uniform pictures from the AKB48 CD covers.

Figure 5-2. School uniforms (AKB48) (1) Aitakatta (2) Sayonara kurōru “I wanted to meet you” “Good-bye crawl”

Figure 5-2 (1) provides the idea that the members are either on the way to school, or coming home from school. According to the picture, most of them commute on foot, and two of them in the background commute by bike. This picture depicts a very usual commuting 78 scene in Japan. Many junior high schoolers commute to school on foot if they live close enough, or by bike if they live a little further away. However, the school district for high schools is usually wider than junior high schools, so many high schoolers go to school by bus or by train. Therefore, commuting together in a group with friends is associated more with junior high school students, as in the picture.

Costumes in Figure 5-2 (2) do not seem like school uniforms because they are white dresses; however, the clothing pattern is reminiscent of sailor uniforms with a wider collar, necktie and pleated skirt. Not all sailor uniforms are navy in color, and some are white or pastel blue, especially those intended for wear during the summer months. In addition to school uniforms, the girls in the picture are wearing pastel-colored flower crowns, which elicits the idea in the viewer’s mind of flower girls in Western weddings. Furthering this youthful image, in Japan, making flower crowns with clovers is a common pastime that many girls engage in when they are younger. With the help of the additional pastel-colored carpet, cushions, and sheer curtain present in the picture, members resemble angels, and the picture emphasizes the hyper-femininity of its members.

School uniforms can project certain other identities as well, besides youth identity.

Monden (2014) comments that the length of the skirt is one of the elements that can help to craft a kawaii appearance. He elaborates that younger girls tend to wear shorter skirts, and older women tend to wear longer skirts in general. Monden (2014) also states that the

“infantile” qualities of these Japanese performers, which are one kind of the kawaii fashion aesthetics as already noted, are emphasized by their short, ‘little girl’ dresses” (pp. 92-93).

This is the case for AKB48. School uniforms that AKB48 members are wearing accentuate girlishness because the length of the skirts of AKB48 is much shorter than that of OC 79 members. Monden (2014) makes an association between the short skirts and cutesy dress, and how they accentuate “youthfulness” or “girlishness” among aidoru in Japan.

The active periods of OC (in the 1980s) and AKB48 (in the 2000s till present) differ by almost three decades, so the fashion trends and norms have also certainly changed. However, the underlying concept of wearing school uniforms is shared between the two groups.

On top of school uniforms, kawaii costumes were also quite apparent, as shown in

Figure 5-3.

Figure 5-3. Kawaii costumes (OC) (1) “Katatsumuri samba” “Snail samba” (2) Otto CHIKAN! “Hey, pervert!”

Figure 5-3 (1) is from an OC song, Katatsumuri Samba “Snail Samba.” The image of kawaii is different from the current norm. However, everyone is wrapped in colorful shawls with tropical prints, which give off a very vibrant impression. OC members in Figure 5-3 (2) are not necessarily dressed in kawaii clothes, instead being rather sporty-looking, but they do produce the kawaii images collectively by means of wearing the same styles in different colors. Furthermore their body language, namely the way they wave their hands widely, looks cute and innocent as well. In this photo, the entire group is placed in a box wrapped in wrapping paper and pastel pink ribbons, as if the members were a present for the consumer.

In both pictures, about half of the members have a ribbon as their hair accessory, and their wavy hair with curled bangs called “Seiko-chan cut” was considered to be the 80 prominent kawaii look at that time, following Seiko Matsuda as in Figure 5-4, who had been the quintessential burikko aidoru. Stanlaw (2000) illustrates Matsuda as “perhaps the most successful woman in the idol genre” (p. 54). Matsuda’s hairstyle was seen as the fashion trend at that time, so many girls imitated her hairstyle, including aidoru.

Figure 5-4. Matsuda’s hairstyle (Miura, 1980)

Cute costumes are visible on AKB48 CD jacket covers as well, and Figure 5-5 (1) and

(2) below are sampled.

Figure 5-5. Kawaii styles (AKB48) (1) Labrador Retriever (2) Manatsu no Sounds good! “Mid-summer” Sounds good!

The AKB48 members in Figure 5-5 (1) are dressed in quite different types of clothing, such as skirts, dresses and long pants. Accessories include ribbons, sunglasses, earrings and a big yellow flower necklace. The majority of the colors are pastels, and this works to create a soft and feminine impression. According to Hambleton (2012, p. 154), aidoru are expected to 81 embody innocence by wearing white or pastel-colored dresses. Eckert asserts that “(p)astel colors are associated in our society with youth, innocence, and gaiety, while dark colors are associated with somberness, age, and sophistication” (1989, p. 50), which is a statement that holds true for the contemporary Japanese society.

The girls in Figure 5-5 (2) are dressed in white swimming bikinis with some minor differences such as swimwear shapes and accessories. Even though the overall impression is still cute rather than sexy, together with their innocent smiling faces, they are depicted holding each other, and their costumes look like lingerie at a glance. As several previous researchers have pointed out, kawaii emphasizes the trait of childish innocence on the surface, but it also stretches the idea and entails sexuality because of the submissive, powerless, inferior and controlled natures of kawaii at the same time (McVeigh, 1996, p. 302;

Black, 2012, p. 219; Yano, 2013, p. 50). Chao describes that Japanese aidoru carry “the mixed quality of childlike innocence and feminine sexuality” (2017, p. 36), because they send innocent impressions by looking sweet and adorable, but at the same time, they project sexy impressions by exposing their conventionally attractive bodies. In addition, the scenes of the pictures are at the beach on a sunny day. The songs on the CD are related to the beach, and the combination of a sunny day and the beach further help to convey healthy, vibrant, and cheerful aidoru images.

Only selected costumes including school uniforms are shown above, but kawaii images are abundant in both OC and AKB48 CD covers. The difference between the two groups is that OC costumes demonstrate a notion of healthy kawaii because of their colorful, ordinary, at times tomboyish clothes, whereas AKB48 costumes embody sexy kawaii, mainly because AKB48 members wear more revealing clothing, including miniskirts, hot pants, and bikinis. 82

(ii) Not so kawaii style

No particularly atypical aidoru-like costumes are found on OC covers, but one of their costume choices is mildly out of the ordinary. Their costumes are not kawaii material, despite having white ribbons and “Seiko-chan cut” as in Figure 5-6 below. Members are wearing white polo shirts with a black round collar and stripes on their sleeves, white

Bermuda shorts with black stripes on the sides and black sneakers. In addition, many have headsets that are connected to bulky square devices hanging off their waists, and others have megaphones and books in their hands. Because of the attire, they look as if they are television network staff, or possibly soccer referees. Considering the song title is “Wedding dress,” this costume choice is somewhat bizarre.

Figure 5-6. Un-aidoru-like styles (OC), Ueding doresu “Wedding dress”

On the other hand, AKB48 wear quite a few un-aidoru-like costumes as in Figure 5-7.

Figure 5-7. Un-aidoru-like styles (AKB48) (1) Furaingu getto “Flying get” (2) Beginner 83

(3a) Bokutachi wa tatakawanai “We don’t fight” (3b) Bokutachi wa tatakawanai

AKB48 members in Figure 5-7 (1) are wearing red Chinese martial art costumes as if they are kung-fu fighters. Everyone seems to be ready to fight, and one of them even has a long sword, or possibly nightstick, as a weapon. In the photo, the background color is bright red at the bottom, with a gradual gradient to yellow at the top, reminiscent of the flame. This image further contributes to the battle atmosphere. Each member has a black tattoo of a three-digit number on their arm. The number indicates their ranking within AKB48 based on the annual popularity contest. Tattoos have been used to signal gender, social class, religion, warrior status, or simply used as adornment in the world; however, having tattoos in Japan functions as a sign of yakuza membership, gang affiliation, or being an outcast. Lately, the meaning of tattoos has been changing among young in Japan, especially in the hip-hop genre. They consider tattoos as physical manifestations of their beliefs or their identities (Yamakoshi,

2012). Even though the meaning of tattoos is changing slowly among the younger generations, the idea of an aidoru having a tattoo would most likely still not go over well in

Japan. The discrepancy between the tough image of tattoo in Japan and the ideologically cute image of aidoru jarring, and the mismatched image speaks volumes to the viewers. Aidoru who are still conventionally known for projecting unthreatening femininity are now transforming into someone who can fight for themselves, fight against opponents, find 84 themselves in seedy enough areas to receive a tattoo, and would not need to be protected from difficult situations.

Four girls in Figure 5-7 (2) are wearing school uniforms as a base, but they have additional accessories such as ties and hats. If you look closely, their jackets are akin to business suit jackets. Their school uniforms were blatantly modified, which makes them very different from those found in regular schools in Japan. Many female school uniforms index both youth and femininity. However, as in the picture, these kinds of AKB48 school uniforms, accompanied by masculine items like sport wristbands, hip patches on their suit jackets, and a bulky black leather belt with a big buckle, simultaneously evoke kawaii “cute” and kakkoii “cool” images.

In reality, students are expected to wear school uniforms properly, and detailed regulations are often enforced. For example, McVeigh illustrates how to wear a uniform for female students: “(1) a necktie is trapezoid, so it should be evenly and nicely tied; (2) the hem of the skirt should be more than 30 centimeters from the floor; (3) socks should be plain and white (colors, designs, and lace are prohibited)” (1997, p. 202). In addition to the uniforms, schools usually regulate nail length, hairstyle and hair color. Putting on make-up, shaping one’s eyebrows, and dying one’s hair to a brighter color were also regarded as breaking school rules. Recently, the strictness of Japanese school rules became widely known in the wake of foreign media reports that a female student sued her school because she was forced to dye her naturally brown hair black (“Japan teen,” 2017). Despite these strict rules, many students attempt to modify their school uniforms by shortening or elongating the length of skirts, wearing fashionable socks, or removing designated adornment in a similar fashion to the AKB48 girls in the picture shown. 85

These excessive fashionable accessories in the picture above may be considered a school violation in real life, however wearing personal adornments projects a certain degree of individuality, and the wearing of ties and business jackets alongside the aforementioned features that index hyper-femininity evokes an in-between identity of both young and adult, and masculine and feminine.

Symes and Meadmore (1996) borrow Foucault’s (1977) work and state that

“(u)niforms are always part of a code of behavior, part of a punishment and gratification regime whose regulatory features and rule governed nature (p. 185). The way school uniform has established encompasses in complexed political motivations and meanings in Japan, especially for girls. According to Inoue (2006), schoolgirls were a symbol of modernization in the name of nationwide public education even for women at the beginning of the Meiji period. The male intellectuals were concerned that women may gain too much power and become threatening figures in the wake of their inclusion in the public education system. It was too late for the Japanese government to cancel certain aspects of their modernization plans (i.e., education for women) because they had already been implemented, and also reversing the modernization would be judged harshly by the West. That is the reason why the figure of schoolgirls was created with the connotations of “Good Wife, Wise Mother.” In this way, female education would still be implemented in the name of modernization; however, schoolgirls would be taught how to fit their expected gender role of supporting their husband and raising the children. Girls’ school uniform is the ultimate embodiment of this principle. In short, girls’ school uniform do not index women’s education, but actually index male’s fear management and controlling women’s education regarding what they learn.

Despite the historical and political circumstances, school uniforms nowadays index

“modernity” as Kinsella (2000) asserts “(t)he military style uniform is understood as being 86 both distinctively Japanese and distinctively modern” (p. 215). When properly dressed school uniforms index “controlled by a higher authority,” modified school uniforms can index

“liberation from the regime.”

As a matter of fact, the concept of “liberation” was embodied in the AKB48’s live performance on their stage with the use of school uniforms as props. When Tahara, who co- published a book regarding AKB48 with Akimoto, observed AKB48’s live performance, he noticed that members were wearing a typical school uniform at first. Soon after they began singing and dancing, they started to tear at their uniforms and danced in the ragged remnants of their uniforms (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013). Akimoto explained that these were school uniform costumes that were ripped or created asymmetrically on purpose. The intention of this, he says, is to signal a departure from the status quo of the current structured society and to challenge traditional norms. At the same time, these unbalanced uniforms reflect ideas including “imbalance” or “instability,” which further emphasizes this situation in which they find themselves, between “child and adult” as members of their group, and between

“authority and obedience” in society (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, pp. 109-110).

Both of the pictures in Figure 5-7 (3a) and (3b) are from the same song, called

Bokutachi wa tatakawanai “We don’t fight” Despite the title, it seems like members are positioned to start fighting in (3a), and look as if they have been fighting in a battle in (3b).

Members are covered in black from head to toe in (3a). They are dressed in short black leather jumpsuits and long boots, and are wearing fighting gloves, with their thighs wrapped in a few layers of black straps which appear similar to garter belts. The only kawaii feature is their feathery hair accessories; however these are also black. The leather material and the pervasive black coloring work together to indicate toughness. These black costumes are similar to what fighting heroines would wear in Japanese anime. This kind of fighting 87 costumes certainly lends credence towards the idea of AKB48 members likened to fantastical fighting heroines.

In contrast, members in Figure 5-7 (3b) are wearing different kinds of white wedding dresses that vary in style and in length, and a few are also seen wearing white pearl necklaces. The dresses originally must have been very canonically feminine, with all of the fringe and frills that one would normally associate with a wedding dress. However, in this photo, their dresses are ripped and torn, their hair is disheveled, and everything in the image appears to be masked by a layer of dirt and grunge. They appear to have been defeated in battle, in fact. A white dress, and particularly an unsoiled wedding dress indexes purity and innocence. Conversely, that same dress when covered with dirt, blood, and ripped seams implies impurity. These costumes include components of tough and masculine images. They are far from the stereotypical girlish kawaii image of aidoru. Compared with OC costumes, which are generally vibrant, pop and kawaii, AKB48 costumes have both kawaii feminine and kakkoii masculine qualities.

A designer in charge of costumes for AKB48, Kayano, revealed inside information regarding the process of costume creation (Yamazaki, 2017). First, costumes are custom- made based on each member’s rank, physical traits or tastes, so that the members can confidently think of themselves as kawaii and kakkoii. For instance, costumes are made conservative for Maeda, who had almost always ranked first, decoratively for Ōshima,

Maeda’s rival, and elegantly for Shimazaki, whose nickname was “salt” because of her cold- hearted nature. Extra high-heeled shoes were prepared for someone who is very short because that was what she wanted. In addition, different types of - kawaii, kakkoii or a combination of both - are created for each song sung at live concerts and TV shows. What Kayano keeps in her mind constantly is that there are three essential policies regarding costume-creation, that 88 they (1) be visually amusing, (2) have clear role projection, and (3) make the audience happy.

She notes that “an aidoru’s job is cheering people up and making them happy. Costumes help in realizing this purpose. Therefore, I hope to continue creating costumes that make people think ‘(That’s) cute!’” (Yamazaki, 2017).

Needless to say, creating custom-made costumes and multiple versions of these costumes costs tremendous time and money. As Eckert (1989) mentioned, costumes signal

“economic means,” which continues to be the case here, as the costumes themselves indicate that the AKB48 enterprise is successful enough to produce various versions, compared to OC.

The true advantage of having wide range of tastes in performing costumes is the ability of projecting multiple personae instantly. Through the images of clothes, accessories and fashion style on CD jacket covers, OC conveys a cute nature whereas AKB carries both cute and cool qualities.

5.3.1.2 Facial expressions and facial traits

In a similar vein, facial expressions convey visible emotions. Bright facial expressions representing a cheerful attitude are believed to reflect one of the typical aidoru identities.

Members’ facial expressions in both OC and AKB48 tend to match each song theme, and tend to co-occur with certain costume types. When they sing about romantic relationships, members are smiling in girlish costumes such as school uniforms, swimsuits, colorful/pastel or white girlish dresses and yukata “summer kimono,” particularly AKB48. Eight out of nine

OC songs are about romance/relationships, or at least boy-girl matters, whereas only half of the AKB48 songs out of the eleven songs examined in the data could be categorized as romance while the other half deal with non-romantic themes such as achieving goals, world peace, and encouraging other people. In these cases, they put on serious and stern faces, as shown in Figure 5-8. Some members are making sober faces, while others are crying in 89 agony. These pictures are one of the CD covers for, Bokutachi wa tatakawanai “We don’t fight” as introduced earlier in 5.3.1.1. A few other AKB48 CD covers do not include any cheerful smiling faces, but indicate solemn attitudes by looking serious and occasionally masculine, which is very different from the OC members’ omnipresent smiling faces. As previously mentioned, the costumes and facial expressions often go hand in hand, and the CD jacket covers usually reflect the theme of the song. (Themes of the songs are addressed later in the sections of lyrics analyses.) Just as the results from the costume differences between

OC and AKB48, OC members project the cute images by smiling, while AKB48 members portray multiple layers of images.

Figure 5-8. Various facial expressions (AKB48)

Turning to the facial traits, the kawaii facial features and expressions are not universal; they are culture-dependent, and sometimes are a passing trend in a specific time period. Many books or articles in fashion magazines often provide tips to look, speak and behave in certain ways that will help readers project certain identities (Nakamura, 2004). 90

McVeigh introduced several kawaii facial traits popular at the time in 1988 by drawing Dr.

Takasu as “having features of an infant, such as a wide forehead, small chin, big eyes, low nose, small lips and white skin” (1996, p. 295).

Archetypal aidoru facial traits are specified in a web column: big eyes with folded eyelids, puffy skin beneath the eyes (namida bukuro, or “tear puffs”), lifted corners of the mouth, innocently smiling faces, and dimples (“Aidoru gao,” 2017). A few AKB48 members are often discussed as having quintessential kawaii facial features and expressions as in

Figure 5-9.

Figure 5-9. Kawaii facial traits (1) Tomomi Itano (AKB48) (2) Yuko Ōshima (AKB48)

(Taken from “Shōgeki,” 2015) (Taken from “Moto AKB,” 2015)

In a web column called “Boy’s all-time favorite! Celebrities who have an attractive and cute duck-mouth,” Itano in Figure 5-9 (1) was introduced as the leading character of the duck-mouth boom in the 2010s. Duck-mouth is a facial expression whereby the corners of the upper-lip are lifted while the bottom lip is sticking out slightly (“Itsuno jidai,” 2018). Some sites even note exercises on how to obtain one (Nīmi, 2013).

Another main member, Ōshima in Figure 5-9 (2), is often featured in articles and columns because she has two cute facial features: dimples and tear-puffs (“Ekubo,” 2016).

Tear-puffs make one’s eyes look bigger and sweeter, consequently make the person look more childish (“Moto AKB,” 2015). Dimples are a characteristic that babies often have, so 91 this also works further towards giving off the impression of an adorable child. Some people pay to acquire these traits by means of cosmetics, or even plastic surgery. Crooked teeth are also regarded as a cute trait, especially for girls in Japan. A web article introduced celebrities who have cute crooked teeth, and both Itano and Ōshima were ranked. Many young women bought fake double teeth as a fashion item to look like Itano as she gained popularity.

However, Itano straightened her teeth after she started to perform in foreign countries where crooked teeth were not appreciated (“Shōgeki,” 2015). While some of these traits are assuredly culture-dependent, many of these traits are mimicking the physical appearances of children, and accompanied by cute facial traits and expressions, these aidoru capture audience attention “while smiling and often casting an upward glance as a child does when pleading for adult attention” (Watanabe, 2011, p. 63) to project feminine cuteness.

5.3.1.3 Title texts on CD covers

A few components are considered in terms of text on the album covers, including writing systems, writing direction, fonts and colors. These combined components are shown to work in tandem to establish certain images.

First of all, four writing systems are used in Japanese; hiragana, katakana, kanji and rōmaji. Each of these styles have different purposes, and are thus responsible for different semiotic functions, and give off different impressions. In short, kanji were derived from

Chinese characters, and are used to represent content words. Hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji are phonetic writing systems. Hiragana look more round in shape, and are traditionally used for functional/grammatical tokens and native Japanese words, whereas katakana look geometric in shape, and are used for foreign loanwords, scientific words, or to make a given word stand out more prominently. Rōmaji is the method of transcribing Japanese words into the Roman alphabet (i.e., English letters). 92

Although studies of identity are a relatively recent trend in social science research, correlations between writing styles and the identity of the writer can be traced back over 1000 years in Japan. Whereas kanji were ascribed to the domain of men, as they required education and erudition to read/reproduce, hiragana used to be called onna-de “women hand” because it was the primary writing style employed by women during the Heian period (AD. 794-1185)

(Shibatani, 1990; Sato, 1998; Tanaka, 1999). Thus, gender identities are shown to be part of the semiotic load that each writing system entails in Japanese, or at least this was the case originally.

The use of loanwords from the West, as well as actual use of English, are both prevalent in certain Japanese contexts. Both are associated with a feeling of modernity and stylishness (Shibatani, 1990). Based on research conducted by the National Institute for

Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) between 1956 and 1966, kanji were used primarily in technical fields such as scientific publications, while loanwords and English usage were more abundant in domestic and “feminine” fields such as cooking and fashion

(Shibatani, 1990, p. 43). This trend applies to the field of music as well. Stanlaw analyzes the development of pop female singers and song lyrics and mentions that “in the linguistic register of popular music, English loanwords and phrasings are especially abundant. I suggest that this is not coincidental, and that Japanese female songwriters in particular are using

English to avoid some of the linguistic restrictions placed upon women by the Japanese language” (2000, p. 63). Although neither writing styles nor types of handwriting directly indicate a specific identity, they can work to reflect a writer’s character, image and/or identity.

Titles of OC songs (Figure 5-10) and AKB48 songs (Figure 5-11) contain all four

Japanese writing systems (i.e., kanji, hiragana, katakana and romaji) and also cases of

English words. 93

Figure 5-10. Titles on CD covers (OC)

Figure 5-11. Titles on CD covers (AKB48)

The distribution of each writing system was calculated by group. In terms of deciding distribution: if the title only uses one writing style, that style was granted a full point. If the title uses multiple styles, then the point was split equally between the styles. For example, in 94 the case of Jā ne “See you,” 1 point was granted for hiragana, however, in the instance of

Otto CHIKAN! “Hey, pervert!”, both hiragana and rōmaji were given 0.5 points each. All points were summed and calculated as percentages. The results of this are indicated in Table

5-6.

Table 5-6. Different orthographic types for the song titles kanji hiragana katakana rōmaji English Onyanko Club 18% 46% 20% 5% 9% AKB48 28% 28% 10% 0% 33%

Out of all possible types, hiragana is used the most for OC (46%), and English is used the most for AKB48 (33%). Interestingly, OC also has titles that contained hiragana usage that would normally be considered marked, such as with the English loanword,

‘question,’ which is presented in hiragana in the title 恋はくえすちょん (koi wa kuesuchon)

“Romance is a question.” This representation is marked, but the use of hiragana over katakana assists in the creation of a more girlish connotation, due to both the round shape of hiragana characters and the historical background of how hiragana emerged.

In the data set, AKB48 have three (out of eleven song) song titles that are written solely in English, “RIVER,” “Beginner,” and “Labrador Retriever.” The usage of English in these situations helps to create a modern and stylish flavor. Additionally, one AKB48 title is written in kanji, 飛翔入手 (hishō nyūshu) for a song called フライングゲット (furaingu getto)

“Flying get.” Although these kanji characters exist in Japanese, and can appear in certain combinations, this four-character compound is not a typical Japanese word, and the lack of any conjoining grammatical components makes it appear more Chinese. The inclusion of

Sino-Japanese (and kanji compounds in general) contributes to both technical and tense feelings due to their previous usage connotations and also the history of language ideology in

Japan. 95

Historically, there was a phase when the Japanese government barred women from learning both classic Chinese and English for the fear of giving women more power than men wished in the Meiji period (Inoue, 2006). Inoue describes that “the elite commentators also deplored the schoolgirls’ presumed use of Chinese words (kango) and English words as

“unpleasant to the ear” (kikigurushī). Both kango and English were the distinctive province of the educated male elite, who were disturbed by hearing “the male language”—their “own” language—spoken by a female voice” (p. 68). Since the “superior” elite men held a sense of ownership over both Chinese and English words, using these kind of languages as a woman would push back agains the boundary of gender-based language ideology. In this sense, the fact that AKB48 song titles contain a bigger ratio of Chinese and English words may be the result of seeking to getting rid of merely feminine impressions. Although it is unknown whether Akimoto had such a profound intention in choosing the orthography, it is true that the larger use of hiragana in OC covers works to projects cuteness, and Chinese and English use in AKB48 covers projects a wide variety of identities, much fewer of which could conceivably be called ‘cuteness.’

Alongside writing style/script choice, the writing direction of titles is also noteworthy.

For OC covers, all of the titles are written horizontally, but one AKB48 title, 翼はいらない

(tsubasa wa iranai) “No need for wings” is written vertically. Similar to the previous semiotic analysis of the script choices, the direction of writing can also have differing effects.

Shibatani (1990) states “(t)he traditional way of writing is vertical, with the lines progressing from right to left, and books accordingly open from the reverse direction from English.

Today, both vertical writing and horizontal writing are practiced, though the formal way is vertical writing, as reflected in newspaper articles and formal letters” (Shibatani, 1990, p. 96

130). Therefore, coupled with other features like fonts and color, AKB48’s titles can give impressions of seriousness and less femininity.

Title texts are produced in either a computer font or in a handwriting-type style for both groups. These two different styles may also carry different characteristics and evoke certain indexical traits. Aoyagi lists frail handwriting (2000, p. 216) as one element of

“cuteness,” and Miller also determines that a type of handwriting, maru moji “round scripts” is considered to be one of the burikko “fake hyper-femininity” traits (Miller, 2004, p.

156-157). Since the writing style is often used by burikko girls, as well as in manga, they are sometimes called burikko moji. Yamane (1986) investigated female handwriting and claimed that more than five million young women used maru moji from the mid-1970s through the

1980s. Maru moji was taken over in popularity with gyaru moji “gal scripts” in the late 1990s and 2000s among young girls (Miller, 2011). Gyaru moji consists of playful mixtures of kanji, symbols, currency symbols, and foreign letters, and was mostly used in texting between friends on cell phones. The group of girls who exclusively used gyaru moji were not identified as burikko, but rather as gyaru “a highly public bad-girl shōjo” who challenged both the strict school regulations and also the traditional Japanese standards of beauty, such as black hair and white skin (Yano, 2013, pp. 52-53).

Colors employed in the printing/writing of the titles also project certain images based on cultural notions. For example, pastel colors are cute and associated with girls, and bright colors are associated with boys (Monden, 2014, p. 79), whereas dark colors like black connote feelings of elegance, dignity and maturity, along with the sinister and macabre

(Monden, 2014, p. 104). Observing song titles on CD covers, both OC titles as in Figure

5-10, and AKB48 titles as in Figure 5-11 are eye-catching. However, while titles from OC songs are more feminine because a majority of the titles are written in maru moji, and in 97 pastel colors, a variety of fonts are used for AKB48 titles, and the use of the color red stands out.

Lastly, OC has a default logo of their group name that is omnipresent, with the exception of their very first release. A maru moji (rounded) font and various pastel colors are employed as shown in the top left corner, in Figure 5-10. Although the group name AKB48 is sometimes written in the widely used common font on their products, as shown with the bordered logo of the top left corner in Figure 5-11, this logo is not used for every CD cover.

Their group name is often written in a font and color that match the title of the same font and color.

This section observed the different kinds of imagery that can appear on CD covers, which includes pieces of clothing, accessories, physical traits, facial expressions, and writing systems. Throughout the data, the features that OC continuously attempt to embody trend towards the kawaii-oriented feeling, because of their generic inexpensive-looking kawaii costumes, innocent smiling faces, and abundant hiragana in various colors on CD covers. On the other hand, AKB48 portrays mixed images of both cute kawaii and cool kakkoii, as demonstrated by the both feminine and masculine qualities that coexist in their costumes, physical expressions, and title texts.

5.3.2 Descriptions of personae’s identities in lyrics

In this section, I qualitatively analyze the personae’s identities in lyrics. In the analysis of song lyrics, various personae appear among OC songs and AKB48 songs. The common identity among many of these however was that of a youthful individual. Youth identity encompasses a broad range of aspects, but in contemporary Japanese society, it is often related to both a student identity and an inexperienced identity. Although inexperienced identity is shared among personae in both songs, a clear student identity is observable only in 98

OC songs. Besides these identities, different personae with different social attitudes are observed between the groups. Personae in OC songs are passive but coquettish, while personae in AKB48 songs are assertive and motivating.

5.3.2.1 Youth identity in both groups’ songs

Just as OC and AKB48 members are young in real life, youthful identities are portrayed in the song lyrics, and the tropes that surround these identities are played up for ease of identification. Excerpt 5-1 is from a song Jā ne “See you” by OC, which is about saying goodbye and departing for a new chapter of one’s life. The lyric, otona no kaidan o noboru dake (l.8) “I will only ascend the stairs to adulthood” specifically suggests a youth identity, contrasting their previous childhood to the adulthood that lies before the young people. Although the song lyrics do not disclose these pieces of information specifically, they do suggest that the protagonist has just graduated from school.

One such place where this inference can be found is haru wa owakare no kisetsu desu

(l.1) “Spring is for a season for saying goodbye.” The Japanese academic years start in April and end in March, so this timeline would match with this hypothesis. Second, the verb choice of tabidatsu (l.2) “depart” is often employed in graduation discourse. Third, hanabira mo oiwai shitekuremasu (l.4) “petals are celebrating” shows that this occasion is something to be celebrated. Fourth, pinku no sakura (l.3) “the pink cherry blossoms” have strong connections to school-life because the flowers usually bloom from the end of March to the beginning of

April. The cherry blossom season corresponds with both entrance and graduation ceremonies.

The expression of sakura saku “cherry blossoms bloom” is also used as a metaphor for passing an entrance exam for schools (Sakura saku, n.d.). These lyrics are good evidence that 99 the protagonist is graduating from school, and is therefore no longer a student, which is one of the primary connections to a youth identity in Japan.

Excerpt 5-1. Jā ne “See you” (OC) haru wa owakare no kisetsu desu 1. 春はお別れの季節です Spring is the season of goodbye minna tabidatte iku n desu 2. みんな 旅立っていくんです Everybody is departing awai pinku no sakura 3. 淡いピンクの桜 Light pink cherry blossom hanabira mo oiwai shitekuremasu 4. 花びらもお祝いしてくれます Petals are celebrating as well zutto nakayoshi de itekureta 5. ずっと仲良しでいてくれた You have been kind friends toki wa omoide no takaramono 6. 時は思い出の宝物 Time is a treasure filled with memories sonna kanashima nai de 7. そんな悲しまないで Please don’t be so sad otona no kaidan o noboru dake 8. 大人の階段を昇るだけ I will only ascend the stairs to adulthood

Similarly, there was one AKB48 song, Sayonara kurōru “Good-bye crawl,” that vaguely signaled that the characters have just graduated from school as in Excerpt 5-2. The protagonist of this song is at beach with someone in mind. Lines 1 through 4 explain that the protagonist secretly had a crush on an individual who used to belong to a swim team. The protagonist’s heart used to beat faster when watching the swim practice from just outside of the fence. This sort of akogare “yearning” experience is a common sight at high schools and has been considered a trope in many slice-of-life popular culture depictions. Joining a club is mandatory for many junior high school students, so they would have fewer opportunities to observe other people’s club activities. However, high school students have a choice of whether or not to join a club. Therefore, students sometimes go to a certain extracurricular club activities just to watch the person they are attracted to. The lyrics in this song give off the impression that the young people have graduated from school recently because the 100 protagonist compares the small size of the school swimming pool in the past to the vast size of ocean where the person is currently situated. Lyrics of otona tachi no unabara (l.6) “ocean for the adults” and jiyū tte itsumo hirosugiru ne (l.7) “freedom is always too vast” imply that they are no longer students, but recent graduates who are young adults.

Excerpt 5-2. Sayonara kurōru “Good-bye crawl” (AKB48) setsunai kurōru himitsu no akogare 1. 切ないクロール 秘密の憧れ Painful crawl secret longing suiēbu no renshū 2. 水泳部の練習 Swimming club’s practice kanaami kara miteta 3. 金網から見てた I used to watch from the fence haneru tokimeki 4. 跳ねるときめき Joyful excitement gakkō no pūru to wa chigau 5. 学校のプールとは違う Different from the pool at school otona tachi no unabara 6. 大人たちの海原 An ocean for the adults jiyū tte itsumo hirosugiru ne 7. 自由っていつも広すぎるね Freedom is always too vast

In another AKB48 song “Beginner,” three separate parts specify that the characters in the song are neither children, nor adults, but in their youth. The lyrics suggest how they should look up to children who can dream without doubt (l.1-2), but should not become clever adults who avoid pushing themselves due to their fear of making mistakes (l.3-6).

Finally, the lyric boku ra wa wakai n da (l.7) “we are young” specifies a direct identification with youthfulness.

Excerpt 5-3. “Beginner” (AKB48) ima boku ra wa yume miteru ka 1. 今 僕らは夢見てるか？ Are we dreaming now? kodomo no yōni massara ni 2. 子どものようにまっさらに… Obliviously as if children kashikokunatta otona tachi yo 3. 賢くなった大人たちよ Adults who became clever (who think)

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charenji wa bakageta koto 4. チャレンジは馬鹿げたこと Challenges are silly things risuku kaihi suruyō ni 5. リスク回避するように Avoiding to taking risks orokana kēsan shite nani o mamoru no 6. 愚かな計算して何を守るの？ Vain calculation, what are you protecting? boku ra wa wakai n da 7. 僕らは若いんだ We are young

Excerpts 5-1~5-3 suggest a personae’s youth identity either in lyrics based on the social context surrounding certain words and situations, or specifically with the word wakai

“young.” The school-age life stage and association with being inexperienced and critical of adulthood equally hint that the personae in these songs are young people.

(i) Student identity

Coinciding with a part of youth identity, more specifically, OC songs described the student identity, along with various references to school-related motifs and settings. Three of their songs from the data either hinted or overtly indicated that the protagonist is a student.

For example, in the song titled Sērāhuku o nugasa nai de “Please don’t take off my sailor school uniform,” the main character of the song is intended to be a female school student from a junior high and high school, based on the fact that she is wearing a sailor school uniform. Reinforcing this trend, the setting of another song called O-yoshini natte ne

TEACHER “Please don’t do it, teacher” is at a school. Besides the rather blatant lyric, watashi wa student “I am a student,” other school-related motifs included a teacher’s platform in a classroom, the school infirmary, and a lesson from a mathematics class. In this situation, the level of schooling is assumed to be high school because the mathematics class covers differential equations, integral calculus, and quadratic functions. Lastly, in Otto

CHIKAN! “Hey, pervert!,” the protagonist is clearly described as “a female high school student,” and one lyric discloses that this protagonist is wearing a navy school uniform. 102

Interestingly, despite the abundant school uniform images of AKB48 members on CD covers, not even a single student-related remark was specified in AKB48 song lyrics. This fact marks one difference between AKB48 and OC in terms of the depiction of school identity.

(ii) Inexperienced identity

Youth identity is further hinted at through the characters’ inexperienced behavior.

Adolescence is marked by maturation into life in general, including the beginning of romantic relationships and sexual experiences. Aidoru, however, despite projecting their adolescence, are expected to project innocence. For this reason, maintaining an image of purity and virginity is regarded as highly important. OC sings about a young girl who asks a boy not to take off her from her sailor uniform in a song Sērāhuku o nugasa nai de “Please don’t take off my sailor uniform” just as the title indicates. The character in the song confesses to being curious about having sex, but admits that she is not yet quite ready to do more than kissing. In

Excerpt 5-4, the persona in Osaki ni shitsurē “Excuse me (for going first)” is feeling pressured to experience something before summer ends, after hearing that some of her friends have already experienced アレ(are) “that” and コレ (kore) “this.” While these words are semantically functioning as demonstratives, through the implications of writing the words

“that” and “this” in katakana, it is very indicative that they are intended to be euphemistic for sexual acts. This is found in conjunction with the lyrics dare ka nē hayaku redī ni sasete (l.

6-7). “Someone, let me become a lady soon,” together with the tone of the song, making it easy to predict that “let me become a lady” signifies her desire to have sex, and transcend into adulthood. While the desires of these personae might be seen as impure, and far from 103

‘innocent,’ the character in this case demonstrates her virginity, and therefore solidifies her pure status, despite her intentions otherwise.

Excerpt 5-4. Osaki ni shitsurē “Excuse me (for going first)” (AKB48) mawari no tomodachi made 1. まわりの友達まで Even my friends around me are shita kore shita iu kara 2. アレしたコレした言うから told me that they did this and that, so natsu ga owaru made ni 3. 夏が終わるまでに by the end of summer nani ka shinakucha 4. 何かしなくちゃ I should do something nantonaku aseru wa 5. なんとなくあせるわ I am in a bit of a hurry dare ka nē hayaku 6. 誰かねぇ早く Someone, please quickly redī ni sasete 7. レディーにさせて Make me become a lady

The protagonist in Koi wa kuesuchon “Romance is a question” in the following excerpt is more conservative than the characters presented in Excerpt 5-3 and Excerpt 5-4. In

Excerpt 5-5 below, she repeatedly states that romance is a question, and asks to know how relationships work. The excerpt is from the climax of the song, and the word “question” is recycled (l.1, 3, 5, and 7) and elsewhere in the lyrics.

Excerpt 5-5. Koi wa kuesuchon “Romance is a question” (OC) ku ku ku ku kuesuchon 1. くくくくくくえすちょん QQQQQuestion kimon chinmon 2. 奇問・珍問 Strange question and weird question ku ku ku ku kuesuchon 3. くくくくくくえすちょん QQQQQuestion koi wa tokenai 4. 恋は解けない Romance in unsolvable ku ku ku ku kuesuchon 5. くくくくくくえすちょん QQQQQuestion koi no shikumi o 6. 恋のしくみを How romance works 104

ku ku ku ku kuesuchon 7. くくくくくくえすちょん QQQQQuestion watashi ni watashi ni dare ka oshiete 8. 私に 私に 誰か教えて Please tell me tell me, anyone

Like the lyrics of OC songs, remarks about sexual inexperience also appear in AKB48 songs. For instance, in the next Excerpt 5-6 of Manatsu no Sounds good! “Mid-summer

Sounds good!,” a couple is on a date at the beach. The male (although it is not specified outright, it can be surmised based linguistic choices) protagonist wants to tsugi no suteppu e susumitai ne (l.8) “I want to advance to the next step” in terms of their romantic relationship.

The exact meaning of the indicated next step is ambiguous. It could signify that the character wants to date officially, or advance sexually. However, other parts of the song state that the couple has kissed before, and also lines 1-3 state that their relationship is like the relation between the ocean and sky, explained by stating that even if two parties are in contact with each other, they never cross the line (the horizon). These lines point to the possibility that the next step is indeed a sexual one.

Excerpt 5-6. Manatsu no Sounds good! “Mid-summer Sounds good!” (AKB48) dokomademo aoi umi to sora 1. どこまでも青い海と空 Endlessly blue ocean and sky boku tachi no kankē ni niteru 2. 僕たちの関係に似てる It’s like our relationship suihēsen wa majiwatterunoni 3. 水平線は交わってるのに Although the horizon is intersected sō ima wa mada 4. そう 今はまだ Right, now is still wagamamana imōto no yō sa 5. わがままな妹のようさ (You are) like a selfish younger sister manatsu no Sounds good 6. 真夏のSounds good! Mid-summer Sounds good! tsubuyakinagara 7. つぶやきながら While murmuring tsugi no suteppu e susumitai ne 8. 次のステップへ進みたいね I want to advance to the next step 105

In Excerpt 5-7, a very similar synopsis was recycled into another song called

Raburadōru retoribā ‘Labrador Retriever.’ The protagonist in this song is with a childhood friend and a labrador retriever on the beach. The protagonist has wished to kiss his

(girl)friend since the previous summer, but it did not happen. This year, however, the person seems more apt to kiss for the first time. Lines 3 through 6 give a detailed description of how the protagonist is both thrilled and nervous about sharing a bottle of water, because it would be an indirect kiss between them.

Excerpt 5-7. Raburadōru Retoribā “Labrador Retriever” sandaru nugisutete 1. サンダル脱ぎ捨てて Taking off our sandals hajimete no kisu o siyō ka 2. 初めてのキスをしようか? Why don’t we kiss for the first time? ippon no mineraruwōtã 3. １本のミネラルウォーター One bottle of mineral water hutari de mawashinomi suru dakede 4. 2人でまわし飲みするだけで Only if we pass and drink from it in turn mune ga dokidoki suru no wa 5. 胸がどきどきするのは My heart is pounding honki de aishiteiru kara 6. 本気で愛しているから Because I truly love you

The contents of Excerpt 4 through 7 of both OC and AKB48 songs are in accordance with Aoyagi’s description of aidoru songs, “Idol songs are typically romantic fantasies, which dwell on the well-worn themes of being in love, hoping to win the heart of another, and physical desire” (Aoyagi, 2000, pp. 217-218). Characters in these songs hint that they are sexually inexperienced, but simultaneously express their desire to gain more experience.

Adolescents are often curious about romance, and this time is often accompanied by all kinds of awkward situations and embarrassing moments as they began to date and experience feelings of love. Therefore, these inexperienced episodes also serve to evoke a youth identity. 106

5.3.2.2 Passive and coquettish identity in OC songs

Although the characters in both groups’ songs share similar romantic desires secretly in their mind, actual attitudes and roles in the relationship differ greatly. Characters in the OC songs often took a passive attitude with someone in mind, but coquettish behaviors with someone who is not the current subject of romance.

In Excerpt 5-8 of O-saki ni shitsurē “Excuse me (for going first)” of OC, a girl is searching for a boyfriend candidate on the beach because “she wants the person to make her become a lady,” which was addressed in the section prior on inexperience. Despite her suggestive intention, she is not brave enough to talk to men. Onna no ko kara (l.2) koe kakeru nante deki nai (l.4) “It is impossible to start talking from the girl’s side” (l.2&4) indicates her belief that men should be the instigator in picking up a girl. Her uneasy feelings are shown in the repetitive lyrics of dōshiyō “What should I do?” (l.1&3).

Excerpt 5-8. O-saki ni shitsurē “Excuse me (for going first)” (OC) dōshiyō dōshiyō 1. どうしよう どうしよう What should I do? What should I do? onna no ko no hōkara 2. 女の子の方から From a girl dōshiyō dōshiyō 3. どうしよう どうしよう What should I do? What should I do? koe kakeru nante deki nai 4. 声かけるなんてできない It is impossible to start talking to someone

In this same vein, the following song, Katatsumuri samba “Snail samba,” reflects the protagonist’s desires to be spoken to, in Excerpt 5-9. Although the character wants to be with someone in particular, all this character does is wait to be approached by said someone. The lyrics indicate that the character is patiently waiting, giving reassuring comments such as yukkuri de ī (l.4) “It’s okay to be slow”, nē itsuka koko ni koko ni kite yo “Please come here 107 come here someday!” (l.6), and jibun no pēsu de mukae ni kite hosī (l.11) “I want you to capture me at your own pace,” but at the same time, a certain anxious eagerness is inserted in the repetitive sā (l.3 and 9) “Come on!”. It is very clear that this persona has no intention of taking the initiative, but prefers waiting to be snatched instead, no matter how long it takes.

The lyrics do not specify, but based on the title of the song, a marriage is what the character most likely has in mind. Katatsumuri samba “Snail samba” recalls an allusion to another song called Tentōmushi no samba “Ladybug samba” that boomed in the 1970s. This song has been a representative wedding song since then. Considering that, it is inferred that the character of the song is desperately waiting to be proposed.

Excerpt 5-9. Katatsumuri samba “Snail samba” (OC) nē anata doko ni iru no 1. ねぇあなたどこにいるの？ Hey, where are you? watashi wa hitori samishikute kara kara derenai no 2. 私は一人寂しくて殻から出れないの I am lonely, so I can’t leave from the sā sā sā sā shell 3. さぁ！さぁ！さぁ！さぁ！ Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! yukkuri de ī yukkuri de ī 4. ゆっくりでいい ゆっくりでいい It’s okay to be slow It’s okay to be slow watashi no kokoro o mukae ni kite hosī 5. 私の心を迎えに来て欲しい I want you to snatch my heart away nē itsuka koko ni koko ni kite yo 6. ねぇ いつか ここに ここに来てよ！ Please come here come here someday! anata no soba ni itai kara 7. あなたのそばにいたいから I want to be beside by you, so matteru watashi nano 8. 待ってる私なの I am waiting for you sā sā sā sā 9. さぁ！さぁ！さぁ！さぁ！ Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! akirame nai de akirame nai de 10. あきらめないで あきらめないで Never give up, never give up jibun no pēsu de mukae ni kite hosī 11. 自分のペースで 迎えに来て欲しい I want you to capture me at your own pace 108

akirame nai de akirame nai de 12. あきらめないで あきらめないで Never give up, never give up watashi ha itsudemo anata o matteiru 13. 私はいつでもあなたを待っている I am always waiting for you

In addition, other lyrics like otoko no ko wa onna no ko to kisu o suru toki dōshite itsumo hitomi o toji saseru no desu ka “I wonder why boys make girls close their eyes when kissing” in Koi wa kuesuchon “Romance is a question,” and kokoro o kotoba ni shinai mama ima totsuzen ni subete o ubau yōni watashi o tsureteitte yo “Without speaking much, right now, I want you to take me away just like you steal everything” in NO MORE renai gokko

“No more play romance” also indicate that characters in OC’s songs hope their counterparts will make decisions and take decisive action in regards to their relationships. Watanabe addresses the fact how many lyrics of aidoru songs emphasize how a young woman wants a man and needs to be loved by a man, and how women are dependent on men (2011, pp.

63-64).

Interestingly, when the songs of OC are not about couples, or two people who are not the subjects of romance, girls in non-romantic relationships have completely different attitudes towards men. For instance, in two songs by OC, a high school girl is depicted as provocative and mischievous. Excerpt 5-10 was extracted from the song O-yoshini natte ne

TEACHER “Please don’t do it, teacher.” This song is about a female high school student who is poor at mathematics, as stated (l.1-2) “Mathematics is incomprehensible. I am completely lost.” She is willing to show a little bit of her legs by flipping her skirt slightly as a last resort in order to avoid receiving an F, as described (l.5-6). She notices that the teacher became serious even though he is married (l.5-10). Then she invites the teacher to come see her bare her skin in the school infirmary room (l.13-15). 109

Excerpt 5-10. O-yoshini natte ne TEACHER “Please don’t do it, teacher” (OC) sūgaku nante chimpun-kampun 1. 数学なんてチンプンカンプン Mathematics is incomprehensible marude oteage 2. まるで お手上げ I am completely lost bibun sekibun nijikansū 3. 微分 積分 ２次関数 Differential equations, integral calculus and a quadratic function zettai zetsumē akaten ne 4. 絶対絶命 赤点ね Desperate situation, get an F saigo no kirihuda wa kyōdan no anohito ni 5. 最後の切り札は 教壇のあの人に My last strategy is, the person at the teacher’s platform mieru kakudo de sukāto chirari 6. 見える角度で スカートチラリ from the visible angle, flipping my skirt slightly (to show a little bit of my legs) o-irojikake 7. お色じかけ Using my sexual charm sonoki ni natte shimatta mitai 8. その気になってしまったみたい You seem like you’ve become serious sono me maji dawa 9. その目 MAJIだわ Those eyes show that you are serious datte o-uchi ni o-kusama ga 10. だって おうちに奥様が After all, even though at home, your wife irassharu kuseni 11. いらっしゃるくせに is there (waiting for you) suki ne 12. MMM……好きね Hmm…… You like it sokomade iunonara hokenshitsu irasshai 13. そこまで言うのなら保健室いらっしゃい If you say that much, come to the school infirmary pichipichi no hada 14. ピチピチの肌 My young and fresh skin miseru dakenara heri wa shinai 15. 見せるだけなら減りはしない I will not lose anything only by just showing it

Teasing attitudes are not just restricted to the school area, they are also demonstrated even with complete strangers. In another song, Otto CHIKAN! “Hey, pervert!,” a female high school student was approached by a diligent-looking male high school student on the way to school in a crowded train. Although he was blameless, she accused him of being a groper just for fun, and to get rid of stress. The following Excerpt 5-11 explains what was going on in her 110 mind at that time. The lyrics reveal her real feelings, as well as her performing side. She is actually tough inside, and hints that she would not care so much even if she were to be touched (l.1 and 3). However, she plays at being timid on the surface and even pretends to cry (l.4). She also explains that she is neko o kabutteta (l.7) “(lit.) wearing a cat mask,” which is a metaphoric phrase, signifying that one is masquerading as someone they are not.

In this case, she pretends to pose as an innocent school girl.

Excerpt 5-11. Otto CHIKAN! “Hey, pervert!” (OC) kon no sēfuku midarechattemo 1. 紺の制服 乱れちゃっても Even if my navy school uniform gets messy marude ki ni nado shinai kedo 2. まるで気になどしないけど I really don’t care, but omoshiroi kara wazato sawaide 3. 面白いから わざと騒いで It is fun, so I made a fuss on purpose nakidasu furi o shita no 4. 泣き出すフリをしたの I pretended to start crying mushi mo korosanu joshikōsē 5. 虫も殺さぬ 女子高生 A female high school student who would never harm a fly mikubitteruto kega o suru wa 6. 見くびってると 怪我をするわ If you underestimate me, watch out hakoirimusume neko o kabutteta 7. 箱入り娘 猫をかぶってた I was pretending to be a well-protected daughter of a respectable family yarutokya yaru no 8. やるときゃ やるの I show my real skills when the time comes

Seen thus far, passive and coquettish identities would seem to contradict one another.

Previous researchers have regarded the idea of identity as “active negotiation,” which has led to the notion that identity is dynamic and performative (Butler, 1988; Eckert & McConnell-

Ginet, 2003; Cameron, 2005; Eckert, 2012). In fact, this is the nature of being burriko, which has two sides, genuine and fake, and was introduced as a “derogatory Japanese label used to describe women who exhibit feigned näiveté” (Miller, 2004, p. 148). Actually, a few expressions such as junai rosen na n desu “I am taking a pure route,” furin wa yameteiru n 111 desu “I am (currently) posing to have an affair with a married person’’ and chūnen wa taipu ja nai n desu “Middle-aged is not my type” imply that the protagonist is not really an innocent girl, but that she is attempting to project herself as innocent for some purpose.

5.3.2.3 Assertive and motivating identity in AKB48 songs

Conversely, personae in AKB48 songs tend to be assertive in terms of their relationships. For example, a song called Aitakatta “I wanted to meet you” is about how the character explodes with feelings towards her special someone. Excerpt 5-12 is the climax of the song, and repeats twice. Although the song is about the character’s own feelings, the use of the volitional form (translated as “Let’s”) used in all the lines of the following excerpt, makes the lyrics sound like a suggestion to every listener.

Excerpt 5-12. Aitakatta “I wanted to meet you” (AKB48) suki naraba suki da to iō 1. 好きならば好きだと言おう Let’s tell the person if you like him/he gomakasazu sunao ni narō 2. ごまかさず、素直になろう Let’s honest without making excuses suki naraba suki da to iō 3. 好きならば好きだと言おう Let’s tell the person if you like him/her mune no uchi sarakedasō yo 4. 胸の内さらけ出そうよ Let’s expose your feelings

Excerpt 5-13 from Ōgoe daiamondo “Diamond shout,” is also about how it is great to express feelings of love. As referenced in both the title and in line 8, ōgoe translates to “big voice” literally, and diamonds are precious stones, appreciated for their beauty. Thus, the meaning of Ōgoe daiamondo infers that having a voice to claim something is a precious thing. The repetitions of daisuki da (l.1, 3, and 5) “I like you a lot” demonstrate truly strong feelings of love, as well as some restless emotions. As in Excerpt 5-12, the expression of

“Let’s” is used (l.4) as if they are advising the audience to do the same thing. 112

Excerpt 5-13. Ōgoe daiamondo “Diamond shout” (AKB48) daisuki da kimi ga daisuki da 1. 大好きだ 君が 大好きだ I like a lot, I like you a lot boku wa zenryoku de hashiru 2. 僕は全力で走る I run full speed daisuki da kimi ga daisuki da 3. 大好きだ ずっと 大好きだ I like you a lot, I like you a lot koe no kagiri sakebō 4. 声の限り叫ぼう Let’s shout as long as we can daisuki da kimi ga daisuki da 5. 大好きだ 君が 大好きだ I like you a lot, I like you a lot iki ga kurushikunaru 6. 息が苦しくなる I am running out of my breath shimatte okenai 7. しまっておけない It’s impossible to hide ōgoe daiamondo 8. 大声ダイアモンド Diamond shout

Not only do Excerpts 12 and 13 show the urge to confess love, but other parts of the lyrics in the same songs, as well as other songs from AKB48, indicate that the characters are the ones who are actively engaging with others and are in control of their situations. The examples consist of deciding to make a move, wanting to make the other person happy, and protecting others in romantic relationships, rather than relying on other people’s actions, as with the characters in OC songs.

Among non-relationship-themed AKB48 songs, a motivating identity was apparent, often expressed as giving encouragement to others to not give up, and to conquer their hardships, as in Excerpt 5-14 and 15, or to create world peace, as in Excerpt 5-16. In Excerpt

5-14, the protagonist is supporting someone who is depressed about something; however, the actual issue was not specified. Lines 1 through 6 contain generic cheer-up phrasings, including nayande itatte shikatanai yo (l.2)“It is meaningless to worry, I tell you,” and ikō! akaruku (l.3) “Let’s go! Cheerfully…” A promise is voiced that the protagonist will always be on their partner’s side (l.5-11). 113

Excerpt 5-14. Boku no taiyō “My sun” (AKB48) moyamoya shita kimochi 1. もやもやした気持ち Blurred feeling nayande itatte shikata nai yo 2. 悩んでいたって仕方ないよ It is meaningless to worry, I tell you ikō akaruku 3. 行こう！明るく… Let’s go! Cheerfully… iyana koto no hitotsu kurai dare nimo aru 4. 嫌なことのひとつくらい誰にもある Everybody has at least one thing that troubles them shita o muite ochikondetatte dame sa 5. 下を向いて落ち込んでたってだめさ You mustn’t be depressed, looking down kokoro no sono sora harewataru made 6. 心のその空晴れ渡るまで Until your heart is clear ue o muku n da 7. 上を向くんだ Chin up hitori kiri de yoru no yami ni obienaide 8. 一人きりで 夜の闇に怯えないで Don’t be afraid in the dark by yourself boku wa itsumo kimi no soba ni iru yo 9. 僕はいつも 君のそばにいるよ I will always be with you moshi sekaijū ga teki ni mawattemo 10. もし 世界中が 敵にまわっても Even if the world is against you boku wa mikata sa 11. 僕は味方さ I am on your side

The theme of Excerpt 5-15 is similar to Excerpt 5-14 in the sense that the protagonist is encouraging someone; however, the tone of Excerpt 5-15 is decidedly more forceful, both in content of the message as well as use of symbols (e.g., exclamation marks!) and the language employed (explored in Section 7.3). The title, “River” is used as a metaphor for painful hardships in life, which is articulated in the song as well. Excerpt 5-15 is articulated to spur the listener to let their fears go, believe in themselves, and to keep moving forward courageously even though the river is blocking their way. If you do so, the protagonist explains, a hopeful future awaits you.

Excerpt 5-15. “RIVER” (AKB48) mae e susume 1. 前へ進め！ Move forward! 114

tachi domaruna 2. 立ち止まるな！ Do not halt! mezasu wa hi ga noboru basho 3. 目指すは陽が昇る場所 Aim at where the Sun rises kibō no michi o aruke 4. 希望の道を歩け！ Walk on the path of hope! ikute habamu River River River 5. 行く手阻む River! River! River! The river obstructs your path River River River yokotawaru River 6. 横たわる River! The river lies in front of you! unmē no River River River 7. 運命の River! River! River! Fate of the river! River! River! tamesareru River 8. 試される River! We are tested by the River! mayoi wa zenbu suteru n da 9. 迷いは捨てるんだ！ Discard your doubts! konjō misero yo 10. 根性見せろよ！ Show your spirit! tamerauna 11. ためらうな！ Don't hesitate! ima sugu ippo fumidase yo 12. 今すぐ 一歩 踏み出せよ！ Right now, one step forward! 13. Believe yourself!

Aoyagi (2000, p. 216) argues that creating feelings of peer solidarity is prevalent by

Japanese aidoru, either directly in person at live concerts, or through the lyrics of their songs

(Aoyagi, 2000, pp. 216-217). Neither Excerpt 5-14 and 15 go into details, such as the characters’ age ranges or situations, and thus the characters and context/settings remain generic enough so that the audience can easily identify with the situation described in the song. This serves to create a feeling of peer solidarity between fans and the aidoru. To avoid specifics, the objects found in nature are illustrated to describe both in polarity both positive and negative situations and feelings. For instance, the wind, rain, river, and dark clouds represent tough situations and depressed feelings, while the light, sun, and blue skies stand 115 for the bright future, dream, hopes and happy feelings. Through this method of using both generic situations and easily identifiable nature metaphors, the audience can simply apply their own situations to the song and achieve a level of peer solidarity.

In fact, the images of constantly facing struggles and trying their best seems to be inexorably tied to AKB48 members and their identities. At least, that is the image they have produced in countless TV shows and documentaries. The members were just “regular girls” at first, so they had to practice singing and dancing to perform better. AKB48 took almost five years to reach popularity, and as such, they experienced long years of obscurity. Even after

AKB48 gained popularity, members had to compete with each other within the group for opportunities to be official members, to perform at live converts, and to appear on TV. These stories are widely known to many people as part of the marketing strategies, so being familiar with their struggles may help to establish bonds between the AKB48 group members and the struggling, hard-working audience.

The description of battles in AKB48 songs always pit the protagonist, against their own weakness or severe circumstances, and thus never include literal acts of fighting.

Excerpt 5-16 is taken from a song Bokutachi wa tatakawanai “We don’t fight.” This song is not about typical aidoru fare, like romantic relationship or conquering problems. It’s about pleading for world peace, and voicing how simply talking things over is more important than fighting, and that we must focus on forgiving each other, rather than hating each other.

Excerpt 5-16. Bokutachi wa tatakawanai “We don’t fight” (AKB48) boku tachi wa tatakawanai 1. 僕たちは戦わない We don’t fight ai o shinjiteru 2. 愛を信じてる Believing in love furiageta sono kobushi 3. 振り上げたその拳 The raised fists 116

dare mo orosu hi ga kuru yo 4. 誰も下ろす日が来るよ For everyone, they will come a day when they are lowered nikushimi wa rensasuru 5. 憎しみは連鎖する Hatred spread dakara ima tachikiru n da 6. だから今断ち切るんだ So, cut it off now

Thus far, various identities were present in both groups’ songs. One overlapping trend was the depiction of youthful and inexperienced identities. However, while passive and coquettish identities were found in the lyrics of OC songs, identities of assertiveness and a desire to motivate others were observed in AKB48 lyrics.

5.3.3 Gendered language expressions in lyrics

Previous sections have touched on gender, for example, when exploring school- related items such as sailor uniforms, or female personae being passive and coquettish.

However, the focus of the previous discussions was other identity traits such as youthfulness and passivity. This section investigates gender identity as it is both directly and indirectly indexed in the lyrics from the aidoru groups.

5.3.3.1 Direct reference to gendered nouns

Gender identity is examined based on the encoded gender in nouns such as onna no ko “girl” or otoko no ko “boy” (i.e., gendered persona). Table 5-7 indicates the use of these direct gendered personae in OC’s lyrics, and Table 5-8 indicates the same for AKB48. In the tables, song numbers are given in the left column (e.g., A2 for song #2 of AKB48).

Descriptions of gender personae about characters in each song are listed in three rows based on protagonist, counterpart, and third parties. Persona gender is indicated with a gender symbol of either ♀ (female) and ♂ (male). 117

For protagonists, directly specified gendered personae appear in four of the nine OC songs, which include oban “grandma” in O1, joshi kōsē “female high school student,” hakoiri musume “(lit.) boxed daughter (a well-protected daughter of a respectable family)” in O4, redī “lady” in O5, and onna no ko “girl” in O6. The latter of these all indicate young and female personae as of the current song setting. The term of oban “grandma” is also used; however, as this term is used to indicate the girl’s future as in oban ni nacchau sono mae ni oishī hāto o … tabete “Please eat my delicious heart before I become an old woman.”

Therefore, even in this circumstance, when non-youthful (future) identities are being referenced, it is still in contrast to youthful (present) identities, which are very much the focus of the song.

Table 5-7. Direct gendered nouns in OC songs # Protagonist Counterpart Third parties O1 ♀ -onna no ko “girl” ♂ -otoko no ko “boy” -papa ♂ ♀ -oban “grandma” “papa(of protagonist)” -mama ♀ “mama(of protagonist)” O2 -oku-sama ♀ “wife’(of counterpart)” O4 ♀ -onna no ko “girl” ♂ -obocchama -joshi kōsē “upper class boy” ♀ “female high school student” -hakoiri musume ♀ “(lit.)boxed daughter” O5 ♀ -onna no ko “girl” ♂ -kareshi “boyfriend” ♀ -ano *ko “that girl” ♀ -redī “lady” ♀ -bōi furendo“boyfriend” ♀ -kono *ko “this girl” O6 ♀ -onna no ko “girl” ♂ -otoko no ko “boy”

In terms of counterparts that protagonists reference in songs, they are almost always male: otoko no ko “boy” in O1 and O6, obocchama “upper class boy” in O3, kareshi

“boyfriend” and the loanword, bōi furendo “boyfriend” in O4. For O2, though the counterpart is not addressed, the counterpart’s partner, oku-sama “wife,” emerges as a third party. 118

Therefore, given the requisite heterosexual coupling for legal marriage in Japan, the counterpart is assumed to be male.

The emergence of third parties, however, is limited. The terms “papa” and “mama” appear in O1 to reference the protagonist’s parents, and oku-sama “wife” (as previously mentioned) references the wife of the song’s counterpart in O2. Among several word choices that refer to father, mother and wife, the use of the loanword of “papa” and “mama” in

Japanese sounds childish or girlish. In addition, the role concept with reference to the wife, oku-sama seems to lend credence to the idea that the speaker is an upper-class woman.

Further, the two entries marked with an asterisk in O5 (“ko” in ano ko and kono ko) require slightly more analysis to explain properly, as their gendered referent is only made known through the Japanese writing system. “ko” in Japanese has several meanings, and ano ko and kono ko can mean either “that child” and “this child” or “that girl” and “this girl” depending on which Chinese character is used. According to the lyrics in written for this song, Chinese character of 娘 (ko) “girl” is used, instead of 子 (ko) “child.” Therefore, it can be regarded as a feminine referent.

Almost all OC songs are about some kind of relationship between a girl and a boy, except for the song Jā ne “See you” in which both the protagonist and the counterpart are predicted to be girls based on the CD jacket cover (cf., Figure 5-1(2) in Section 5.3.1.1) and also indirect gendered language of sentence endings (will be discussed in the next section

5.3.3.2 &5.3.3.4). Therefore, it is reasonable to expect to observe quite a few female gendered descriptions of female protagonists and male gendered descriptions of male counterparts. 119

Compared to OC songs, far fewer gendered person nouns and motifs are found in

AKB48 lyrics as can be seen in Table 5-8 below. The style of table is identical to Table 5-7.

Table 5-8. Direct gendered nouns in AKB48 songs # Protagonist Counterpart Third parties A6 ♂ -otoko “man” ♂ -otoko-tachi “men” A7 ♀ -imōto “younger sister” A8 ♂ -shōnen “boy” A9 ♂ -papa “papa”(of counterpart) ♀ -mama “mama” (of counterpart)

Gendered personae for the protagonists appear only in one song, A6, namely otoko

“man” and otoko-tachi “men.” Since directly specified protagonists were all female in OC songs, this is one difference between these two groups. Furthermore, mixed gender counterparts are prevalent. Two gendered nouns appear. One is imōto “younger sister” in A7 as ima wa mada wagamamana imōto no yō sa “(you are) like my willful younger sister for now,” while the other is shōnen “boy” in A8, in the lyric anata wa anohi no shōnen no mama

“you are just like the boy from that day.” Also, one gendered motif of “bikini” is found both in A6 and A9, which is the counterpart's outfit worn during a song which takes place at the beach. For the third party, papa and mama appear as the female counterpart's parents.

One possible reason why gendered descriptions in AKB48 songs are fewer than OC songs may be due to the topic of the songs. Although about half of the AKB48 songs are about relationships between men and women, the other half talk about achieving goals and following dreams. All the songs of A6 through A9 that included gendered descriptions are about romantic endeavors in the table above. Discussing romantic relationships raises the likelihood of a direct referent to the character's gender. 120

Thus, OC songs and those from AKB48 differ in a few points in terms of direct reference to gender identity. The description of direct gender identity appears more frequently in OC songs. Moreover, the protagonists in OC songs are almost always female, and the counterparts are almost always male. In contrast, the gender of protagonists and counterparts in AKB48 song varies and it is not always specified. Having ambiguous gender in song lyrics can help diminish gender biases, gender roles and gender stereotypes. One strong suit of genderless personae in lyrics is that it enables listeners of any gender to empathize with the song contents.

5.3.3.2 Indirect reference to gendered expressions

Gendered expressions are not always directly encoded, but the Japanese language has a rich layer of indirect gendered language based on socially constructed gender ideologies, as introduced in Chapter 2. I explore gendered expressions based on the categories of (i) ending forms, (ii) personal pronouns, (iii) lexemes, (iv) gendered descriptions and motifs and (v) pronunciation modification.

(i) Ending forms

First, the indirect gendered languages of ending forms in lyrics are examined. The complete sentences were coded into feminine, neural and categories masculine and calculated in order to make the following comparison. I used a perception appropriate classification for each group based on hegemonic language norms of the time. In other words, I used the original classification to analyze OC song lyrics, but I used the modern classification to analyze AKB48 song lyrics. Figure 5-14 indicates the results of comparisons of gendered ending form distribution. The bars with dots are OC’s, and bars in solid gray are AKB48’s distribution. The number of complete sentences in OC lyrics tallied 216 (i.e., 100%): 54 feminine endings (25%), 154 neutral endings (71.3%), and 8 masculine endings (3.7%). In 121 contrast, the number of complete sentences in AKB48 lyrics was 336 (i.e., 100%): 3 feminine endings (0.8%), 248 neutral endings (67.8%) and 115 masculine endings (31.4%). Figure

5-12 indicates the results in percentage terms to clearly visualize the comparisons.

Figure 5-12. Comparison of gendered ending forms in lyrics (Era appropriate chart) 100% OC (Original) AKB48 (Modern)

75% 71.3% 67.8%

50%

31.4% 25.0% 25%

0.8% 3.7% 0% Feminine Neutral Masculine

Neutral forms are most common for both groups, and the majority of predicates are plain forms of verbs, nouns and adjectives without any sentence-final particles (SFPs).

Besides the shared features; however, the gendered ending forms in lyrics by the two groups differs greatly.

As for OC lyrics, among 54 feminine ending forms (25%), the sentence-final particles of yo, no(noyo/none), ne, wa(dawa) are the majority and they occurred 13, 12, 11, and 7 times respectively, which is about 80% of all feminine endings. The rest is the directive form of negative command(+ne) such as akirame nai de “Don’t give up” and its variation, ribon hodoka nai de ne “Please do not untie the ribbon.” These directives are usually from a female persona to a male persona in lyrics except for one instance, sonna kanashima nai de “Please don’t be sad,” which is between female personae. Therefore, when a singer is directly 122 requesting something, female ending forms are preferred. Combined with neutral ending forms, most of the lyrics in OC fall between neutral to feminine ending forms.

For the masculine ending forms in OC lyrics, all eight of them appear in one song called Katatsumuri samba “Snail samba.” However, these masculine ending form occurrences are not considered to be their own lyrics since they are drawn intertextually from a famous children’s song. In the children’s song, the imperative form of dasu “to push something out,” dase are used in tsuno dase yari dase atama dase “Push your horns, spears out, and head” The imperative form is a strong command form. In the particular OC song, this chorus is repeated a few times, so the ratio of masculine expressions increased in this data set. The masculine ending forms were seen only in the song and it does not appear elsewhere. Even though they are allusive to other cultural media, and are not from the OC songs’ own speech repertoire.

In AKB48 lyrics, it is notable that the feminine endings occur only 0.8% (3 times) all together. All of those feminine expressions occur in one song called Sayonara kurōru “Good- bye crawl.” Sayonara kurōru is only the song among AKB48 songs examined in which the protagonist is definitely female, speculating from lyric content, gendered expressions and ending forms. Although neutral forms appear the most, the masculine ending forms appear at nearly half of the rate of the neutral forms.

Among these masculine forms in AKB48 songs, two types of endings forms were dominant: the copula (n) da (45 times) and imperatives (31 times), which occupy 66% among masculine ending forms. The former of these is illustrated as copula (n) da as in daisuki da “I like (you) a lot” and ue o muku n da “(You) chin up.” The latter is affirmative and negative imperatives like hashire “Run!” and hurikaeruna “Don’t turn back.” The imperative forms occur 31 times. There are many speech levels to choose from in expressing directives as 123 shown in Table 2-1 in Chapter 2.5.3. These imperative expressions are the least polite style, and are considered strongly assertive; therefore, they are considered to be hegemonically masculine.

Among SFPs in AKB48 lyrics, the masculine SFP sa as in boku wa mikata sa “I am on your side” is used most frequently (13times) in AKB48 lyrics. Noda (2002) implies that the function of sa is one-way from the speaker to the listener, so it is often used when a speaker does not seek any further comment. The nature of song lyrics is a one-way communication, and a response is not expected and usually unobtainable, which would align with the heavy usage of sa. Nagasaki (2008) claims that the use of sa and its gender bias have been changing. The SFP sa was used mainly by men in the postwar period; however, it is used more rarely by both genders nowadays unless it is in sentence-internally. She argues that the tendency of language neutralization motivates both men and women to avoid using the

SFP sa because it is considered “male voice” just as the super masculine SFP ze and zo. This may further support why sa often appears is because of the abundant masculine expressions in AKB48 lyrics, whereas not a single sa appears in OC lyrics, which contain plentiful feminine expressions.

While no gendered pronunciation appears as a sentence ending in OC lyrics, four masculine gendered pronunciations appear as ending forms in AKB48 lyrics, which go through the phonological modification of having [ē] in stead of [ai]: hajime kara kantan ni umaku wa ika nē “It does not go well from the beginning,” jibun ni īwake suru n ja nē “Don’t make excuse for yourself!”yatte minakerya wakan nē “You never know until you try!”massugu susumu shika nē “There is no choice but moving forward!” This phenomenon is considered super masculine. The exclamation marks transcribed above exist in the official lyrics’ booklet, and are added to increase the intensity of these messages. Similar to the 124 imperatives before, these super masculine phonological ending forms appear only in motivating songs.

The motivation of employing such assertive expressions is related to lyric contents.

By observing lyric contents in OC songs, almost all songs sampled are about relationships: a few songs talk about heartbreaks, and most of their stance is the combination of romance and youthful experiences such as dating. In contrast, among eleven AKB48 analyzed songs, although six songs are about romantic relationships, the other five songs are motivating songs about achieving goals and fighting tough situations. Almost all the imperatives (27 out of 31 times) appear in such motivating songs as if the songs encourage both the protagonists in the songs and the listeners of the songs. One question that remains, however, is why the lyric contents shifted from merely romantic relationships in OC songs to both romantic relationships and encouraging themes in the songs of AKB48.

Tanaka (2013) holds a strong opinion on the connection between the trend/

(pop-)culture including aidoru and economic situations and states that “AKB48 is a product from the “deflation culture” (p. 10) in a difficult time that Japan has faced a prolonged deflation-recession (p. 20). When OC songs were released, Japan was in the middle of the economic bubble, in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. OC songs could afford to include many relationship matters in those happy times. Onyanko Club broke up in 1987 right before the booming economy was about to collapse in the early 1990s.

After that, Japan faced severe financial problems for quite some time, and this tough period is called “the lost twenty years” (p. 20).

Tanaka (2013) addresses that the reason why AKB48 is very popular even in a prolonged deflation-recession is related to the ingenious marketing strategies and the song lyrics. When AKB48 was initially found in 2005, the Japanese economy was not at the 125 bottom of the depression yet. AKB48 was not very popular despite the fact that the producer,

Akimoto, was already a well-known figure. In 2008, Lehman Brothers, one of the world’s largest investment firms, filed for bankruptcy and the global recession in the aftermath took its toll on the Japanese economy. During this period of economic weakness, AKB48 released

Ōgoe daimondo “Diamond shout” which has a positive message as if the song is cheering on the damaged Japan (p. 48). The following year, in 2009, when the impact of the strong yen on the Japanese economy became very serious and extended the deflation, AKB48 released another encouraging song “River,” which contains the message of “Never give up now and keep going forward” (p. 24). In these situations, the lyric content works in sync with the economic situation and matches the needs of the consumers.

Ohde, Matsumoto and Kaneko (2013) analyzed lyric contents in 344 Japanese songs from 1978 to 2012, which have received awards for their music. Similar to the results between OC songs and AKB48 songs, they find an indication of change in lyric contents overtime. While romantic songs are mundane at all times, positive words have taken place of negative words since 1997. Ohde, Matsumoto and Kaneko argue a few possible factors at play in this shift, one being for example difficult social conditions such as increase in crime rates and decrease in employment rate. The listeners may have wished to hear positive song lyrics to maintain their mind positive. Another reason is young singers and producers’ involvement with the music industry. Compared to more realistic adults, young people are thought of as idealistic, valuing cheerful and hopeful messages, and their increased involvement in the music industry may be having an effect.

According to Aoyagi (2003), two major roles of aidoru are “to empathize with experiences and emotions of those who undergo youth” and “to develop a sense of growing up together with the audience” (p. 146). Aoyagi’s interviewee, who is a former editor of 126 aidoru magazines, explains the role of aidoru as “[p]op idols enact[ing] the role of compassionate partners who can comfort adolescents (p. 146). Therefore, song lyrics are suitable platforms where aidoru can express their romantic emotions, concerns for the future, frustrations against society to show the empathy with youth, and also provide words of encouragement. Both OC songs and AKB48 songs succeed in generating audience empathy, so the roles of aidoru are sufficiently accomplished, it just so happens that the audiences were different due to a social and generational gap. The different use in the amount of gendered expressions between the two groups’ songs comes from a few potential elements including the idea of expected images towards aidoru, the change of gender roles, the economic situations, and an overall shift in the use of gendered expressions.

In order to investigate how people today would perceive OC songs, I will analyze both OC and AKB48 using the modern classification and will compare the results. The distribution of OC lyrics is 43 feminine endings, 165 neutral endings and 8 masculine endings. Figure 5-13 indicates the results in percentage terms.

Figure 5-13. Comparison of gendered ending forms in lyrics (Modern chart)

100% OC (Modern) AKB48 (Modern) 76.4% 75% 67.8%

50%

31.0% 25% 19.9%

0.8% 3.7% 0% Feminine Neutral Masculine 127

Compared with the previous results with the old classification in Figure 5-12, the feminine ending forms in OC lyrics decreased by approximately 5%, and neutral forms increased by 5% instead. The reason why the ratio of feminine form decreased was, in fact, due to only one particular ending form, which is the negative command (+ne) as in ika nai de

(ne) “Please don’t go.” It was previously classified as a feminine form, but then regrouped as neutral in the modern classification. This ending form occurred 10 times; therefore, the percentage of feminine ending forms has dropped and the percentage of neutral ending form has increased. The percentage of masculine ending forms in OC remained the same.

Figure 5-12 demonstrates how OC and AKB48 songs behaved judged against the norms of their respective times, and Figure 5-13 demonstrates how each would be perceived from a current perspective. Since gendered expressions in OC song lyrics did not behave drastically different based on the old and the modern classifications, listeners in the 1980’s as well as today would likely both perceive that lyrics in OC songs include much more feminine than masculine ending forms. On the other hand, listeners would perceive that lyrics in

AKB48 songs include much more masculine than feminine endings.

(ii) Personal pronouns

In this section, I shift my focus to pronoun usage. All usages of personal pronouns in both OC lyrics and AKB48 lyrics were coded, and were categorized as either feminine or masculine. A large number of personal pronouns are used in both OC and AKB48 lyrics. To give a quick overview of Japanese person pronouns, unlike English (and most Indo-European languages), which has very few choices for personal pronouns, the Japanese person pronoun system is dauntingly complex, and choices are made based on many criteria, including, but not limited to gender and formality. While their usages are highly variant depending on the individual, the canonical first-person pronoun for women is watashi, whereas it is boku for 128 men (Tsujimura, 1996, p. 371). In contrast to this, when a woman uses boku as a self-referent form, it is considered marked. As explained earlier, although second person pronouns are rarely used in conversation, they are relatively common in song lyrics. In terms of second- person pronouns, the most common form for women to use is anata, and for men to use is kimi. There are plural morphemes which can be suffixed to these pronouns in order to make one of them plural (or collective) such as -tachi and -ra. For example, watashi means

“(feminine) I” and watashi-tachi means “we.” Likewise, boku means “(masculine) I” and boku-ra means “(masculine) we.”

In OC song lyrics, there are 45 instances of feminine personal pronouns (first-person pronoun watashi “I” and second-person pronoun anata “you”). For AKB48 song lyrics, there are five instances of feminine personal pronouns (anata “you”), and 88 masculine personal pronouns (boku “I,” boku-tachi/boku-ra “we”). First, I will explore the use of first-person pronouns in these songs. Table 5-9 indicates the occurrences of the first-person pronoun per song. In the tables, song numbers are given in the left column (e.g., O1 for song #1 of OC ,

A2 for song #2 of AKB48, See Table 5-1 and 5-2 for the titles). 129

Table 5-9. First-person pronouns appearing in songs OC AKB48 Feminine Masculine Feminine Masculine “I”/“we” “I”/“we” “I”/“we” “I”/“we” boku- boku- watashi watashi- boku tachi/ watashi watashi- boku tachi/ tachi boku-ra tachi boku-ra O1 A1 O2 √ A2 √ O3 √ A3 √ √ O4 A4 O5 A5 √ O6 √ A6 √ O7 √ A7 √ √ O8 √ A8 O9 A9 √ √ A10 √ A11 √ √

The first-person pronouns, watashi “I” or watashi-tachi “we” are used in five OC songs (O2, 3, 6, 7, 8); however, the masculine personal pronouns are not found in these lyrics. On the contrary, in AKB48 lyrics, watashi or watashi-tachi were not employed, but boku and boku-tachi/ra are prevalent (A. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11).

The frequent use of plural forms is noteworthy in these lyrics. The plural form of watashi-tachi “(feminine) we” occurs in one song, O3 Jā ne “See you.” In this song, the line which contains the form is watashi-tachi wa furimukeba hora tomodachi “See, looking back, we are friends.” This watashi-tachi refers to the protagonist and their counterpart in the setting of the song. In contrast, boku-tachi/boku-ra “(masculine) we” in AKB48 songs refer to both the persona of the song and the listeners of the song (i.e., the consumer).

For instance, in lyrics such as boku-tachi ga sumu kono sekai wa dareka e no ai de michiteru “The world we live in is filled with love for someone” in A3, boku-ra ni kanōsē ga arun da “We have potential” in A5, and boku-tachi wa tatakawanai ai o shinjiteru “We don’t fight. We believe in love,” the impact of this use of ‘we’ is surely different from in the OC 130 songs. These messages are directed at the audience as if the singers are talking to the audience and generating solidarity, especially when the themes of the songs are not about relationships, but motivational statements such as telling someone to follow their dreams and to never give up.

Three songs in each group (O1, O4, and O5/A1, A4 and A8) do not include any first- person pronouns. This is not particularly remarkable, as the Japanese language is a pro-drop language; therefore, it is an entirely unmarked phenomenon. As for the usages of second- person pronouns, Table 5-10 shows the occurrences in each song.

Table 5-10. Second-person pronouns appearing in songs OC AKB48 anata kimi others anata kimi others O1 A1 √ O2 √ A2 √ O3 A3 √ O4 A4 √ O5 (√*) A5 √ O6 A6 √ O7 √ A7 √ O8 √ jibun A8 √* O9 A9 √ A10 √ (Asterisk* shows “marked” occurrences.) A11

As expected, the use of the second-person pronoun to refer to the counterparts, anata

“(feminine speaker’s) you/darling” are primarily used in OC songs. Kimi “(masculine speaker’s) you” emerges only once in O5 (shown with * in the table). This single occurrence of kimi was in quoted speech when a male counterpart confesses his feelings to a female protagonist, as in kimi ga suki “I like you.” Therefore, the lyrics are not meant to be read as being produced by the protagonist, so the parenthesis is provided in the table above. The self- reflexive jibun “oneself” appears once as a second-person pronoun equivalent, but only in the genitive construction, as in jibun no pēsu de mukaeni kite hoshī “(I) want you to capture me 131 at your own pace.” The use of jibun here is grammatically motivated, and is more akin to a set phrase just as “at your own pace” is in English, so to categorize it as a true second-person pronoun here would not be productive.

In contrast, kimi “(masculine speaker’s) you” is the common second-person pronoun in AKB48 songs. However, only one song, A8, contains anata “(feminine speaker’s) you” as in anata no yaketa kata ga namio wakeru “your tanned shoulders plow waves” (marked with

* in the table). The feminine personal pronoun use corresponds with analysis of feminine gendered expressions. As I explained in the analysis of gendered expressions in the previous section, this song, Sayonara kurōru “Good-bye crawl” (A8), is the only song which suggests that the protagonist is clearly female based on the content of the song and other clues like feminine sentence endings and word choice among AKB48 songs.

I have explored only the first and second person pronouns, but there was one occurrence of third-person pronouns across both OC and AKB48 songs combined. The third- person pronoun occur in OC songs. In a song called Otto CHIKAN! “Hey, pervert!,” when a high school girl teases a school-aged boy, she says awateta awateta aitsu “He panicked, He panicked, that guy.” This reference term aitsu sounds vulgar, but this phrase is directed toward the protagonist herself, as her inner thought. Considering that speakers tend to employ plain forms when expressing inner thoughts (Maynard, 1991), this occurrence of what might be construed as a ‘masculine’ expression is understandable. In fact, when the female persona actually talks about him to other people, she switched from aitsu to kono hito “this person,” which carries with it a more balanced, neutral tone.

In summary, third person pronoun hardly appeared in song lyrics, but quite a few first and second person pronouns appeared. The watashi-anata pair is common in OC songs, and is indicative of female protagonists using traditionally feminine language, while the boku- 132 kimi pair, more indicative of male protagonists and traditionally masculine language, is widely used in AKB48 songs.

(iii) Lexemes

In addition to personal pronouns, other gendered lexemes occasionally appear as well, but only feminine lexemes in OC song lyrics. A few feminine lexical types are used, such as the polite prefix o- as in o-uchi “home,” and the adverb choppiri “a little.” Furthermore, several attenuated forms and honorifics appeared, such as gaman nasatte “Please hold back

(honorific)” and o-yoshini natte “Please don’t do it (honorific).” Matsumoto argues that these kinds of expressions are considered ‘delicate’ expressions, and are in the repertoires of nonworking upper-middle-class housewives (2004, p. 250). These attenuated forms sound very feminine and it is something that would not be out of place among the ryōsai kembo

“Good Wife, Wise Mother,” the slogan proposed by the Japanese government in the Meiji period to promote and encourage women to be conservative and nationalistic (c.f., Section

2.3 for more on this). Although the protagonists who use these attenuated forms in OC songs are not housewives, but young high school girls, these expressions nevertheless index sophistication and traditional feminine delicacy.

(iv) Gendered descriptions and motifs

Similar to lexemes, words that are closely tied with one gender, such as “skirt” and motifs including “bikini” (i.e., motif) are also examined. Table 5-11 indicates the use of indirect gendered motifs and descriptions in OC’s lyrics on the left rows and AKB48 on the right rows. Gender descriptions and gendered motifs about characters in each song are listed.

Persona gender is indicated with a gender symbol of either ♀ (female) and ♂ (male). 133

Table 5-11. Indirect gendered descriptions and motifs about personae in lyrics # Protagonist in OC # Counterpart in AKB O1 ♀ -sērā fuku “sailor uniform” A6 ♀ -bikini ♀ -sukāto “skirt” A9 ♀ -bikini ♀ -ribon “ribbon” ♀ -bājin “virgin” O2 ♀ -sējun “purity” ♀ -pichi pichi no hada “fresh young skin” ♀ - (o) iro jikake “honey trap seduction” ♀ -sukāto “skirt” O9 ♀ -uedingu doresu “wedding dress”

Several gendered motifs for protagonists appear, such as sērā fuku “sailor uniform” and sukāto “skirt” in O1 and uedingu doresu “wedding dress” in O9. Sailor uniforms are usually for male uniforms in the West, and in certain circumstances, skirts can be also men’s attire, but the vast majority of skirt-wearers are still women, at least in Japan today.

Moreover, gendered lexemes that are primarily used in relation to women are employed, including sējun “purity,” pichi pichi no hada “fresh young skin” and o-iro jikake “honey trap seduction.” The term, “virgin” in English is for both men and women; however, the loanword of “virgin,” bājin is only for female virginity in Japan since there is a different word to describe a male virginity. Although there is nothing about these lexemes that directly connect to women or femininity, in contemporary Japanese society, these are terms that are used in relation to women to reference the importance of virginity and youthfulness, which are not as commonly valued on a societal level for men. None of the description about the counterpart or the third party appear in OC song lyrics.

Similarly to nouns with some amount of gender bias, far fewer gendered motifs in total are found in AKB48 lyrics. Not a single gendered motif appear for protagonists, and even for counterparts, there are only two occurrences, which happen to be the identical word,

“bikini” in A6, sunahama chirami shiteta bikini “At the sandy beach I was sneakily checking out 134

(your) bikini” and in A9, 70’s bikini ga kotoshi no okiniiri dane “Your favorite this year is 70’s bikini.”

(v) Pronunciation modification

The emergence of gendered pronunciations are limited exclusively to ending forms, which are the four times whereby the masculine pronunciation of [ē] was employed instead of

[ai]. None of the pronunciation modifications were found elsewhere in AKB48 songs or anywhere in OC songs.

Together with direct reference to gendered nouns and indirect reference to gendered sentence endings, personal pronouns, lexemes, descriptions and motifs, and finally pronunciation, the protagonist is understood as female and the counterpart is assumed to be male in OC songs, while the protagonists is male and the counterpart in AKB48 remain underdetermined for the most part.

5.4 Chapter summary and discussion

This chapter explores identities suggested in images on CD jacket covers, lyric content, and language use by comparing OC and AKB48, and various identity projections are found. In general, OC embodies young female, kawaii “cute” identities, based on the members’ smiling faces, school uniforms, colorful accessories, and cutesy costumes on their

CD jacket covers. By contrast, AKB48 demonstrates not only kawaii images but also more complex traits including sexy, kakkoii “cool” and even tough, drawing from their various expressions including smiling, serious and stern; and their costumes including both cutesy and boyish school uniforms, bikinis, and tough martial arts garb.

The lyric contents of the two aidoru groups reveal different types of themes and personae. OC song lyrics are almost always about men and women and the romantic relationships or even slightly suggestive behaviors that are built between them. Protagonists 135 in the OC songs are young girls and their personalities are passive with a steady (potential) partner yet coquettish without an object of steady partner. In other words, these girls appearing in OC lyrics tend to tease men when not in romantic relationships; however, when in a relationship they tend to expect their boyfriends to take the lead.

On the other hand, AKB48 themes vary from romantic relationships to achieving goals. With the theme of romantic relationships, the common roles of the protagonists in

AKB48 songs are either to express their romantic feelings overtly, rather than waiting for the male counterparts to express his feeling first or waiting on them to take action. Okajima et al.,

(2011) discusses that quite a few AKB48 songs include lyric line of suki “(I) like,” and demonstrates how the word suki is used as a keyword by both the AKB48 members and the audience collectively at the live concerts.

Since the AKB Theater where the AKB48 members perform daily is not spacious, the distance between the members and the audience is physically very close. In the documentaries, there were scenes where the audience sometimes talk to the members on stage directly, and AKB48 replies from the stage. Tahara (2013) witnessed that the audience collectively clapped their hands and stomped their feet in time with the beat, while cheering verbally during the performance, and he was surprised to see the power of unity between the performers and the audience (p. 99). In actuality, each song has a customized cheering pattern made by the fans, and even the cheers are now considered to be an important part of the performance. According to Okajima et al. (2011), the keyword suki is incorporated into one of the cheering patterns for the song Ōgoe daiamondo “Diamond shout.” For the lyric of suki in sekaide ichiban sukinano “I like (you) the most in the world,” the audience join to sing along with the AKB48 members. Both AKB48 and the audience express their feelings of suki to each other and build solidarity. 136

In non-romantic related AKB48 songs, the major role of the songs is like a motivational coach who cheers people up and tells them to not give up, and to follow the dreams. These songs are often sung from the perspective of a protagonist to a counterpart in the song, or from the perspective of an aidoru to the listening audience. As I explained earlier

(Section 5.3.2.3), these encouraging songs are relational to the social issues and concerns in

Japan. Whenever the Japanese population is in low spirits, AKB48 songs attempt to provide emotional support. Compared to OC songs, having various themes and different types of personae helps generate empathy, which builds relational bonds to attract wider ranges of fans. This is how AKB48 has gained in popularity and become kokumin-teki aidoru “national idol” (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Murayama, 2014).

Although OC broke up in 1987, several former members were recruited in 2002 to release a new song called Shōmi kigen (Akimoto, 2002) “Expiration date” as one-time project. Many of the OC members were in their thirties at that time. Just as other OC lyrics,

Akimoto wrote the lyrics for this song as well. He wrote the song from the perspective women in the thirties and it is worth comparing with OC lyrics when they were active as aidoru. One of the main messages of the song in 2002 is to not chase a man who is just about looks. Compromise and choose a nice partner so that you want to be with him even after the initial spark is gone. Another important message is about not giving in and keeping ambitions in your life. Compared with the lyric contents from the 1980s, although the theme of the song still concerns romantic relationships, the perspective has shifted from a young girl who is in the middle of the relationship to an older, wiser, and more experienced women who gives a piece of advice to young naive girls. The song conveys the impression that a romance is only for young girls, but not for women in their thirties. The song seems to be directed at the OC members themselves when they were in their early twenties back in the 1980s. 137

The following excerpt in Excerpt 5-17 explicitly discusses the issue of age. When women are young, everybody gives them attention (l.1-2). The lyrics suggest that twenty is the boundary age between the young and the old. In the lyrics, raw fish is used as a metaphor for being young and fresh (l.3). After fish gets old, the magic disappears (l.5). The fish cannot be eaten raw anymore, so it must to be grilled or simmered (l.6).

Excerpt 5-17. Shōmi kigen “Expiration date” (OC in 2002) onna mo wakakerya soredake de As long as women are young 1. 女も若けりゃそれだけで chiyahoya sareteta (we used to be) flattered for no reason 2. チヤホヤされてた o-sashimi no mama de As we remain as raw fish 3. お刺身のままで hatachi sugitara After being past twenty years old 4. 二十歳過ぎたら mahōga tokete The magic is broken 5. 魔法が解けて nitari yaitari (And the fish needs) grilling or simmering… 6. 焼いたり煮たり……

This song’s lyrics talk about various kinds of “expiration dates,” but it seems the song title implies that women in their thirties have already passed their prime. The metaphor of

“fish” for “women’s expiration date” is similar to another metaphor, “Christmas cake.” This phrase emerged in the 1980s, which is around the time when OC was still active. Christmas cake is a typical way to indicate a women’s age at marriage in Japan (Brinton, 1992). Eating cake on Christmas Eve is very common in Japan. When you purchase the cake on Christmas

Eve, December 24th, the cake is fresh, so the expiration date is “Best by December 24.” The true meaning is 24 years old is best time to get married. It is still okay to eat the cake on the following day, Christmas, which means “Good on December 25.” This indicates that 25 years 138 old is considered to be an appropriate age to get married. After that, the cake gets old, and thus is usually sold at a discount. Eventually, the cake goes bad and nobody wants it.

Amusingly, right before OC broke up,they released their very last single in 1987, called Uedingu doresu “Wedding dress.” Akimoto also wrote the song lyrics for this song.

The song is about the female protagonist who rushes into a church to get married early in the morning. The lyrics of the song say “This is what I wanted, but I am sorry Istarted to cry…I am going on a journey, but hope you will understand my feelings someday.” It looks as if the message is directed to their fans from the OC members, describing that the OC members have to leave the aidoru industry now but they hope that their fans will understand the situation.

Simultaneously, it also seems as if Akimoto hints that marriage awaits after resigning from an aidoru career.

After Japan’s economic “bubble” collapsed in the 1980s, the economic/capitalistic need for more women in the labor force increased. Many women were employed part-time and used as a cheap source of disposable labor, because men feared that women may become too successful and become threatening. However, as the job market grew for women, these job opportunities delayed the normal age for women to marry. In the mean time, the metaphor of “Christmas cake” has been replaced with toshikoshi soba4 “New Year’s noodles” (Cherry,

2017, pp. 11-12). This means that it is now acceptable for women to get married by 31 years old. The acceptable age for being single has been extended compared to the 1980s, but the fact that this social notion applies to women and not men is still indicative of the differing expectations that society has for men and women.

4 It is customary to eat buckwheat noodles while the date changes from December 31st to January 1st to symbolize wishing for a long life. 139

The two tropes of “Christmas cake” and “New Year's noodles” embody the notion of indexicality (Silverstein, 1976). The direct indexicality is a meaning relationship between the signifier and the signified; therefore, the Christmas cake is literally a type of sweets.

However, the signified is not simply a sweet anymore in this case, instead both the

“Christmas cake” and “New Year’s noodles” indirectly index Japanese women’s age limit for marriage. Suchman (1990) states that “the significance of a linguistic expression is always contingent on the circumstances of its use. In this sense, deictic expressions, place and time adverbs, and pronouns are just particularly clear illustrations of a general fact about situated language” (p. 41). This specific expectation towards women’s “expiration date” to marry is particular within the Japanese society. Eating Christmas cakes is unique to Japan. The indirect indexing would not emerge without these conditions. Moreover, the replacement for “New

Year’s noodles” is due to the Japanese specific social background. This is an example of how particular cultural tropes are enacted through recycled use of language. The lyrics are no exception. The behaviors of personae, themes and indexical expressions including tropes in song lyrics are constantly reflected and negotiated in the sociohistorical process. Because of this, the songs at the time can attract the audience from the time. Accordingly, the song lyrics written a few decades ago seem sometimes difficult to grasp, or not inappropriate.

The results of OC song lyrics and from the 1980s and AKB48 song lyrics indicate that language use differs considerably between the two groups. In OC song lyrics, female nouns such as “girl” and “lady” appear in discussing about the protagonist, and male nouns such as

“boy” and “boyfriend” appear in referring to the protagonists’ counterparts. As for the AKB song lyrics, gendered encoded nouns were very limited, and they appear only four times throughout the examined song lyrics. The female noun, “younger sister,” appears to address the counterparts as in “you are like my younger sister.” The male nouns appear to comment 140 on both the protagonist and the counterpart. The difference suggests that the OC songs are written from the perspective of a female protagonist, while the AKB48 songs are written from both genders’ point of view depending on the song. However, the fact that fewer gendered nouns appear in total conveys the connotation of gender ambiguity.

The use of indirect references to gendered expressions matched the results from the direct references to gendered expressions. Observing gendered expressions regarding ending forms, personal pronouns, lexemes, gendered descriptions and motifs, and pronunciation, plenty of feminine expressions are present in OC songs. In contrast, gendered expressions are used much less in AKB48 songs, but if they are visible, they are almost always coded masculine. Having considered the stances of the imaginary personae, motifs, and gendered language usage as seen in song lyrics, again it is hinted that OC songs are written from a woman’s point of view, whereas AKB48 songs are from a man’s point of view. The gender divergences of the protagonist and the first- and second-person pronoun usage between the two groups seem puzzling since both OC and AKB48 are made up of young girls at first.

What makes it even more perplexing is the fact that all the song lyrics of OC and AKB48 analyzed in the data were written by the same songwriter, Akimoto.

Akimoto manipulates the two different “voices” of women and men to express feelings and convey meanings. The notion of having multiple “voices” evokes Bakhtin’s

(1981) “heteroglossia” or “double-voice” in which a novel author manipulates multiple speaking styles in order to give the imaginable characters a suitable speech style.

The concept of “voices” makes the recipient of the utterances predict the speaker who produces it. Multiple voices can co-exist in a single speaker and even in a single perspective; however, Akimoto purposefully employs “double-voicing” (i.e., heteroglossia) of “female voice” in OC song lyrics and “male voice” in AKB48 ones to help conveying the intended 141 messages of the song lyrics to the audience. Therefore, his strategy of “double-voicing” is highly visible, intentional and functional.

Ochs explains that “(t)he voices of speaker/writer and other may be blended in the course of the message and become part of the social meanings indexed within the message” (Ochs, 1992, p. 338). Borrowing the concept of Bakhtin’s voice, ze and other masculine speech features have a male voice and wa and other feminine speech features have a female voice.

What does Akimoto attempt to achieve through the use of “double-voicing” in song lyrics of OC in the 1980s and AKB48 in the 2000s? Essentially, it can all be boiled down to profitability. Aidoru are a commodity, produced by a company, to be bought and traded by consumers. The aidoru industry has been built and has flourished based on the capitalistic policies among the middle-class. Therefore, the fans and the audience hold the key to the success of the aidoru. Akimoto makes it a point to know his audience and what they expect towards aidoru, and the result is an inevitable convergence between the images that the aidoru project, and the images that the fans want the aidoru to project.

The fans demographics between OC and AKB48 differ greatly. Traditionally in the history of aidoru, female aidoru had attracted exclusively young male fans. According to a former OC member, Nitta, their core fans were mainly men, and she seldom saw female audience members at the concerts (Hasegawa, 2012). Nitta reminisces about her time with

OC and shares a story of when she and her group were popular. She mentions that many young school-aged boys became fanatical about her, so they stalked her, called her, and stole things from her house. Therefore, she was afraid of encountering fanatic male fans (i.e., otaku) in school uniforms in her private life (Hasegawa, 2012, p. 217). 142

On the contrary, AKB48 fans vary in gender and age. Many girls support AKB48

(e.g., Takenaka, 2015, p. 6) and Akimoto thinks 40% of their fans are female (Akimoto &

Tahara, 2013, p. 99). Additionally, male fans are not always “uncool” otaku, but regular young men, and even middle-aged men favor AKB48 (e.g., Sayawaka, 2015, p. 73; Okajima

& Okada, 2011, p. 157; Tanaka, 2013, pp. 55-56). In the documentaries used as data, quite a few women are present at AKB48 live concerts and hand-shaking events. As further evidence of their broad audience, when Kojima from AKB48 introduced her new photo-book to the audience, she listed women as her targeted audience first as in below Excerpt 5-17.

Excerpt 5-17. Haruna Kojima (“AKB48 Kojima Haruna,” 2015) いつもとちょっと違う、色々な私を見てね。女性、そして“中高生男子”から“中高年男 子”までたくさんの方に見てもらえる写真集で、今の私がいっぱい詰まった自信作です。 Please find different aspects of me, which is a little bit different from usual. I am proudly announce this photo-book that is for everyone including women and men from school aged to middle-old ages.

On another occasion as well, Kojima reveals that she is extremely happy that female fans like her, because she is aware girls are generally critical towards other girls and especially towards female aidoru (Kawakami, 2013).

Sayawaka points out that Japan is an aging society. It is very difficult to survive in the entertainment industry for anyone without being supported by fans of all age and gender groups (2015, p. 172). Accordingly, consumers’ interests and tastes have diversified. In comparison to OC whose fans consist of a specific demographic, AKB48 strives to gain a variety of fans, and a much wider audience. Takenaka (2015), a choreographer of aidoru groups, speculates possible reasons why more girls have supported female aidoru in the past ten years. Takenaka finds similarities between aidoru and characters from the Japanese animated show, Sailor Moon. In this show, the characters are pretty fighting heroines who were once ordinary people, but were picked to be super heroines. They gradually acquire the 143 courage and tenacity to battle against villains. AKB48 members were also regular girls at first. After their constant training and battle/struggle against the mental pressures of transforming themselves, they manage to become real, confident aidoru. Takenaka finds the process of becoming a fighter from an ordinary girl comparable to this experience. This type of show usually tends to attract little girls as the main target audience. Considering that, it is understandable that AKB48 draw female fans’ attention, too.

In summary, OC was aimed at male otaku audience, so cute images are depicted and elaborate female expressions are used to talk about romantic relationships. This would allow the otaku to imagine pseudo-romantic relationships with their favorite aidoru members. On the other hand, AKB48 is aimed no particular target audience. In order to gain wider ranges of fans, Akimoto creates a range of images on CD covers, lyric contents, and “voice” in lyrics. Both cute and cool images are portrayed on the CD covers, and songs lyrics are not restricted to only one topic, but include various themes like relationships, freedom, and following your dreams. Having various song themes casts a wider net to help larger audiences be able to associate with the songs. In order not to identify the personae in songs, gender-encoded expressions are also limited. However, with the indexical assistance that gendered language use grants, alongside the descriptions of personae and the contents of the lyrics, songs by AKB48 give the impression that the protagonists of the songs are most likely men. The use of personal pronouns in lyrics further confirms this impression. AKB48 female aidoru sing in “male voice” as they are embodying a male perspective. The discrepancy enables both male and female fans to emphasize with the lyric contents. These sales tactics designed by Akimoto are marketing the aidoru taking into account the notion of “audience- design” (cf., Bell, 1984). 144

Needless to say, the audience is very aware that all the CD jacket covers are designed by producers, and they are a product of the publisher. In addition, all the songs are scripted by a male producer, Akimoto. Therefore, the aidoru identities are merely imagined and crafted by these people. Importantly, these people take the audience’s desire and demand in a given time period into consideration in portraying the identities in order to attract as much of an audience as possible, these being their potential consumers. In other words, the identities are strategically manipulated based on the target audience. 145

CHAPTER 6. HOW AIDORU VIEW AIDORU IDENTITY

6.1 Introduction

The observation on CD jacket covers and their songs reveals that how aidoru images, behaviors and voices are the product of being crafted by others and how they are projected to the public which results in aidoru identity projection. In Chapter 3.3, I have explored the expectations towards aidoru, and a fundamental feature is the notion wrapped around kawaii

“cute.” There are abundant cute elements in both Onyanko Club (OC) and AKB48 commodities. Simultaneously, not so kawaii features are visible as well, especially for

AKB48.

In order to grasp how aidoru that comprise AKB48 and OC view aidoru’s identity and expectations in general, I qualitatively explore aidoru’s first-hand voices through either spoken or written texts. Thematic analysis discloses not only how aidoru view aidoru identity, but also how they align (or dis-align) with the prevailing aidoru expectations.

6.2 Methodology

6.2.1 Data

I focused on the interview portions from the following four AKB48 documentaries in which when they often discuss “meta aidoru.” in order to investigate their view on aidoru.

1) Iwai, S., Furusawa, Y., Kubota, Y., Motegi, H., Kanchiku, Y. Nogami, J., Takahashi, S. (Producer) & Kanchiku. Y. (Director). (2011). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: To Be Continued. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

2) Kubota, Y., Niizaka, J., Akimoto, S., Kitagawa, K., Furusawa, Y., Isono, K. Matsumura, T., Makino, A., Kishibe, K. (Producer) & Takahashi, E. (Director). (2012). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: Show Must Go On. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

3) Kubota, Y., Niizaka, J., Furusawa, Y., Matsumura, T. (Producer) & Takahashi, E. (Director). (2013). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: No Flower Without Rain. Japan: Actors: AKB48. 146

4) Takenaka, Y. (Producer), & Suzuki, M. (Director). (2016). AKB48 ura sutorī Kitahara Rie 24 sai, aidoru no ikikata 90 bun chō kanzen ban. Japan: Tokyo Broadcasting System.

The length of each documentary from (1) ~ (3) is approximately two hours, Minor parts of the documentaries contain overlapping footage, but each film chronicles events and issues encountered by the group during the previous year. The fourth documentary is approximately ninety minutes, and one of the AKB48 members, Rie Kitahara is featured. I also used other data including books and online sources, especially for the information about

OC members, since the OC documentaries do not include scenes where they share their opinions and feelings as aidoru, unlike AKB48’s documentaries.

The reason why I chose documentaries is due to the nature of these documentaries, which were to capture these individuals in their natural state. One of the AKB48 members,

Watanabe, even expressed her feelings towards a documentary making process, saying that

“(i)t was awkward to be followed by a camera all the time at first, however, it became an ordinary thing and I am not conscious because they truly blended in … We are just acting in an ordinary way, and we are just being videotaped as we are” (Katsuki, 2014, p. 154). In spite of Watanabe’s statement, aidoru who appear in the documentaries are doubtless very aware that they are constantly observed, since their images are circulated in various media and eventually viewed by the wider public.

Some researchers may regard the media data as “inauthentic” because using

“authentic” (i.e., naturally occurring) data has been seen as ideal in the study of sociolinguistics. This is because William Labov, one of the earliest pioneers in the field of sociolinguistics, has pointed out that people speak differently when they are reading, speaking naturally, or being observed, because of the different degree of attention to speech

(1972). However, sociolinguists have moved on from this idea of authenticity and instead 147 emphasized the importance of analyzing behaviors of any kind, as they are all socially constructed. Coupland (2007) asserts that there is a legitimate reason and meaning in inauthentic behavior as well (p. 25). These “inauthentic behaviors” are understood as a strategical tool, stylizing and performance, which is to impersonate certain identity

(Coupland, 2007). The goal of this paper is investigating aidoru identities in the media regardless of said aidoru’s ‘authenticity’ ‘inauthenticity.’ Thus, I consider mass media a suitable source, and I do not intend to explore how these aidoru act in their private lives.

6.2.2 Thematic analysis

Thematic analysis reveals aidoru members are aware of existing kawaii images along with other expected behaviors. Talks at the interview-setting among AKB48 members are all transcribed and recurrent themes are coded by using “Nodes” in NVivo (a qualitative data analysis computer software). Other data such as books and online sources are also coded in

NVivo. These recurrent themes were as follows: youth, innocence, mediocrity, cheerfulness, professionalism, leadership, dreams and self-directed opportunities.

6.3 Findings

Based on the qualitative approach, the recurrent themes are further grouped into three categories of (i) shōjo images (youth and innocence), (ii) characters (mediocrity and cheerfulness) and (iii) attitudes, roles and vision (professionalism, leadership, dreams, self- directed opportunities). Compared with OC members between OC and AKB48, the findings suggest that aidoru images such as youth and innocence are fixed, aidoru members’ characters including their mediocre nature and cheerfulness are in the process of negotiation, their attitudes and roles of professionalism, leadership and self-directed opportunity are being enhanced, and lastly members’ dreams are diverging. 148

Table 6-1 summarizes the shifting trends between OC and AKB48 regarding these recurrent themes.

Table 6-1. Recurrent themes and shifting trends between OC and AKB48 Category Themes Transitions (OC vs. AKB48) Youth Shōjo images Fixed Innocence Mediocrity Characters Negotiating Cheerfulness Professionalism Attitudes, Leadership Roles, Diverged Dream Vision Self-directed Opportunities

I illustrate the similarities and differences between the two groups as well as demonstrating the aidoru’s own voice and their opinions towards these theme.

6.3.1 Youth

Previous studies have described the importance of youthfulness in aidoru (e.g., Treat,

1993; McVeigh, 1996; Yano, 2013). When OC was initially formed, it was made up of 11 girls, who were primarily high school aged. New members who are female high school students continue to be recruited for OC.

AKB48 permits even younger girls to join the group, so AKB48 members often worry about aging. In the following excerpts, a few AKB48 members demonstrate their concerns about age. Takajō in Excerpt 6-1 worries that now that she has turned 20, she is not young anymore.

Excerpt 6-1. Aki Takajō (Kubota et al., 2012) やっと選抜まであがってきたけど、これからどうなるんだろうって、年齢も上に行くにつ れて 。前までは、あ、なんか若くてフレッシュでかわいいって言われてて、ずっとファン の方が言ってくれてたんですけど、どうしても、今もう２０歳になったんですよ。私。若 い子がすごいあがってくるし、どうしてもやっぱりアイドルが好きなファンの方って若い 子が好きだったりするじゃないですか。 149

I finally reached one of the selected members, but I wonder how it will be from now on, as my age is higher. I was told by fans that I am young, fresh and cute until recently. But now I turned 20 years old, I tell you. More young girls will rise through the ranks, and it’s easy to expect that fans who like aidoru tend to be attracted to the younger types.

In Excerpt 6-2, Minegishi complains that she gets tired very easily because she is already 21 years old, while lying dully on the floor at a studio.

Excerpt 6-2. Minami Minegishi (Kubota et al., 2014) ほんと、ほんとにきつくなってきたから、怖い。まだ２１だってみんなからしたら言われ るかもしれないけど、やっぱり１３歳からやってるって比べちゃうと明らかにやっぱり、 んー疲れが違う。なんか、自分どうなるのかな。 I am scared, because it is becoming really really tough. People may say that I am just 21 years old, but if I compared to the time when I started, I was just 13 years old. It is clearly obvious that it’s a different level of fatigue. I wonder what the future holds for me.

This excerpt is about how easily she gets tired lately. Minegishi suddenly shifted the topic and pondered about her future as whispering nanka jibun dōnarunokana “I wonder what the future holds for me.” This shows that she is feeling a vague sense of unease about getting older.

In Excerpt 6-3, Kitahara has been a part of AKB48 for eight years and hints that 23 years old is not young anymore among aidoru. Prior to the excerpt below, she lamented that her popularity had declined gradually as a member of AKB48, so her ambition as aidoru had also declined. She was then asked to be a captain for a new sister group, NGT48 in Nīgata prefecture, and to assist in launching and managing the group. She wanted to prove that she could be beneficial to the new group by utilizing what she had learned as an experienced

AKB48 member.

Excerpt 6-3. Rie Kitahara (Takenaka & Suzuki, 2016) こんなに大きな計画、プロジェクトに１から参加させてもらうっていうのは人生でなかな かないなと思ったので、経験してみたいな、と思って、もうまぁ、２３歳だし。AKBも８ 年目だけど、まだ新しいことできるんだよ、というのも皆さんにお見せしたかったので、 決断させていただきました。 150

I thought it’s rare to be able to get involved in such a big project from the very beginning, so I thought I wanted to experience that. I am already 23 years old and I have been a part of AKB48 for eight years. I hoped to prove to everyone that I can try something new, so I made my decision (to take the position).

The three aidoru mentioned above regard the early twenties as old, at least as a member of AKB48. As contrasted with Takajō and Minegishi, who worry about their age,

Kitahara found a new role and field in which she can involve herself working both as an aidoru and as a staff member. There are countless unpopular members who left AKB48 because they could not succeed by a certain age.

The original advertisement that recruited AKB48 members indicated that the targeted age was between 13 years old to 22 years old. Akimoto later disclosed that the youngest candidate who passed the audition was either 10 or 11 years old. He did not have any strict lower age limits because he knew it would take a while to train girls as aidoru before their debut (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 23). Therefore, AKB48 consists of a wider age group from preteens to young adults.

It is problematic to conclude that younger aidoru are valued more, but these comments from AKB48 members clearly show that they are sensitive to aging and feel pressure to be younger. Their pressure may be caused by their costumes which are school uniforms. Aidoru specialists (Weekly Playboy Editorial Department, 2011) predict a slim chance of booming in AKB48 after 2009, because many popular AKB48 members would graduate from high school in that year, and lose their student identity and school uniform at the same time (p. 83). Youthfulness is appreciated in both groups, but even more so in

AKB48, as evidenced by the fact that initial recruiting range begins from age 13. 151

6.3.2 Innocence

On top of being young and fresh, aidoru are expected to convey a clean and innocent image. Possible concerns for young female aidoru include illegal behavior such as underage drinking or smoking, and also acts perceived as betraying fans, such as being caught in a relationship. Aidoru can be disgraced by such scandals. Both OC and AKB48 members have been caught in various incidents.

For example, some OC members were caught smoking underage, so they were kicked out of the group (Kasai, 1986, p. 97). None of the AKB48 members left because of illegal acts, but Matsui, a high school student at the time, came close when she was caught going into a bar in Tokyo. However, it turned out that she was with her manager at the time, and there was no evidence that she had been drinking (“AKB48 Matsui Jurina,” 2014).

Rumors about aidoru’s romantic relationships often make a splash in the entertainment magazines. Romantic relationships were prohibited both for OC and AKB48 members on the surface. However, a popular former OC member, Kokushō reveals that this rule only applied to high school members, and high school graduates were exempt from this rule as long as they were discrete (Kokushō, 2012). Another popular OC member, Nitta confesses that she actually had a boyfriend even though she was still a high school student at that time. She even wore a ring that she received from him, and the staff knew about it

(Hasegawa, 2012, p. 222). This episode showed that the rule was not very strict, and having no internet in the 1980s surely helped to keep a secret relationship a secret, unlike today.

Nowadays, thanks to modern technology, such secrets come out and spread very easily. AKB48 members were sometimes photographed when they were with a male friend or a boyfriend, or their private photos were occasionally found by fans on the internet. Akimoto is strict on the no-dating rule for AKB48 members, so some of the suspected members were 152 asked to resign from AKB48, and others were sent to provincial sister groups as a consequence. Every time a romantic relationship was leaked, both the disgraced member and other members talk about their point of view on dating as aidoru. Members’ positions towards romance vary.

Girls who faced painful consequences because they were dating or spending time alone with a man include Masuda, who was observed on a date with her boyfriend. Excerpt

6-4 occurs when she was asked to share her thoughts when showed an article discussing her boyfriend. She was apologetic and she decided to quit AKB48.

Excerpt 6-4. Yuka Masuda (Kubota, et al.,2013) 私が客観的にもしこういう記事を見たら、絶対にそう思うし、否定しようというそういう ことは全く思わないし、応援して下さった人とかファンの人とか親とか友達とかもちろん キャストのみんなとかにも申し訳ないという言葉じゃもううまく言えないですけど、でも 私が今できることはやっぱり、私がこれでAKBにいると周りのメンバーもそれでAKBにい れるんだと思われると思うし、いやほんとにけじめとしてAKBを辞退する。 If I see this kind of articles objectively, I would definitely expect something might have happened. I am not trying to deny the situation at all. The word of expressing sorry for those who have supported me, fans, parents, friends, of course, casts is not enough, and I don’t know how to put it, but what I can do now is… If I stay in AKB, I am sure that people will assume that other AKB48 members (who broke the rule) can continue being a member of AKB48. I leave AKB in order to settle the matter.

Sashihara is another member whose pictures were publicized in a tabloid magazine.

Unlike Masuda, Sashihara left the decision to the producer, Akimoto. Later, Akimoto transferred her from AKB48 in Tokyo to a sister-group HTK48 in Hakata, In Excerpt 6-5,

Sashihara accepts the consequence and shares her resolution to try her best to promote

HTK48. 153

Excerpt 6-5. Rino Sashihara (Kubota, et al.,2013) AKBにそのままいたらきっと後ろめたい気持ちというか、いつか辞めてたと思います。そ の時に辞めてなくてもきっと辞めてたと思います。自分がそこにいる意味もとっくにない と思うし。だから。資格もないと思うし。HKTに入ってからは自分どうこうより、どう やってHKTのことを知ってもらうかっていう仕事があるから私がここに来た理由はそれだ と思ってるので、それが課せられた任務というか意味があるのであれですけど。特にAKB にいたらそういうこともないですし、だからそう思います。 If I stayed with AKB, I would have felt guilty, and ended up leaving the group at some point. I may not have quit then, but I think I would have sooner or later. I did not have any purpose to be there. I thought I didn’t have any rights either. After joining HKT48, I did not focus on myself, but rather my responsibility shifted how I can advertise HKT. That was the job for me and that is why I came here. So, I had a mission and purpose that I had to proceed.I think if I stayed in AKB48, there was no such role for me.

In Excerpt 6-6, Kikuchi comments on the penalty Sashihara was dealt, as she herself was caught dating and removed from the group. Compared to the consequences she faced, she thinks that sending Sashihara to one of the sister groups seemed too lenient.

Excerpt 6-6. Ayaka Kikuchi (Kubota, et al.,2013) 処分は甘かったんじゃないかなって思いました。正直。自分はそういう解雇っていうので 辞めた訳だから。AKBってやっぱりアイドルだし恋愛はやっぱり我慢するものだとわかっ てたけど、やっぱ証拠とか出ちゃうとファンのみなさんにも申し訳ないし、そういうとこ ろでほんとに裏切っちゃったなっていう罪悪感はめっちゃ強かったですね。それなりに指 原も頑張ってる。辛かっただろうけど、うん、がんばってたんじゃないかな、と思ったの で、自分の中でそっとしときました。 I thought the penalty (for Sashihara) might have been too light, to be honest. I quit because I was fired. I understand that AKB is aidoru, so having a relationship should be prohibited. I feel sorry for fans when the evidence is leaked. In that sense, I felt a strong sense of guilt for betraying them. I know that Sashihara is trying hard as much as possible. I am sure it would have been hard, but yes, I thought she was hanging there, so I left it there without saying anything.

Minegishi is the member mentioned previously who went to the extreme of shaving her head to show how sorry she was for being photographed with a man in 2013. In Excerpt

6-7, she is not quite satisfied with the no-dating rule for aidoru. She accepts the rule unwillingly, stating shōganai “no choice.”

Excerpt 6-7. Minami Minegishi (Kubota, et al.,2013) アイドルは恋愛禁止ってしょうがないんでしょうね。そういうものなんでしょうねきっ と。 154

There is nothing we can do since aidoru should not be in relationships. I guess that is what it is.

Quotes described thus far came from members who were photographed being with men. The following excerpts are other members’ opinions about dating while being aidoru.

Excerpt 6-8 and 6-9 are from Takahashi, whose viewpoint on dating among aidoru is forgiving. In Excerpt 6-8, Takahashi contemplates how difficult it must be for members who became aidoru at a slightly older age, because it is frowned upon to have controversial photos revealed, even if such photos were taken before their aidoru career. Takahashi joined AKB48 at only 14 years old, so she had not had any opportunities to date.

Excerpt 6-8. Minami Takahashi (Kubota et al., 2012) んーなんか私すごく難しいと思うのは、例えばまあプリクラの流出だったりとか昔の恋愛 だったりとか。今それが出て来てたりとかするじゃないですか。私たち一期生とか二期生 とかはその段階をふむ前に入ってんですよね。今入ってくる子はリスクが高いんですよ ね。それは17才とかだったり、もう学生生活をちゃんとやってきてて、それなりの友達も いるし、それなりに好きな人もいただろうし、でもAKBに入ってから、頑張ろうと思って 入ってきてるのに、頑張ろうと思う前の物が出てきてしまうっていうのは、それはすごい 辛いですよね。 I think what’s really difficult is, for example, having photos leaked or the news about the past relationship. They started to come out in public. We, the first-generation and the second-generation joined before stepping into the phase. Girls who join now have a higher risk. Because they are around17 years old, and they had a regular school life. They must have their (guy) friends or person they liked romantically. Even if they joined AKB with intention of succeeding, when the things, which took place from even before their determination, came out, it is very unbearable.

Again in Excerpt 6-9, Takahashi sympathizes with members in a relationship being caught on camera. In her mind, aidoru are human before they are aidoru, and falling in love is one aspect of human nature. 155

Excerpt 6-9. Minami Takahashi (Kubota, et al., 2013) 普通の生活をしてたら恋をするなんていうのは当たり前で、むしろみんな応援するもの じゃないですか。でも我々の恋は、応援されないですよね。やっぱりね、起きたっておか しくないじゃないですか。全員が胸はって私はないよって言ったら、誰も言えないですよ ね。 人間だから。何があるかなんて分からないから。そうなったらもう辞めるしかない なと思っちゃいますけど、いることで償わなきゃいけない事もあるかもしれないですけ ど、辞めなきゃいけないんだろうね。 It is human nature to like someone romantically in daily life. This stuff should be usually supported. But our romance would not be supported. Now I think of it, it’s totally understandable such things happen. No one cannot say that it will not happen with confidence. We are human. We don’t know what is going to happen. In that case, I know there is no choice but to quit. There are different ways to make up for what they have done by staying, but for our case, aidoru should quit to show our penitence.

The next two members feel differently and accept the rule as it is. Shinoda in Excerpt

6-10 is willing to wait to date with someone until she leaves AKB48.

Excerpt 6-10. Mariko Shinoda (Kubota, et al., 2013) もし自分に素敵な人が現れたら、その人は自分にとって運命の人じゃないんだなと思う様 にします。だから、例えば、自分が好きだなって思う人が、もし好きな人が現れたとした ら、今は自分は恋愛できない場所にいる訳だから、それは多分この人とは運命の人じゃな いんだろうなと思うし、もし自分が恋愛できる様になったらそこで、出会うのかな、と思 うし。 Even if a nice person appeared to me, I will try to think that the person is not the fate for me. So, for example, the person I think I like, if a nice person appeared, I am in the position that I cannot date, so I would think that it is probably that I am not meant to be with him. If I am in the situation that I can date, then I think I will meet the right person.

Matsui in Excerpt 6-11 prioritizes her aidoru career over dating because the opportunities of being aidoru are rare and are not long-lasting.

Excerpt 6-11. Jurina Matsui (Kubota et al., 2013) だって恋愛なんて大人になればできるもん。大人になれば、できるし、やろうと思ったら いつでもできるんですもん。でもAKBはだって５０歳になってAKBはできないです。し、 オーディションを受けて、たくさんの人がAKBになりたい、SKEになりたいとかいう中 で、選ばれたわけだから、うん、やっぱりそのなれなかった子たちの分まで頑張るべきだ と思うしってうん思ったらうん、うん。ひひひ After I became an adult, I can date. I can do that anytime once I become an adult. On the contrary, I cannot work as an AKB member when I am 50 years old. I passed the audition among many people who wanted to be a member of AKB and SKE. Since I was selected fortunately, I feel like I should do my best to respect the people who could not pass. 156

Observing several aidoru’s discourse regarding dating, different standpoints are presents.

Some members align with the expected aidoru images of being innocent, but others, on the other hand, are reluctantly following the rules or even violating.

The exposure of personal relationships has been the main source of scandal among female aidoru. Since most members were/are teenagers or in their early twenties, it is understandable that the topic of dating comes up frequently, just like other regular girls around the same age. It is not illegal, of course; however, aidoru are expected to be available as a target for fans’ romantic feelings (Kitagawa et al., 2013, p. 6). Therefore, aidoru should be ideally single or at least pretend to be single. Their agencies also try their best to prevent aidoru from dating (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012, p. 6). In one scene in OC documentary, a OC member, Kawai, mentions that she is not supposed to speak with male staff members and she will be scolded. Staff members constantly watched aidoru in order to interrupt any possible dating chances (Inamasu, 1989, p. 207). After all, aidoru are to be an innocent shōjo “little girl” who has nothing to do with smoking, drinking and dating.

6.3.3 Cheerfulness and beyond

The notion of shōjo “little girl” encompasses the cheerful image, and this is another salient for aidoru. According to Akimoto, OC functions like extracurricular activities after school, and members give the impression that they are just having fun (Kasai, 1987, p. 36).

The content in OC’s documentary is in accordance with the description, and members are giggly and making merry for the most part. When OC was popular in the 1980s, it was not common to disclose all the backstage situations, like the current aidoru industry. Therefore, the images of aidoru in the past were hidden in a veil of mystery. A former OC member, imagined that aidoru displayed fake cheerful attitude prior to her aidoru career. After she became an aidoru, she realized that was true. Even when tough situations arose like her father 157 dying, she maintained the cheerful attitude, which she said made her feel exhausted

(Hasegawa, 2012). In fact, Nitta is one of the most energetic members among OC in the documentary.

Although AKB48 displays happiness and positive energy when in public, documentaries of AKB48 comprise of various scenes that are not limited only to cheerful moments, but also display psychological conflicts, anxiety, sorrow, and frustration in their aidoru career. The titles of some documentaries even express AKB48 members’ harsh experiences such as shōjo tachi wa kizutsuki-nagara yume wo miru “Girls dream as they are hurt.” (Kubota et al., 2012) and shōjo tachi wa namida no ato ni nani wo miru? “What do girls see after they shed their tears?” (Kubota et al., 2013)

Some ABK48 members share an understanding of the conventional cheerful image that aidoru perform; however, it is up to each aidoru member whether they want to conform to that image or not. For example, Kashiwagi in Excerpt 6-12 is very aware of aidoru identity and she is happily performing the quintessential aidoru identity, which is to behave girlishly and say something cute. She explains that pretending to act as aidoru became too natural after a while, and Kashiwagi eventually became the true aidoru that she pictures.

Excerpt 6-12. Yuki Kashiwagi (Iwai et al., 2011) 他のメンバーよりもすごいアイドルということにこだわってるなって思うし、すごいアイ ドルをやっている人とかよく言われるんですよ、アイドルを演じているとか。でも最初の 頃は発言一つにしてもすごい演じてるというか、可愛らしいことを言いたいって思ってた んで、自分のダメな部分を出すのが怖かったんですよ。すごいこれどう思われるんだろ う。でも4年ぐらいたってアイドルだったらこういう時こうするなみたいなのは、自分の 考えをやることがすごい楽しいというか、逆にそれが自然体になってるんですよ。 I think I have a more particular image on what aidoru should be than other members. I am often told that I am the person who is acting aidoru, or performing aidoru. But at first, rather I was consciously performing, and I wanted to say something cutesy. I was afraid to show my negative sides and concerned how people would think of me. But about four years have passed, and I came to know that aidoru would behave certain ways in given situations. I enjoy performing aidoru based on what I imagined and it became my nature in the end. 158

Kitahara, in Excerpt 6-13, demonstrates her opinion on expected identity as an entertainer in general. The narrator of the documentary describes her as particularly cheerful and earnest, and she also never shows that she is tired despite her tight schedule. Kitahara constantly puts a smile on her face, because she considers herself to be a perfect aidoru. In her mind, entertainers should be joyful, even though that is contrary to the AKB48 strategy that shows real emotions.

Excerpt 6–13. Rie Kitahara (Takenaka & Suzuki, 2016) 私、考え方古いかもしれないんですけど、芸能人って全部見せる職業じゃないって思って て、明るい一面だけ見せるものだと思って、背景とか見せるの恥ずかしかったんですよ ね。だから、AKBのやり方と自分の考え方に結構差があって、自分の考えは古いんだなっ て思いますけど、でもなんかやっぱどうしてもその考えが、根本がねぇ。 I may have an old-fashioned way of thinking, but I think people in the entertainment business should not show everything, and should show only the bright side. I get shy revealing everything. So there was a gap between my attitude and the AKB48 way of doing things, and I think my way of thinking is old. But in any case, that’s just my nature.

On the other hand, other members express their struggles to meet these expectations.

Based on her observation of previous aidoru, Sashihara in Excerpt 6-14 believes that aidoru should never display a gloomy or dark demeanor. However, she confesses that she cannot fake it anymore after trying extra hard to be cheerful to meet the aidoru images.

Excerpt 6-14. Rino Sashihara (Iwai et al., 2011) 裏を見せちゃいけないと思って「指原です。よろしくおねがいします、」ってみんなに 言ってたんですよ。でも気づいたんですよ、無理だと、ある日。だから指原、急ですよ、 暗くなったの。みんなに明るいと思われてます、ずっと。 I thought (aidoru) should not show their inner feelings. I used to say “My name is Sashihara. Nice to meet you” (with a cheerful voice tone). However, one day I realized that it is impossible to be like that. I became introverted all of a sudden. People always think I am a cheerful person.

Sahihara’s voice pitch was a lot higher when she pretended to introduce herself in the excerpt above. In her mind, the cheerful attitudes that embody perfect aidoruness require a high- pitched, lilting voice, matched with the spirit to keep this mask up at all times. 159

As well as being cheerful, AKB48 members have addressed a few further expected characteristics as aidoru: saying something cute, not behaving boyishly, goofy or nerdy. In

Excerpt 6-15, Miyazaki understands that aidoru should say cute things and wear girly clothes. Yet, she feels that she is not in accordance with the typical aidoru image, because she is not willing to change her sense of boyish fashion.

Excerpt 6-15. Sae Miyazawa (Iwai et al., 2011) アイドルアイドルってやっぱり周りに言われるようになると、アイドルってなんなんだろ うって思い始めて、（なん）か昔は好きな食べ物はチェリーパイとか言わなきゃいけな かったのがアイドルだよみたいなこと言われて、あ、今私それなんだーみたいな全然ジー パンとかこうやってはいてるし私服からだめじゃんでも変えれないやって思いまして。 When people keep telling me that I am aidoru, I started to think what is aidoru. I was told that aidoru should say such their favorite food is cherry pie a while ago. Oh, I realized I am it. I am wearing jeans like this, so my regular clothes are not the best fit. But I can’t change how I am.

Minegishi in Excerpt 6-16 feels she does not fit the typical aidoru image either, because of her overly laid-back easy-going feature.

Excerpt 6-16. Minami Minegishi (Iwai et al., 2011) あぁ、峯岸みたいなそういうノリが多くてちょー自分にはアイドル要素足りないのかな、 とか思うんですけどまぁ、親近感という形で。 I am easy going, so I lack aidoru-like features, but (hopefully people take this as) I am approachable.

In Excerpt 6-17, Watanabe talks about how she used to hide her nerdy aspect, but coming out as being a nerd was actually beneficial for building a good relationship with her fans.

Excerpt 6-17. Mayu Watanabe (Iwai et al., 2011) おたくっていうことをを前面に出していいときとだめなときがあると思うのでそれが大変 です。デビューした頃とかそういうおたくな部分は出してなかったでファンの方は見てて つまんなかったと思いますね、全然そういうキャラクターがなかったので。二次元をすご い立体化したことによって距離が縮まったような。素晴らしいものですよね。大好きで す。ギャップがいいね、とかよく言われるので良かったですね。 160

It’s tough because I think sometimes it’s ok to show a nerdy aspect, and sometimes it’s not. Around the time I debuted, I did not show my nerdy side, so I’m sure fans were bored watching me. I did not have such a nerd character. It seems like the distance (between me and fans) shrink once I present myself as the three-dimensional character from a two- dimensional world. It is wonderful. I like it so much. People say the gap is good, so it all worked out in the end.

Lastly, Ōshima in Excerpt 6-18 has an interesting viewpoint that she does not regard herself as aidoru. She thinks, in fact, AKB48 is not an aidoru group either.

Excerpt 6-18. Yūko Ōshima (Iwai et al., 2011) アイドルと思ってないし自分のこと。アイドルっていうよりもAKB48ていうグループジャ ンルの枠のその中に私がいるっていう風に思ってます。典型的なスタイルというかキャラ があるじゃないですか。それを全部もうひっくり返しちゃったんで。 I don’t consider myself aidoru. Rather than aidoru, I think like I belong to the particular genre of AKB48. Aidoru have typical styles and characters, don’t they? (We) overruled all that.

Ōshima does not explain what the typical aidoru is, but she says “Aidoru have typical styles and characters, don’t they?” in the excerpt above. This shows that she assumes the notion of aidoru is understood without clarification.

Although these excerpts indicate that AKB48 members clearly have the conventional aidoru images, the way of approaching the image varies. Kashiwagi and Kitahara try their best to carry their imagined aidoru personas, while others like Sashihara, Miyazawa,

Minegishi, Watanabe and Ōshima are not eager to follow the image. In the earlier section, the expression of aidoru rashiku nai aidoru “aidoru who are not typical aidoru” (Katsuki, 2014, p. 64) is addressed. This label is created because current aidoru are actually too beautiful and skilled in singing or dancing unlike a majority of aidoru in the past. Similarly, for those who go against the typical aidoru image seem to embrace their own identity, and fans seem to accept who they are. To put it another way, the unsuitable elements such as boyish appearances, and easy-going and nerdy persona are forgiving criteria for being successful aidoru today. 161

6.3.4 Mediocrity

Watching a refined performance is not a priority for aidoru fans. As previous studies point out, aidoru need to be somewhat mediocre in physical appearance, dancing and singing skills (e.g., Galbraith & Karlin, 2012; Katsuki, 2014; Monden, 2014). As I have stated in

Chapter 4.1, mediocrity is what Akimoto looks for when recruiting new members.

The mediocre features stand out among OC members. For example, Nitta decided to audition because the concept for the group was “Ordinary Female High School

Students” (Hasegawa, 2012, p. 226). As advertised, none of the successful candidates had beautiful physical traits nor exceptional performance skills. Nitta once overheard a famous singer saying that Nitta’s singing voice was like a broken TV (Hasegawa, 2012, p. 226). Nitta was not particularly disappointed by this; however, she evaluates herself as three out of five in every possible aspect (p. 214).5 A mediocre “three” was exactly what was expected of her, and she was even explicitly told by her personal assistant to maintain her ordinariness. In order to prevent Nitta from becoming and acting like a star, she was made to carry her own belongings by her personal assistant despite the fact that many other celebrities were treated like someone special (Hasegawa, 2012, p. 220). Even one of the OC members, Shiraishi admits to OC’s poor singing skills. With this reason, she does not like to watch their recorded videos. Since their singing skills are too poor, recordings are not usually very easy to listen to. Both Tatsumi and Kokushō needed other OC members to sing with them to cover their bad singing (Inamasu, 1989, p. 202; Kokushō, 2012). Furthermore, Kokushō had to record her solo phrase by phrase in order to sing in tune (Kokushō, 2012).

5 The grade system at junior high and high school in Japan is often the numbering system from one to five. The number one is poor and five is excellent, as opposed to the letter grade from A to F in the states. 162

As for AKB48, many AKB48 members are not content with their appearances and performing abilities as in the following successive excerpts. In Excerpt 6-19, Kitahara expresses that she is bothered when people point out her unexceptional face, because she is aware of that without being told.

Excerpt 6-19. Rie Kitahara (Takenaka & Suzuki, 2016) 自分で気づかないこと言われても嬉しいじゃないですか。最近公演だめだね、とか。で も、ブスとか言われるとそんなのわかってるんだけど。ブスなことくらい。自分でも分 かってますよ、中途半端な顔ってことぐらいって思います。 If someone points out something I don’t realize, I would be happy, such as “Her performance is not good lately”. But, if someone tells me that I am ugly, I already know that I am ugly. I think that I know my face is not particularly pretty.

The following Excerpt 6-13 is taken from a book written by Sashihara, who has placed first a few times in the general election, also acknowledges her flaws as aidoru, because she lacks singing and dancing skills besides not being cute (Sashihara, 2014, p. 180).

Excerpt 6-20. Rino Sashihara (Sashihara, 2014) アイドルとしては、欠点のほうが多いんですよ。歌もヘタだしダンスもヘタだし、かわい くないし。こういう言い方をすると「そんなことないよ、って言われたいの？」と思われ るかもしれないですけど、本気でそう思ってるんです。分かるんです。客観視だけは得意 なので。 As an aidoru, I have more flaws (than the strengths). I am poor at singing, poor at dancing, and I am not cute. If I say such thing, people may think “Do you want other people to tell you ‘That’s not true!’ ?”. But I seriously think so. I just know because my one strength is my ability to be objective.

Similarly, Jō lacks confidence and Jō even contemplates leaving AKB48 once because of the unbearable pressure to perform well. In Excerpt 6-21, she compares herself to other members and wonders why she was selected for the group.

Excerpt 6-21. Eriko Jō (Kubota et al., 2012) 私よりもっとダンスうまくって、かわいい子とか歌がうまい子とかいるのに、なんで私な んやろうっていつも思ってました。 There were girls who were cuter and better at dancing and girls who were better at singing. I always thought “Why me?”. 163

Like the AKB48 members in these three excerpts above from Excerpt 6-19 to 6-21, other

AKB48 often lament that they are not good enough.

The mediocre traits of aidoru have an interesting dynamic. Given that expectations towards aidoru have never been that high in general, and exceptional skills and appearance can be unfavorable for being aidoru, it seems ironic to observe how AKB48 members get depressed due to their unsatisfactory appearances and singing and dancing talents. Their mundane features surely align with the expected “mediocre” aidoru identity, however aidoru themselves are pessimistic because of this. Hypothetically, what if their mediocre performance were just a performance for the listeners in order to fulfill aidoru’s nonthreatening roles? If that is the case, what happens when aidoru perform too well?

As a matter of fact, Kasai (1987) who was involved with OC shares an episode at the recording of the very first OC song “Sērāhuku o nugasa nai de “Please don’t take off my sailor uniform.” Kasai instructed OC members to sing poorly on purpose. He has rejected the recordings when their singing was deemed too skilled. He even asked for an amateurish music quality to produce the unpolished feeling (Kasai, 1987, p. 82). The target audience for

OC was young male, and the male creators were aware that “unpolished mediocrity” was going to be the sales trick. Kasai’s comment confirms that even a singing skill (or a perceived lack thereof) is crafted by a male director.

6.3.5 Professionalism

Sayawaka points out that the major difference between OC and AKB48 is the amateur nature of Onyanko Club (2015, p. 113). Multiple data sources including documentaries indicate that OC members do not seem to be taking the career of an aidoru seriously. As stated briefly earlier, OC members are constantly teasing each other and staff, and giggling 164 throughout the documentaries. They are seated in rehearsals for the live concert, and they even make fun of other members who are focused on practice.

Nitta looks back at the time of OC and acknowledges her lack of professionalism. She regarded OC as a part-time job that paid well. She was happy just to make good memories of appearing on TV shows because it was a once in a lifetime experience (Hasegawa, 2012, pp.

213-214). Kasai (1986) shares many episodes where OC members’ lack professionalism. For instance, Kawai used to disappear whenever she was scolded by her manager, and she would also run away to hang out with her friends (p. 30). Watanabe sometimes left to see her mother without permission whenever she felt homesick (p. 33). Yoshizawa cried during the shooting for a TV drama because she did not want to wear a costume prepared by the staff (p. 102).

Quite a few girls often forgot to bring belongings like costumes, and being late for jobs was frequent (p. 40). Live concerts were just like school trips and members were playing card games in their rooms instead of practicing (p. 104). In addition, many girls loved eating sweets, especially during the concert tours, so their stylist had to resize their clothes all the time, even though as aidoru they were expected to watch their weight (p. 58 & p. 62).

There were at least a few OC members who took their aidoru career seriously. At times, the different level of professionalism influenced members’ relationships. For example,

Tatsumi wanted to be well-prepared and practice for the concerts, but was frustrated because others were not cooperative (Hasegawa, 2012, p. 108). Kokushō revealed that although she was practicing dancing very hard, the other members seemed not to care so much even though they made mistakes. The difference in attitude between her and other members became a source of tension, and she was gradually isolated from the group (Kokushō, 2012). 165

In contrast, AKB48 members are team players, and AKB48’s professionalism is visible in many scenes in documentaries. For instance, after one of AKB48’s live concerts, members were not content with their poor performance as shown in Excerpt 6-22 and 23.

Excerpt 6-22. Yūko Ōshima (Kubota et a., 2012) 最悪な一日目でした。なんて最悪なものを見せてしまったんだろう。 It was a horrible first day. How come we shamefully showed such a horrible thing!

Excerpt 6-23. Atsuko Maeda (Kubota et a., 2012) 目指し方をわかってなかったんだと思います、大きな会場でやることに対して。だからと りあえず、個人個人がダンスをがむしゃらに覚えて、っていうので精一杯で終わっていた ので、そこから先が見えてなかったですね。でも、そんなのを見せてたのか、俺たちにっ て言われちゃうのかな、と思うんですけど。ほんとに申し訳なかったな、と思います。 I think (we) didn’t understand how to aim (for a goal) to perform at a big hall. Although we tried memorizing dance choreography the best we could do, we could not foresee beyond that. The audience may think “AKB48 shows such an unrefined thing.” I am truly sorry.

Kojima in Excerpt 6-24 shares how they practiced in the dark after the concert and prepared for the next day, including the talk on the stage between songs.

Excerpt 6-24. Haruna Kojima (Kubota et a., 2012) けっこうチームAで、真っ暗の中西武ドームの前ってほんとすっごい暗いんですね。まっ くらの中懐中電灯つけて、位置とか見えないんですけど、夜遅くまで練習してMCとかも 二日目はすごい考えましたね。 In front of the Sēbu dome is very dark. In the dark, we, Team A, practiced with the light of flashlight even though we could not see very much until late at night, and prepared

On the second day of the concert, everyone put forth an effort, and the concert went successfully. After the second day, members commented as follows:

Excerpt 6-25. Minami Takahashi (Kubota et a., 2012) なんか歯止めがきかなくなって。一生懸命がんばらなきゃやらなきゃっていう。やりきれ たっていう部分はあったんですけどね、熱中症とかバタバタみんなたおれちゃったし。 Everyone did their upmost to improve their concert as many of them ended up suffering from heatstroke and some hyperventilated. 166

Excerpt 6-26. Yuki Kashiwagi (Kubota et a., 2012) なんかもうその限界を超えてしまったそのなんかがむしゃらにほぼ気力だけでやってる感 じがすごいなんか気持ちよかったです。ここまでなんかやれるんだってことを知りまし た。 Everyone exceeds the limits of their capabilities, but it was by willpower that we got through, and I realized that they could accomplish that much.

One of the big factors as to why OC and AKB48 have such a different level of professionalism must be because AKB48 members are very aware of the short-lived nature of aidoru career, and put forth extra effort to make up for this shortened life.

Some OC and AKB48 members had a chance to talk with each other on a Japanese

TV show, ‘Naruhodo! High School SP’ (Cited in Maki, 2011). In the show, a few former OC members gave tips to AKB48 members based on their previous aidoru experiences. OC members warned AKB48 member that they are popular because of the help of famous

Akimoto. Then, once AKB48’s popular phase has passed, the media will not pay attention to them. Therefore, it is important to build their various skills in order to survive in the entertainment field. The members of AKB48 took this warning well, and responded that they understood the reality, and they would continue to improve their expertise (Maki, 2011).

In Excerpt 6-27, Maeda mentions that there is a prime time for every group, and it declines after reaching a certain peak. She thinks it is best to try something new in order to extend their freshness as much as possible.

Excerpt 6-27. Atsuko Maeda (Iwai et al., 2011) 多分みんなの中では来年2011年どう頑張るかじゃない？ってことはよく話します。ピーク は絶対あるじゃないですか。いつ来てもおかしくないなとも思ってるので、だからまあ私 たちはどんどん新しい事をやり続けていくしかないかなとも思うし。 We often discuss whether we remain to be popular or not depends on how much effort we put in 2011. Everybody has their peak time. The peak and the following decline in popularity could come anytime, so we have no choice but to keep doing new things. 167

In a similar vein, another member, Minegishi, mentions in Excerpt 6-28 that while

AKB appears in various media such as magazines and TV programs now, she does not expect this trend to continue and believes their fame to be temporary.

Excerpt 6-28. Minami Minegishi (Iwai et al., 2011) すごくAKBAKBっていって、ま、ちやほやされてるじゃないですけどいろんな雑誌とかも 番組とかもすごく取り上げてくれてるけどちょっとしたら離れていくこともなんとなく予 想ついてるし。 AKB is in demand now, and we appear in many magazines and TV programs, but it’s pretty easy to assume that it will stop soon.

As Maeda and Minegishi mention, they know that AKB48 will not last forever.

Despite the members’ concerns, it is true that AKB48 has lasted thirteen years, as of today in

2018. Thirteen years is a lot longer compare with OC who lasted only two years and a few months. As I mentioned earlier, AKB48 members choose to leave AKB48 to go on a solo career, once they think they are too old. Some also left because they broke the no-dating rule.

However, new members constantly join the group, which helps them to be fresh and dynamic.

The characteristic fluidity of AKB48 members might have been the key to why AKB48 is still going strong in the entertainment business.

A currently booming aidoru group, AKB48, is not naive, and they understand their status as a popular fad. Since AKB48 has witnessed a majority of aidoru groups disappearing within a short period, a sense of crisis towards the short lived-nature of an aidoru careers raises members’ motivation effectively. That is how their constant endeavors are reflect in their professionalism.

6.3.6 Leadership

Although each OC member was assigned a number, this was not based on popularity like AKB48. The first initial 11 members picked their numbers randomly by drawing lots. 168

After that, new members’ numbers were based on the time of admission to the group.

Therefore, OC members did not have clear hierarchy, so no one stepped up to take charge.

However, AKB48 members have more clear positions with the combination of

“general election” to determine AKB48 members’ popularity by fans, countless admission periods, wide age ranges and officially assigned roles. The following consecutive excerpts show their responsibilities to guide other members, as a leader, as an ace and as a sempai

“senior.”

Excerpt 6-29. Minami Takahashi (Iwai et al., 2011) 新チームで一からやり直さなきゃいけなくなった時にそうだな自分がひっぱっていなきゃ いけないんだなっとすごい改めて思いましたし。 When we had to start as a new team, well, I realized again that I had to lead the team.

Excerpt 6-30. Yuko Ōshima (Iwai et al., 2011) あっちゃんはずっと真ん中をやって立ってきてたのでそれのもどかしさていうのも知った しAKBを引っ張っていこうねてゆー思いですね。 Acchan has been performing at the center, and I learned how she is frustrated. I just think I will have to lead AKB48 together with her.

Excerpt 6-31. Haruna Kojima (Iwai et al., 2011) いろんな種類があるらしいんですよリーダーには、それでなんか背中を見せるタイプの リーダーがいるらしくて。じゃあ私はそれならできるかなと思って。 It seems like there are different types of leaders, and there is a leader who shows their back (to show how they are without telling them what to do). If it’s so, I can do that.

Excerpt 6-32. Tomomi Itano (Kubota et al., 2013) 先輩になったなっていうか 今はずっと見られてるじゃないですか 後輩に。なんか変なと ころ見せたら ダメだなっていう風に私でもちょっとは思います I feel like I became sempai “senior.” I am being constantly watched by kōhai “the junior.” Even I think I should not show them something I cannot be proud of.

Even without having clear social roles, each AKB48 member is encouraged to be an independent thinker and ponder how they can contribute to the group and also how they can be at their best. After Akimoto observed a poor quality of live performances, he cautions members, “You should think of the meaning of why you perform on the stage. Each of you 169 should think what is the best order to sing, what is the good thing to speak on the stage” (Kubota et al., 2012). He even mentions in the book that he constantly demands both

AKB48 members and staff members to “think 24 hours”(Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 81).

6.3.7 Dream

Both groups, OC and AKB48, consist of many young girls, and they all have different dreams and future plans. While most OC members simply enjoyed the aidoru career of singing and dancing for the time being, many AKB48 members regard their aidoru careers as a stepping-stone career and dream further to achieve stardom in the entertainment industry

(Takenaka, 2015, p. 52).

In fact, individual members of AKB48 are already involved in different types of jobs outside of the normative aidoru career. For example, Itano was contracted to a fashion brand

(Okajima et al., 2011, p. 20). Kojima worked as a lingerie model and appeared on a women’s magazine. She states that she is happy to have female fans, because she used to think women have more critical viewpoints on aidoru in general. She started to feel that female aidoru have been gradually accepted by women (Kawakami, 2013).

Traditionally, aidoru promote kawaii images and not sexy images, especially for popular aidoru groups. However, after AKB48 members became nationwide public figures in

Japan, they started to appear on what is called gurabia6, which is a type of photoshoot where girls in swimsuits strike sexy poses (Okajima et al., 2011; Kitagawa et al., 2013). They even appeared on a weekly Playboy and Weekly Big Comic Sprits in 2007 (Okajima et al., 2011, p.

41). After that, several individual members published photo-albums and DVDs in swimsuits as well. In addition, more and more individual members and the whole group started to

6 The term gurabia originally came from French, gravure which indicates a type of printing technique. This technique was introduced to print photos for magazines, and gradually the term gurabia started to indicate photos of women for magazines, mainly for female aidoru (http://www.excite.co.jp/News/ column_g/20110617/Mycom_freshers_column_2011_06_post_71.html). 170 appear wearing lingerie in various media. Projecting a sexy characteristic has begun to be another common feature of their aidoru identity.

Although there are several platforms to work as a member of AKB48, many of the members have expressed that they would want to remain in the entertainment business industry even after they leave AKB48. A few members want to become actresses. Ōshima, in

Excerpt 6-33 talks about her aspiration to continue challenging herself and is eager to express herself artistically. As part of expressing herself, she hopes to go into acting whether she becomes famous or not.

Excerpt 6-33. Yūko Ōshima (Iwai et al., 2011) 卒業はずっと考えていますね。もう１９くらいからずっと考えてます。自信はないです。 自信はないけど、チャレンジはしたいです。なんでもやりたいですね。ほんとに、なんで も。土にまみれてもいいし、アートであるんだったら裸になってもいいし。んーなんで も。やりたいです。表現したいですね。お芝居が好きなんで、こういう風に仕事でやれて るのが好きなんで、それが続いていけばいいな、と。売れなくても、地味にお芝居をやっ ていける、好きなことやれてることが幸せなんで。 I have constantly thought about graduation. I have already started to think since around 19 years old. I am not confident. I am not confident, but I want to challenge myself. I want to do anything. Really anything. I can get muddy, I can be naked as long as it’s art. Well, anything. I want to do. I want to express. I like acting, so I like doing it as my job, so I hope this continues. Even if I will not be famous, I will be happy to keep acting simply and do what I like.

Maeda, Ōshima’s arch rival, expresses in Excerpt 6-34 that she hopes to stay in the group as long as possible, but she hints that AKB48 is a stepping-stone into another career for her. She believes that the ultimate goal of AKB48 members is that everyone will eventually start their personal career without relying on the name of AKB48.

Excerpt 6-34. Atsuko Maeda (Iwai et al., 2011) AKBには居続けられる限りいたいなとは思いますけど、でもAKBみんなの最終目標は AKBからどう羽ばたいていけるかなので、まーAKB48ていう名前がなくても、どれだけ やっていけるかが勝負かなと思いますし。 I would like to stay in AKB48 as long as possible, but everybody’s goal is where they will go after AKB48. The point is how each member can survive without relying on the brand name of AKB48. 171

Then in Excerpt 6-35, Maeda shares exactly what she wants to become. She discusses the fact that both Ōshima and Maeda share the same dream of acting and they hope to act together in the future.

Excerpt 6-35. Atsuko Maeda (Kubota et al., 2012) でも二人には夢があります。二人ともそのそういうお芝居にも興味があるし、映画もドラ マも見るし、舞台も興味があって、いつか一緒に二人で舞台でお芝居をしたいねって話し たことがあって、優子がそれを覚えててくれて、だから今ではそれが、二人の夢になって ますね。 But we have a shared dream. We are both interested in acting, and watch movies and dramas. We are also interested in stage acting, so we have discussed that someday we want to act on stage together. Yūko remembers that, so that is our dream.

Other members wish to become professional singers. In Excerpt 6-36, Itano reveals her goal of eventually becoming a solo singer. She confesses that she goes to private voice lessons whenever she has a chance, because she takes singing and dancing very seriously.

Excerpt 6-36. Tomomi Itano (Iwai et al., 2011) めっちゃボイトレいってます。仕事おわってこのあいだも公演終わった後も行かなきゃと 思って歌に関して、人前で歌うの恥ずかしいです。なんかメンバーがいると大丈夫なんで すけど、やっぱそこですよね。しゃべりとかはまぁしょうがないよね、みたいな、まだ。 でもやっぱ歌とかダンスとかは本気だから、それだけ自分にもこう成功さなきゃって。こ の先どうなるかはほんとに全然わかんなくてそんなすぐに卒業したいとか思わないし、 AKB48はやっぱ好きだし、だから一番最後には1人でシンガーとして輝ける人になりたい なっていうのはありますね。 I go to voice training a lot. After my job, I thought the other day that I got to go even after the live concert. I get shy singing in public. If I am performing with other members, I am okay. I am not too concerned with the lack of my speaking skills, but I take singing and dancing seriously, so I try to be successful in those areas. I am not sure about the future at all. I do not want to graduate so soon. I like AKB48, but I would like to be a solo singer in the end.

Yokoyama in Excerpt 6-37, now one of the main members, was still a trainee in the group when she revealed that her ultimate goal was to become a singer. However, her aim was to become the best in all areas compared to other members who joined AKB48 in the same generation as her, to tackle what lies ahead of her, and to be promoted as an official member of AKB48. 172

Excerpt 6-37. Yui Yokoyama (Iwai et al., 2011) 歌手になるのは研究生じゃなくてちゃんとチームに上がってからちゃんとレベルアップし て歌手になりたいと思ってるからとりあえず同期の子にはまぁ、ん、いろんな全部の面で 負けたくないなと思ってたんですけど、ずっと歌手になりたいってのは思ってたんですけ ど、やっぱ今はもっとなりたくって、でもやっぱそれはたかみなさんだったり篠田さんと 近くにいてやっぱ、うん、影響受けたんもあると思います。

やっぱり選抜に入りたいと思ってますね。そのためには今、自分ができること、目の前に あることを一個一個ちゃんとクリアして、でやっぱみなさんに認められるようになりたい なと思ってて、うん、でもやっぱり今のAKBの中での目標は選抜に入ることです。 I want to become a singer not as a trainee but as an official member after I improve my skills. I do not want to lose to members who joined the same time as me. I always wanted to become a singer, but the feeling is even stronger now. I think I am influenced by other members such as Takahashi-san and Shinoda-san. I wanted to be an official member. In order to do that, I will have to tackle all the tasks that are ahead of me. I want to be acknowledged, but yes, now, I just want to be an official AKB48 member.

Shinoda, who has been a part of AKB48 from almost the beginning7 and one of the most popular and oldest members, wants every member to have a bigger dream outside of

AKB48. In her opinion, if members’ goal is solely to become a member of AKB48, they will have narrow horizons. Shinoda wants to become a role model to guide them to look at the bigger world. Many members look up to the confident Shinoda, so her opinion is influential and her standard extends to the entire group. Whether members strive to succeed as a part of

AKB48 or for their future career, everybody knows that trying their best at the moment will lead them one step closer to their dream. Knowing that they have only a limited time frame to gain adequate popularity, they can make determined efforts to succeed in an aidoru career first.

6.3.8 Self-directed opportunities

The self-directed opportunities are different between the two groups, OC and AKB48.

AKB48 members have a lot more opportunities and occasions to share their feelings and

7 She joined a few months later AKB48 was created with an exception. Since she was the only person who was accepted then, she is called 1.5th-generation member. 173 opinions. Several sources reveal that members of OC had limited control over what they said.

For example, all talk that took place on stage was scripted by the staff in advance (Sakai,

1986, p. 108). An ex-OC member, Nitta, mentions that she was like a puppet who was wearing a mask. It was just as she imagined before she entered the aidoru industry

(Hasegawa, 2012, p. 224). The documentary of OC includes a scene where a member gave an insufficient response for a simple question during a TV show. Even when the members were given an opportunity to speak up, they could not convey anything. Since the lack of self- directed opportunities were default, they were not used to speaking their own opinions even when they were directly asked.

On the other hand, AKB48 has wider self-directed opportunities regarding what they say and do. At live concerts, each AKB48 member comes up with her own catchphrase that helps fans to remember who they are and also prepares what they talk on the stage between their songs. Akimoto guarantees that he never writes any scripts for what AKB48 members say at live concerts; however, he admits that he used to write detailed scripts before AKB48 groups because the concept of AKB48 is to reveal everything as they are (Akimoto & Tahara,

2013, p. 104). Many AKB48 members are involved in planning and organizing live concerts.

Shinoda discusses how her mind has shifted from passive to active in the process of organizing a concert as in Excerpt 6-38.

Excerpt 6-38. Mariko Shinoda (Iwai et al., 2011) 今までは与えられたものをそのまま覚えてやってたんですけど、毎回こう与えられたもの をやっていくっていうのも、なんか自分たちがずっとやってるものなのに、なんかもった いないな、というのもあって、初めて、構成っていうんですかね、私たちはこういうス テージにしたいからというのを伝えて、なんかこう１から作ったっていう感じですね。 I used to memorize and do only as I was told to do until recently, but I started to feel wasteful if I just do only what I am told. We are the one who has actually been in the spotlight. For the first time, we told our ideas in terms of stage direction, and I feel like we contributed in making this group from scratch. 174

Whenever main members graduate from AKB48, the theme of concerts are about the graduates. When Haruna Kojima graduated from the group, she was partly in charge of planning and organizing. She participated in many meetings with staff, and decided which songs to sing and came up with the idea of how to end the concert. Not only did some members design the stage, others even engaged in recruiting new members and writing song lyrics.

As the AKB48 group became widely well-known and popular, many members started to appear on TV, and some TV shows have AKB48 members as hosts. Naturally, abilities in speaking articulately, mentioning witty comments, and communicating with other guests are required, because the audience of TV shows are not limited only to AKB48 fans, unlike their live concerts, but also to the wider viewers. In Excerpt 6-39, Ōya is not shy to show how jealous she is when she finds one of her close members, Sashihara, started to appear frequently on a variety of TV shows such as quiz show and talk show. Since Ōya experienced that her scenes were often removed from the actual airing, she started to put her efforts in improving her ability to comment something funny in order to be aired. She showed her ambivalent feelings of catching up with her and overtaking her (Kubota et al., 2012). This shows a glimpse of AKB48’s professionalism.

Excerpt 6-39. Shizuka Ōya (Kubota et al., 2012). 指原とかがバラエティーめっちゃでてるのが悔しかったから、ノート作りまして、バラエ ティーに出たら、その出た日に、その自分的におもしろいと思った所、これはいいんじゃ ないかと思った所とか書き出して、で、その後は、オンエアーを見て、自分的におもしろ いと思ったのにカットされた所を見つけて、なんでそこカットされたのかとか書き出すよ うになりました。負けたくないっていうか、でもやっぱり指原すごい仲良くて、何て言っ たらいいんだろうな、負けたくないっていうか一緒にがんばりたくて、追いつきたい、の かな。でも追い越したいですけど。 175

I was jealous of Sashihara who has frequently appeared on comedy TV shows and such, so I made a note. Whenever I make appearances on a comedy TV show, I make notes of the points that I thought interesting and the parts that I thought went well on the day. Then, after watching the on-air, I look for the parts that have been deleted even though I thought they were interesting. I then write down the reasons why they were removed. I do not want to lose but I am very close to Sashihara. I don’t know how to say. Not that I don’t want to lose, but I wanna try hard together with her. Maybe, I want to catch up with her. But I want to surpass her.

In a similar vein, each member more or less has a choice to determine which team they want. AKB48 comprises three teams of A, K, and B. Besides AKB48, there are many sister groups in Japan and outside of Japan. It seems like a trend to transfer to a different group, when members feel they reached a dead end within the group. The following excerpts introduce members’ complex feelings towards transferring. In Excerpt 6-40, Ōta felt she was left behind by other members who joined the group later than her. She was not confident that she would gain more popularity within the group, so she decided to transfer to a different group.

Excerpt 6-40. Aika Ōta (Kubota, et al., 2013) なんか後輩に抜かされていって、でもどうしたら前にでれるのかもわかんなくて、とりあ えず自分が与えられたことをなんかこなすことがしかできなくてそれじゃだめなんだ な、って気づいてたんですけど、大きな決断自分でしたことなかったし、ちょっと大人に もなりたいなと思ってたから、まぁ、辛い道を選んでみたんですけど… Members who have joined later than I did became more successful as aidoru. I do not know how to improve my ranking position within AKB48. I was just tackling what I was given, but I noticed it is not enough. I have not made my big decision till now, and I want to grow up. Therefore, I took the more difficult choice (and decided to transfer to a different group).

AKB48’s sister groups are not only in Japan, but are in other countries in the world as well. Miyazawa in Excerpt 6-41 moves to Jakarta, and Suzuki in Excerpt 6-42 transfers to

Shanghai with a similar reason as Ōta. Suzuki expresses her feelings that she does not belong in AKB48. Even though she performed the most at the AKB48 live concert hall, it did not give her satisfaction. 176

Excerpt 6-41. Sae Miyazawa (Kubota et al., 2013) AKB48でここ何年かやってきてなかなか這い上がれない壁というものが自分の目の前に あったから、ずっとここでもがいているのも自分もくやしいし、応援してくれるファンの みんなにも悪いし、だったら新天地で新しいとこに行ってチャレンジしたほうが人生一回 だし世界は広かるかも、視野は広がるかなって… I have worked as AKB48 for several years, but there is an impenetrable wall that I cannot get over. It is frustrating to struggle here, and I am sorry for the fans who have supported me. You only get one shot at life, and my world and vision may widen if I go someplace else for a change.

Excerpt 6-42. Mariya Suzuki (Kubota, et al., 2013) 今まではずっと端っこだったりして、私なんかほんとにAKBっていう感じが全然しなく て、それがすごい悔しかったんですよ。いくら公演で、チームBの公演でその年で一番出 たって言われて、ファンの人からおめでとうって言ってもらっても公演だけじゃなんか物 足りなくて公演も大好きなんですけど、もっと世界に行きたいなと思ったので、もっとた くさん幅を広げるためにはやっぱり海外移籍することがチャンスをつかめるきっかけにな ればいいなと思ったのでまだ成功もしてないし、いちかばちかなんですけど、かけてみよ うと思って決めました。 I don’t feel like I belong to AKB, which has deeply frustrated me. No matter how many times I perform at the concert hall as Team B, and fans tell me ‘congratulations’ for performing the most this year, it is not enough. Even if I like to perform at the hall, I still would like to go to a bigger world and experience even more. I thought transferring to a group in a foreign country could help me in getting this opportunity. I have not accomplished anything yet, so I want to take a chance.

Most every member in this group wants to become popular and well-known. These members decided to transfer to a new place, because they hope to gain more fame.

Both AKB48 and OC have various media for fans to see including TV, live concerts, books, and magazines. However, the biggest difference between now and in the 1980s is the presence of the internet. AKB48 members have their own blog pages and use social networking services such as Twitter and Youtube. AKB48 can speak relatively freely on these sites. These opportunities are vital to send messages and make announcements about their news and activities in order to build good relationships with fans nowadays. They sometimes communicate with fans directly on these websites as well. This way, it is easier and faster for

AKB48 members to express their own feelings and advertise themselves because many of them are not edited by the producer. 177

These self-directed opportunities do not always work positively, and they can occasionally damage both individual members and the group. Recently, Sudō of NMB48, which is one of the AKB48’s sister groups, surprised everyone at the 9th annual popularity contest on June 17, 2017 by announcing that she was going to resign from the group to get married (“Dai 9 Kai,” 2017). Many people purchase tickets to witness the contest in person and it is aired live on TV as well. Each voting ticket is obtained by purchasing a CD and many core fans buy multiple CDs to obtain the tickets. Not to mention, some of the core fans enjoy dreaming of AKB48 members as if these girls are their girlfriend. Therefore, it is easy to imagine that Sudo’s announcement shocked everyone and disappointed the fans who had voted for her. Since media paid attention to this event, people made a fuss about the incident.

Sudō, after announcing for her engagement, later on explained and apologized for her situation to current members, previous members and fans (“NMB Sudō,” 2017).

Both previous and current AKB48 members reacted to this scandal and expressed their opinions on the internet, and some of them included very improper messages. For instance, Ōshima, who has now graduated from AKB48, criticized Sudō’s announcement via

Twitter, and showed a cap that she had been wearing with a swearword. She later made a public apology (“Yūko Ōshima," 2017). Compared to the time when OC was popular,

AKB48 members have much more occasions and locations to speak freely without being controlled or edited, predominantly because of the internet. Even in the two groups’ documentaries, AKB48 members were asked to share their opinions unlike in the OC documentaries. Thus, the self-directed opportunities and chances at sharing their feelings can both promote their aidoru career and hurt aidoru’s public image at the same time. Although

AKB48 members have the power to control what they say and how they act, this is only true 178 because their management grants them that power. At the same time, the music industry grants them this semi-autonomy as it speculates this is what the audience want to observe.

6.4 Chapter summary and discussion

The groups OC and AKB48 are often described to be similar to the school structure and the relationships among group members are also similar to those of school classmates

(e.g., Sakai, 1987; Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 114). It is true that OC and AKB48 members have a few common features; however there are many identities and characteristics that are currently negotiating and also that are already diverged.

The images that aidoru should be young and innocent are still prevalent today, so the shōjo features are shared between the two groups as shown in Table 6-1 in the earlier section.

However, closer observation reveals that aidoru were not just incompetent cute objects.

Current aidoru have more chances to display various aspects of their personalities and capabilities. Members from both groups understand that aidoru ought to be cheerful; however, AKB48 shows various emotions, which is part of AKB48 marketing strategy. With these reasons, characteristics of mediocrity and cheerfulness are in the process of negotiation.

Even though many aidoru usually disappear relatively quickly, AKB48 has managed to remain over a decade. What differs greatly between the two groups are AKB48’s professionalism and self-determination. AKB48 members are committed fully to aidoru careers, so these attitudes have diverged, compared to OC members.

Differences in characteristics between the two groups are due in part to the different management policies. Inamasu (1989) explains that celebrities in the entertainment industry, including aidoru, usually belong to a talent agency (p. 183). These agencies usually recruit the them, train them to become aidoru and popularize. During the process, the agencies invest money to cultivate their performing skills and promote them in the entertainment 179 industry while protecting the pure aidoru images, just as a manager and a guardian would.

Interestingly, OC was owned by a single television company, Fuji Television Network. TV stations had been regarded as one of the platforms where the agencies can advertise and promote aidoru and other artists in the entertainment field. Therefore, the aidoru group that was owned by a TV station was an unheard-of example. Needless to say, OC appeared only on Fuji Television exclusively. This characteristic prevented the members from appearing on various TV channels during the two years of OC activity. Since people regarded that Fuji TV station owned OC, other TV stations did not prefer to work with the members, even after the group broke up (Inamasu, 1989, pp. 187-188).

Contrary to OC and many previous aidoru, AKB48 members are divided into many different agencies. Tahara suggested Akimoto to create an agency and manage all the AKB48 and sister groups’ members, but Akimoto replied that he wanted to focus on creating things like songs, concerts and lyrics, so he thought it is best for the girls to be taken care of by not one but by several professional management agencies (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 115).

Each agency has different speciality. One may be good at producing actresses but others may be good at raising singers. Several distinct agencies have nurtured AKB48, which succeeded in realizing AKB48’s survival in the current entertainment industry.

Overall, AKB48 members have more freedom of how they want to perform and project their identities. They have the authority to take charge and are more involved in decision-making. The entertainment industry expects current aidoru to take semi-autonomous actions. 180

CHAPTER 7. EXPRESSIONS OF IDENTITY IN AIDORU TALK

7.1 Introduction

Language use plays an important role in constructing identities. In order to disclose the link between language use and accompanying identities, conversations from documentaries about Onyanko Club (OC) and AKB48 are investigated and compared in this chapter.

7.2 Methodology

7.2.1 Data

Five AKB48 documentaries are used, which have been released by Toho since 2011:

1) Iwai, S., Furusawa, Y., Kubota, Y., Motegi, H., Kanchiku, Y. Nogami, J., Takahashi, S. (Producer) & Kanchiku. Y. (Director). (2011). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: To Be Continued. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

2) Kubota, Y., Niizaka, J., Akimoto, S., Kitagawa, K., Furusawa, Y., Isono, K. Matsumura, T., Makino, A., Kishibe, K. (Producer) & Takahashi, E. (Director). (2012). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: Show Must Go On. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

3) Kubota, Y., Niizaka, J., Furusawa, Y., Matsumura, T. (Producer) & Takahashi, E. (Director). (2013). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: No Flower Without Rain. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

4) Kubota, Y., Ōta, K., Akimoto, S., Kitagawa, K., Yoshida, T., Furusawa, Y., Isono, K. Matsumura, T., Makino, A., Sekiyama, M. (Producer) & Takahashi, E. (Director). (2014). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: The Time Has Come. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

5) Furusawa, Y., Isono, K., Matsumura, T., Makino, A., Sawatari, T. (Producer) & Ishihara, S. (Director). (2016). DOCUMENTARY of AKB48: Sonzai suru Riyuu. Japan: Actors: AKB48.

The length of each documentary is approximately two hours. Minor parts of the documentaries contain overlapping footage, but each film chronicles events and issues encountered by the group during the previous year.

181

Onyanko Club documentaries are as follows:

• Kimura, T., Miyake, Y., Oyanagi, H., Inaba, K. (Producer) & Ogino, S., Kawai, H. (Director). (2012). The Back Stage ((1) Onyanko Club Zenkoku Tour ~Budookan Concert no Documentary, Rehearsal hen~, (2) Onyanko Club Zenkoku Tour ~Budookan Concert no Documentary, Tour hen~, (3) Onyanko Club Zenkoku Tour ~Budookan Concert hen~ and (4) Recording ji ni Shūroku Sareta membā8 no message Iri DVD.) Tokyo: Fuji Television.

The documentaries come in a package of four DVDs, and the total length of these four disks is 380 minutes. They were released by Pony Canyon in 2002, but the actual recording of (1) through (3) took place in 1986. I excluded disk (4) because it was recorded in 2002 when the members have already resigned from OC, and they are in their thirties. Also, I used only (1) and (2) because disc (3) contains only stage performance scenes, and does not contain conversations.

7.2.2 Coding system for quantitative analysis on ending forms in aidoru talk

To analyze the use of gendered expressions in OC and AKB48 talk, quantitative methods were conducted to compare the distributions of gendered expressions in conversation. Conversations exclusively between aidoru members were selected because gendered language tends to appear mostly in casual conversation with same gender participants rather than in formal conversation (Okamoto & Sato, 1992; Terao &

Zimmerman, 2000). Speeches that a group member delivers to the group as a whole were also excluded. This is because the speakers tend to use the polite style when speaking to a group, even with their peers.

In the same vein as the quantitative approach in Chapter 5, every complete sentence is coded following Okamoto and Sato’s classification as a base, but also using a few other studies as references (Shibamoto, 1992; Abe, 1998; Terao & Zimmerman, 2000; Noda, 2002;

8 Aidoru who belong to any aidoru groups are often called ‘member’. 182

Nakamura, 2004; Sreetharan, 2004: Okamoto, 1995). I again focused only on gendered expressions in the ending forms. Although the fundamental coding system is identical to

Chapter 5, additional rules needs to be added since a variety kind of exceptions appeared unlike song lyrics that are scripted. Excluded items and re-classified example ending forms are pulled from the actual data below.

1) Mixed gendered ending forms [excluded]

Mixed gendered ending forms occurred, but I excluded them from the analysis.

Example 1. (OC) yannai yo “I am not gonna give you-yo.” 1. yannai instead of yaranai ([r] deletion) > female pronunciation 2. i-adjective + yo > masculine ending form

Example 2. (OC) umai ne “(It’s) yummy, don’t you think?” 1. umai > masculine lexeme 2. i-adjective + ne > neutral ending form

2) Regional dialect [excluded]

A few instances of regional dialect appeared, however the occurrences were limited to a single occasion except for the use of Kansai dialect. I discuss regional dialects in a different section; however, I excluded them from the quantitative analysis.

Example 4. (OC) uso dabe. “(It’s) a lie-dabe?”

Example 5. (AKB48) retsu mecha kucha yade. “(It’s) a messy line -yade.”

3) Self- directed speech [excluded] A, Mariko da. “Ah, it’s Mariko.”

Lastly, self-directed speech appears in conversation. Self-directed speeches are almost always in masculine ending, but it does not index masculine because it is directed to the speakers themselves. Therefore, I grouped them into neutral.

The following tables are an exhaustive listing of all ending forms which occurred in analyzed conversation for each group. Table 7-1 is the “original” classification which was used in analyzing OC talk. Table 7-2 is the “modern” classification and I used it in analyzing 183

AKB48 talk. As in Table 5-3 and Table 5-4 in Chapter 5, several abbreviations are used in the tables. On the very left column indicates gendered expressions of F=Female, N=Neutral,

M=Masculine and the S in the parenthesis (S) means super (i.e., F(S)=super-feminine). In the column of ending forms, V=Verb, A=Adjective (iA= i-adjective & naA=na-adjective),

N=Noun. The reclassified gendered expressions are indicated with asterisk (*) in Table 7-2.

Table 7-1. “Original” classification of gendered ending forms in OC talk ♀♂ Ending forms Example Translation F(S) kashira Iku kashira. I wonder if (he) is going. F(S) V/iA+wa(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Iku wa. (I) am going. (mild emphasis, wa with high Oishī wa. (It) is delicious. sustained intonation) F(S) N/naA+yo Ashita yo. (It)'s tomorrow, I tell you. (yo with high sustained intonation) F(S) N/naA+na+no(+ne/+yo/+yo Kirē na no. It is that (it)’s pretty. ne) (statement) Ashita na no. It is that (it)’s tomorrow. F negative command(+ne) Tabe nai de. Don’t eat. Tabe nai de ne. Please don’t eat. F N/naA+ne Ashita ne. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? F V/iA+no(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Iku no. It is that (I)’m going. (statement) Oishī no. It is that (it)’s delicious. F V/N/A+desho/ō (expressing Iku desho. (You) will probably go, probability/seeking agreement) Ashita deshō. (aren’t you)? (It) is probably tomorrow, right? F [r]/[i]deletion yada (It’s) unpleasant. N V/A/N (plain/polite) Kirē. (It)’s pretty. N V/iA+ne Iku ne. (You) are going, aren’t you? N wa ↓ (with falling intonation, Oishī wa. (It)’s delicious. mild assertion) N V.(te-form) (/yo ) matte. Wait. N Volition ikō Let’s go. N V/A/N+jan(+ne) (mild Ashita jan. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? assertion/seeking agreement) Oishī jan. (It)'s delicious, don’t you think? M V/iA+yo Iku yo. (I)’m going, I tell you. M iA+na Īna It’s good. M V/iA+n+da+ne/yo/yo ne Iku n da yo. (I) am going. M da+ne/yo/yo ne Ahita da ne. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? M V/N/A(plain)+ka (questions/ naosu ka Shall we fix? criticism) 184

M daro/ō Iku darō. (He) will probably go. /(You) (expressing probability/seeking are going, aren't you? agreement/confirmation) M(S) plain imperative(+yo) Ike. Go.

Table 7-2. “Modern” classification of gendered ending forms in AKB48 talk ♀♂ Ending forms Example Translation F(S) V/iA+wa(+ne/+yo/+yo ne) Iku wa. (I) am going. (mild emphasis, wa with high Oishī wa. (It) is delicious. sustained intonation) F(S) N/naA+yo Ashita yo. (It)'s tomorrow, I tell you. (yo with high sustained intonation) F V/N/A+desho/ō (expressing Iku desho. (You) will probably go, (aren’t probability/seeking agreement) Ashita deshō. you)? (It) is probably tomorrow, right? F [r]/[i]deletion yada (It’s) unpleasant. *N negative command(+ne) (F>N) Tabe nai de. Don’t eat. Tabe nai de ne. Please don’t eat. *N no (in question) (F>N) Iku no? Will you go? *N *V.(te-f.)+ne (F>N) Itte ne. Please go. N V/A/N (plain/polite) Iku. (I)’m going. Kirē. (It)’s pretty. N V/iA+ne Iku ne. (You) are going, aren’t you? N V/iA+yo+ne Iku yo ne. (You) are going, right? N V.(te-form) /yo matte. Wait. N ja+nai (mild assertion/seeking Ashita ja nai. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? agreement) Oishī ja nai. (It)'s delicious, don’t you janai+ka, janai yo think? N ka+na Nakanai ka na. I wonder if (I) don’t cry. N ka (self-directed) Pinku ka. I realized it’s pink. N no+ka (self-directed) Dekiru no ka I wonder if (we) can. N V/A/N+mon(+ne) (mild Sabishikattan da Because I was lonely. explanatory assertion) mon. N V/A/N+jan(+ne) Ashita jan. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? (mild assertion/seeking Oishī jan. (It)'s delicious, don’t you agreement) think? N wa ↓ (falling intonation, mild Medatsu wa ↓ (You) stand out. assertion) *N *Volition(+ne/yo) Ikō. Let’s go. *N *da (self-directed) Honto da. (It’s) true. *N *na (no agreement seeker) Konai nā. (He) is not coming. *N *V/iA+yo (M ⇨N） Iku yo. (I)’m going, I tell you. *N *da+ne/yo/yo ne (M ⇨N） Ahita da ne. (It)'s tomorrow, isn’t it? *N *Volition+ka(ne) (M ⇨N） Ikō ka. Shall (we/I) go? (invitation/offer) M na (eliciting agreement) Gambatta na. (You) tried hard. 185

M N/naA+da Ashita da. (It)'s tomorrow. M n+da Kirē na n da. It is that (it)’s pretty. Iku n da. It is that (I)’m going. M daro/ō Iku darō. (He) will probably go. /(You) (expressing probability/seeking are going, aren't you? agreement/confirmation) M V/N/A(plain)+ka (questions/ Naosu ka? Shall we fix? criticism) M sa (Sentence-finally) Waratteru kara sa. Because (we) are smiling. M umai (lexeme) Umai. (It's) delicious. M(S) [ē] in stead of [ai] and [oi] Shiranē. (I) don’t know. M(S) plain imperative(+yo) Ike. Go. M(S) negative command(+yo) Iku na. Don’t go. M(S) ze Iku ze. (Look), (I)’m going.

After coding every sentence into one of the three categories of feminine, neutral, or masculine, the percentage is calculated to compare gendered ending forms in OC and AKB talk.

7.2.3 Observation gendered expressions in sentence medial positions

Besides ending forms, other expressions index gendered identities as well. Combining mainly from Okamoto and Sato’s (1992) and more detailed list about feminine expressions provided by Shibamoto (1992), I explore other gendered expressions in aidoru talk and compare between OC and AKB48 talk, specifically personal pronouns, lexemes, and pronunciation. Similarly, the beautification prefix -o or -go is usually categorized into the feminine expressions. It is worth noting that the prefix -o or -go with some words is quite lexicalized and it does not appear to be feminine expressions, despite Shibamoto’s claim that they do. For example, o-niku “meat” is categorized into female lexical expression, but o-kane

“money” is not marked and can be equally used by both genders; therefore it is categorized into neutral. Furthermore, yatsu ‘that guy/thing’ is considered as masculine speech by

Okamoto (1995); however, it has different feelings depending on whether yatsu is used to indicate a person or thing. When yatsu indicates a person, it sounds masculine, but it sounds 186 neutral when it indicates a thing. For this reason, it was categorized based on its use.

Gendered lexical interjections that clearly index either gender were categorized into lexical items (e.g., yossha as masculine).

Several gendered pronunciations appear in non-ending forms. Following a few previous studies, I concern the phenomena of [i]/[r] deletion, lengthening and pitch-level, liquid [l], [ē] as a replacement for[ai] and [oi], and trilled [r].

7.2.4 Observation non-gendered identities

Unlike song lyrics, the use of regional dialects and wakamono kotoba “youth language” stood out. Since any regional dialects index regional identity, and wakamono kotoba “youth language” index young identity, they are discussed further. Some features are lexical and other features are intonational. When the expression is intonation, I extracted the token from the documentary data, and the recordings were transferred into Praat9 for analysis.

The pitch range was set between 0Hz to 1000Hz or 1100Hz depending on the height of the speakers’ voice pitch in order to magnify the pitch contour. I included annotation to accompany the pitch contour.

7.3 Results

Following the similar method in investigating lyrics in Chapter 5, I first reveal the comparison of gendered expressions in aidoru talk regarding (i) ending forms, (ii) personal pronouns, (iii) lexemes and (iv) pronunciation. After this, I will delve into expressions that index other non-gendered identities.

9 Praat is a free scientific software program for the analysis of speech in phonetics. It has been designed and continuously developed by Paul Boersma and David Weenik of the University of Amsterdam. 187

7.3.1 Gendered expressions in aidoru talk

7.3.1.1 Ending forms in aidoru talk

Similar to the analysis investigating ending forms in song lyrics, the complete sentences were coded into feminine, neural and masculine categories and calculated. The complete sentences in OC talk totaled 674 sentences (i.e., 100%): 105 feminine endings (15.6

%), 420 neutral endings (62.2%), and 149 masculine endings (22.1%). In contrast, the complete sentences in AKB48 talk totaled 825 sentences (i.e., 100%): 37 feminine endings

(4.5%), 732 neutral endings (88.7%) and 56 masculine endings (6.8%). These results are based on the original classification to analyze OC conversation, and the modern classification to analyze AKB48 conversation. Figure 7-1 indicates these results in percentage terms to clearly visualize the comparisons.

The bars with dots are OC’s, and the bars in solid gray are AKB48’s distribution.

Figure 7-1. Comparison of gendered endings in talk (Era appropriate chart)

100% OC (Original) 88.7% AKB48 (Modern)

75% 62.3%

50%

25% 22.1% 15.6% 4.5% 6.8% 0% Female Neutral Masculine

Comparing the results from the two groups, there are both similarities and differences.

For the similar aspects, across both groups, the neutral forms that do not index either of 188 gender account for the largest proportion of total forms. Furthermore, both OC and AKB48 employ more masculine expressions than feminine expressions.

For the differences between these two groups, both the distribution of feminine and masculine expressions differ greatly between the two. In OC talk, overall more feminine and masculine expressions are employed in OC talk. Consequently, AKB48 tends to use more neutral ending forms than OC.

Among 105 feminine endings in OC talk, two types, the SFP no, and pronunciation of

[i] deletion in yada “I don’t like (it).” from iyada, occur the most. The endings including no(yo) occurred 45 times (43% among feminine endings), and yada 31 times (30%). Desho

“isn’t it?” comes in third, and occur 6 times (6%). In contrast, 37 feminine endings appeared in AKB48 talk. The SFP no in AKB48 talk is divided into two categories of feminine and neutral endings. No in question form occurs 17 times, and no in a statement occurs 8 times, which accounts for 22% of all feminine endings. Besides that, desho occurred 12 times (27%) and yada 5 times (11%). Overall, similar types of feminine endings occur in both groups.

Within the feminine endings, some of them are considered super-feminine including kashira

“I wonder” and SFP wa. In OC talk, kashira occurs 2 times and SFP wa occurs 5 times; however, not a single kashira or wa are found in AKB48 talk. Ozaki (1999) states that super- feminine SFP wa is dying out especially among the young women.

It is no doubt that what degree of gendered expressions to use is an individual choice.

However, the super-feminine SFP is sometimes selected even if it is not in their speech repertoire in order to create a humorous utterance. For instance, one of the five occurrences of wa in OC talk is clearly the speaker’s performance and it is used as a joke as in Excerpt

7-1. This scene occurs right after their performing practice, and producers are announcing agendas for the following day. They tell OC members to arrive at 1pm, except for Tatsumi 189 who needs to attend a private vocal exercise before the group practice. Several OC members are laughing about Tatsumi’s unfortunate situation, but Tatsumi suddenly utters yaru toki wa yaruwa “I will get things done when it is necessary.” A few factors makes her speech comical. The first is the use of super-feminine SFP wa, which is overly feminine for her speech repertoire. The second is her affected manner of putting both hands on her hips. The third one is her big laughter as she finishes saying it. This example suggests that when the use of gendered expressions is unexpectedly intensified, it creates humor.

Figure 7-1 indicates that masculine endings in OC talk exceed those in AKB48 talk by

15%. The major factor is due to the use of (da)yo, which is categorized in masculine expression in the original classification, but neutral in the modern classification. Among 149 masculine endings, (da)yo makes up 81 of these occurrences (54% among masculine endings). According to Ogawa (1997), she speculates that there are specific SFPs that have leading to gender-neutralization in Japanese talk, which masculine yo, dayo, sa, and no in questions are now used by both genders and feminine wa is used less among women (p. 217).

This neutralization is visible in the present results

Based on the current norm, the ending form of dayo, for instance, does not sound as masculine at all. However, Inoue (2006) introduced a few letters that Japanese news papers carried in the reader’s column in which they complain about women’s linguistic corruption.

One of the letters in 1991 specifically mentions that a male reader was surprised to hear what an elegant looking bride at her wedding told her brothers “chotto kokowa antatachi no kuru toko ja naindayo ‘Hey, this is not the kind of place where you guys can hang around’” (p.

175). Together with the second person pronoun of anta “you” and the masculine ending form of dayo, the reader was in shock and even made him take a further action to send the letter to 190 the newspaper. The course of his action indicates his unfavorable criticism towards the ending form dayo as being extremely vulgar.

It is true that masculine endings appear more in OC talk than AKB48 talk; however, further qualitative analysis is need to properly separate the different uses of masculine endings between the two groups, especially in terms of super-masculine expressions. Among masculine expressions, researchers have previously broken them down further into moderately masculine and super-masculine expressions, even when they cannot agree on what belongs in these categories, and as such they are regarded solely as “masculine” in the present quantitative analysis. Interestingly in OC talk, the situations where most of the super- masculine expressions are found are in joking frames, yet they occur only in serious frames in

AKB48 talk. The excerpts are taken from conversations between individual members and between multiple members in documentaries. OC members’ utterances are shown as in O1-1, and AKB48 members’ utterances are shown as in A1-2 in the excerpts. When the speakers are identifiable, names are given; however, if it is unknown, the initial of M (for member) is given.

In this first excerpt, two OC members are interacting. Nakajima is squatting during a rehearsal for a live concert. Kawai approaches her and pushes Nakajima’s hair from her forehead while laughing, which is indicated with @ in the excerpt below (O1-1). Nakakjima sneers and tells Kawai omae renshūshite n da kara majime ni yare yo “you, we are practicing, so act serious” (O1-2). Both the lexical choice of omae and imperative form of yare yo are considered hegemonically super-masculine speech. Kawai also replies back with super- masculine speech while giggling, nani itte n da yo. owatteru n da yō “What are you talking about? (The practice) is already finished” (O1-3). This use of da yo is not a statement da yo, but rather accusing. When da yo is used in accusation, it sounds very vulgar. However, this 191 vulgarity is accompanied by both sneering and giggling throughout the excerpt, lending credence to the interpretation that this excerpt is in a jocular frame.

Excerpt 7-1. Super-masculine use in joking frame (OC) # Speaker Japanese English equivalents O1-1 Kawai (Pushing Nakajima’s hair from her forehead while laughing, and running away from Nakajima) @@@: O1-2 Nakajima ⇨ (following Kawai) Hey you, (we) are practicing, so omae renshūshite n da kara, you should do it seriously majime ni yare yo O1-3 Kawai ⇨ @nani itte n da yo. What are you talking about? (The owatteru n da yō@ practice) is over. O1-4 Nakajima @@@@ O1-5 Kawai @

The next excerpt depicts not only masculine expressions used in a joking frame, but also serves to demonstrate that the super-masculine utterances are not part of the normative speech repertoire among these speakers. In this excerpt, OC members are taking a break and playing and dancing during practice for their live concert. There is a song where each member has a few phrases to sing about themselves, not unlike a self-introduction. Each member has to come up with simple dance moves to accompany the segment. In Excerpt 7-2, about 10 members are standing in circle, and Yamamoto (her first name is Suzan) is jokingly showing her dance move. Other members really love how she dances. Accordingly, these members are asking Yamamoto to dance that version for the actual performance. First,

Tomikawa tells Suzan, Suzan sore yaru n da yo. Suzan zettai yatte yo. “Suzan, do it. Suzan, definitely do it, I tell you” (O2-1). Another member, Shiraishi takes over and commends zettai yare yo “Do it for sure.” (O2-2) in super-masculine speech. Yamamoto then reacts and says kowāi “scary” as if pretending to cry. The grammatical form is neutral; however, both the lengthening or the vowel ā in kowāi and the fake crying lend a feminine impression, as if she is a victim (O2-3). After seeing Yamamoto’s reaction, Shiraishi switches to less masculine 192 speech and says zettai da yo “Surely, I tell you.” (O2-4). Almost at the same time as

Shiraishi’s response, Uchimi follows and tells Yamamoto (O2-5), yare yo omaē “You, do it.” in super-masculine speech, using the imperative and direct sentence-final particle yare yo, accompanying the masculine lexeme, omae. Her utterance may have been induced from

Shiraishi’s super-masculine speech.

Excerpt 7-2. Super-masculine use in joking frame (OC) O2-1 Tomikawa @Suzan sore yaru n da yo. Suzan, you do it, I tell you. You @@Suzan zettai yatte yo.@ should definitely do it. O2-2 Shiraishi ⇨ zettai yare yo. Do it for sure. Do it for sure. O2-3 Yamamoto kowāi (pretending to cry) Scary. O2-4 Shiraishi zettai da yo. Surely, I tell you. O2-5 Uchimi ⇨ yare yo omaē.@@@@ Do it, you.

Even though masculine expressions are used in the two excerpts above, and some of them indicated by underlines would be considered very harsh or vulgar regardless of the speaker, the fellow interlocutors in the conversation do not seem to take them seriously, because they know that this type of speech is not part of their usual repertoire, and therefore is a sort of play at being vulgar, in a joking frame. This is further evidenced by the relaxed ambience and the accompanying laughter. Interlocutors evaluate these super-masculine speech as inauthentic to their normal speech repertoire. The comment on others’ use of super- masculine expressions such as playfully saying “scary” (O2-3) is good evidence that they are not a part of the speakers’ normative speech repertoires.

In Okamoto and Sato’s (1992) study, young female participants occasionally employed strong masculine forms and explained that they use it in order to “make their conversation more interesting, fun, and spirited” (p. 487). Their participants also provided that they use these super-masculine expressions only among close peers. But why is the use of super-masculine forms contribute to make the situation funnier? One could argue that it is 193 because it is not their own “voice,” but it is borrowing from a vulgar male “voice,” and the gap between their real identity and the identity being projected by their speech is humorous.

Various academic fields attempt to understand this humor. Among countless theories of humor, the incongruity theory is one of the major ones. According to Scheel and Gockel,

(2017), they first explains the meaning incongruity as “a cognitive-perceptual process in which conflicting ideas or events” (Scheel & Gockel, 2017, p. 12), then elaborates specifically with the theory that “incongruity theory emphasizes cognition, requiring the mental capacity to note, understand, and categorize incongruous changes and thus to comprehend a situation and its implications before humor (the cognitive state of mirth) can be experienced.” (p. 13)

Applying the incongruity theory into the use of super-masculine expression by OC members, the OC members mentally understand what kinds of speech they are expected to use (i.e., feminine expressions). Instead, they dare not to follow it but choose to produce the super-masculine expression against their cognitive-perceptual preconceived expectation for the purpose of creating a humorous situation.

On the other hand, the majority of super-masculine speech by AKB48 members occur in a very serious frame. In Excerpt 7-3, AKB48 is rehearsing for a live concert, and Takahashi is furious to see that many members are not putting enough effort into practicing and begins scolding them. She uses several strong masculine expressions to convey her anger, especially nēwa↓ with a falling tone “It’s impossible” (A3-1) due to the phonological shift from nai to nē and imperative form of netai nara kaere yo “Go home if you want to sleep” (A3-6). Her serious voice and stern facial expressions help in the creation of an intense mood.

Additionally, no one is laughing (in comparison with the previous excerpts), and everyone is silent. 194

Excerpt 7-3. Super-masculine use in a serious frame (AKB48) A3-1 Takahashi ⇨ nē wa↓ No way. A3-2 Takahashi kaereba? Why don’t you go home? A3-3 Takahashi wakaru? Do you get it? A3-4 Takahashi yoppodo ima renshūshiteru ko- Those girls who are practicing tachi no hō ga kawaii. now are way cuter (better) A3-5 Takahashi wakannai furi miteru hito no Those who watch choreography hōga kawaii yo. are cuter (better). A3-6 Takahashi ⇨ netai nara kaere yo. Go home if you want to sleep.

Excerpt 7-4 takes place right after a live concert’s rehearsal. Ōshima was frustrated because not everyone was trying their best at the rehearsal. As Ōshima and Takahashi walk away from the practice, Ōshima scold others by saying fuzakeru n ja nē zo. “Do not joke around” (A4-2) with a stern face. Nē zo, the combination of the phonological shift from nai to nē and one of the most super-masculine SFPs zo, makes for a very intense ambience.

Excerpt 7-4. Super-masculine use in a serious frame (AKB48) A4-1 Ōshima ⇨ Takamina guai warui n da kara, Takamina is not feeling well, so fuzakeru n ja nē zo. guai warui do not joke around. She is not n da kara. feeling well, so. A4-2 Takahashi meccha utsutteru. utsutteru yō. (It’s) recording. (It’s) recording, I tell you.

Two examples of masculine expressions are extracted from OC and AKB48 utterances; however, different kinds of frames were evident, joking frames for some OC members, and earnest ones for AKB48 members.

This section so far has demonstrated through quantitative analysis of the interactions between members in the two groups that OC members use gendered endings more frequently

(in terms of both feminine and masculine expressions). AKB48 members employ fewer gendered endings compared to OC members, thus more neutral expressions are found in their speech. To examine these trends in more detail per member, the members who produced the most utterances from the two groups are sampled. 195

The individual differences in OC and AKB48 talk are shown in percentage term in

Figure 7-2 below. For OC, Kawai produces 81 complete sentences in total (i.e., 100%): 18 feminine (22.2%), 46 neutral (56.8%) and 17 (21%) masculine. Kihara produces 62 complete sentences (i.e., 100%): 11 feminine (17.7%), 37 neutral (58.8%), and 14 masculine (25.5%).

Nitta produces 55 complete sentences (i.e., 100%): 9 feminine (15.7%), 28 neutral (58.8%), and 18 masculine (25.5%). Lastly, Kokushō produces 51 complete sentences (i.e., 100%): 8 feminine (13.8%), 30 neutral (58.5%) and 13 masculine (27.7%).

As for AKB48, Takahashi produces 131 complete sentences (i.e., 100%): 2 feminine

(1.5%), 105 neutral (80.2%), and 24 masculine. Ōshima produces 70 complete sentences: 3 feminine (4.3%), 63 neutral (90%) and 4 masculine (5.7%). Maeda produces 47 complete sentences: 2 feminine (4.3%), 45 neutral (95.7% ) and 0 masculine. In the end, Sashihara produces 38 complete sentences: 4 feminine (10.5%), 31 neutral (81.6%) and 3 masculine

(7.9%).

Figure 7-2. Distribution of top four members who produced the most sentences in OC and AKB48 members Masculine 100% 5.7% 7.9% Neutral 18.3% Feminine 21.0% 22.6% 25.5% 27.7% 75%

50% 56.8% 90.0% 95.7% 81.6% 59.7% 58.8% 58.5% 80.2%

25%

22.2% 17.7% 15.7% 13.8% 1.5% 4.3% 4.3% 10.5% 0%

Nitta Kawai Kihara Maeda Kokushō Ōshima Takahashi Sashihara OC AKB48 196

As expected, all members use neutral speech more so than any type of gendered expression, which align with the results of the entire group. However, it is of note that the

AKB48 members use neutral speech even more than the OC members. Among OC members,

Kawai is the only member who uses feminine expressions slightly more than masculine expressions. The rest of other three members, Kihara, Nitta and Kokushō use more masculine endings than feminine endings. For AKB48 members, much less feminine endings occur in general. Ōshima’s masculine endings outnumber feminine endings slightly, but Takahashi uses masculine endings notably more compared to other members. Since both masculine expressions and feminine expressions are used more by individual members of OC than that of AKB48, the results for these top four members who produce the most utterances from each group are very similar to the results for the entire group members of Figure 7-1 and 7-2.

These corresponding outcomes demonstrate that the results of each groups’ gendered expressions are not due to a single person’s idiosyncratic use, but rather they represent the characteristics of multiple members. Therefore, it is valid to regard the results of Figure 7-1 and 7-2 as a representative for each group.

Lastly, in order to grasp how people today who listen to OC talk would perceive their speech, I analyzed both OC and AKB48 talk by employing the modern classification. The feminine endings for OC occur 93 times, neutral endings 522 times, and masculine endings

59 times. Figure 7-3 indicates the results in terms of percentages. 197

Figure 7-3. Comparison gendered endings in talk (Modern chart) 100% 88.6% OC (Modern) AKB48 (Modern) 77.4% 75%

50%

25% 13.8% 8.8% 4.5% 6.8% 0% Feminine Neutral Masculine

Comparing the results in OC in Figure 7-1 and 7-2, neutral endings have increased by 15%.

Feminine endings have decreased by 2%, and masculine endings have decreased by 13%.

Although the difference between OC talk and AKB48 talk diminishes, both the use of feminine and masculine endings still occur more in OC talk. These results support that gender neutralization is found more often in AKB48 talk compared to OC talk.

7.3.1.2 Personal pronouns

Various personal pronouns appear in both groups’ talk. Table 7-3 shows all the first- person pronouns and self-referent forms in aidoru talk.

Table 7-3. First-person pronouns and self-referring terms in aidoru talk OC AKB48 1st-person “I” watashi watashi (singular) pronoun “we” watashi-tachi (plural) atashi-tachi (plural) “myself” jibun (singular) jibun-tachi (plural) jibun-ra (plural) “home” uchi (singular) uchi-ra (plural) others (name or Sono (part of her first name) Sayaka (first name) nickname) Kihara-san (last name-san) Yuka (first name) obasan “middle-aged woman” Mi-chan (nickname with part of her first name) 198

Most members both in OC and AKB48 use watashi “I” for the first-person pronoun, but there are a few other variants that are of note. AKB48 members use a variety of self- referent forms. For example, the self-reflexive jibun “myself” is used quite frequently among

AKB48 members. The primary setting where jibun occurs is during the interview. In an interview, they talk about themselves from a certain distance. There is an impression that watashi is used to infer an ongoing moment or the middle of an experience, but jibun is used when they are looking back and analyzing themselves.

Another self-referent form, uchi (lit. “inside” or “home”) is used by two girls in

AKB48. Miyazaki (2004) explains uchi as a new type of first pronoun for girls’ self-referring and only in Tokyo dialect. However, a dictionary lists uchi as a first-person pronoun mainly for girls and children in the Kansai area (Uchi, n.d.). Therefore, it is not limited only to

Tokyo. Regardless of regional arguments, uchi indexes femininity. Since not a single uchi is found in OC talk, it may be a new type of pronoun as Miyazaki explains.

The use of their first name or nickname for self-references is seen in both groups.

When Sonoko Kawai (OC) sees one of the member’s wearing thick layers of clothing, she says atsugi shiteru ne. Sono nante kore shika kitenai. “(You) are wearing thick layers of clothing, aren’t you? Sono is wearing only this.” Two members from AKB48 also use their own first name for their self references. Masuda (AKB48) is looking for her skirt in a dressing room and she shouts her first name, Yuka no sukāto ga nāi “There is not Yuka’s (my) skirt.”Another example comes from Akimoto (AKB48) when she was thanked by other members. She calls herself by her first name, Sayaka nanimo yattenai no “Sayaka (I) did not do anything.” Maynard discusses how the first-name self-referent form is used only among young girls, and sounds childish and burikko, thus projecting youthful femininity (2016, p.

142). Another AKB48 member, Minegishi uses Mī-chan when she is talking to herself about 199 herself as in Mi-chan wa dekiru ko “Mi-chan (I) am the girl who is capable.” The suffix - chan is often used for girls’ nickname. Miyazaki discusses that the suffix -chan indexes childishness connotations (2004, p. 271). Therefore, using these self-referent terms project both girlish and childish qualities.

Aa few other self-referent forms appear. Kihara (OC) uses her last name and a formal name suffix- san, Kihara-san, when she is commenting on how she looks in a magazine. It is as if her picture in the magazine is someone else. Kokushō (OC) referres to herself as obasan

“middle-aged woman” in obasan tsukaremashita, hakkiri itte yo “Obasan (I) is tired, to be honest.” Kokushō is slightly older than other members, so she considers herself more mature as well, and thus she may regard herself as an older women, even though she was early in her twenties at that time.

Table 7-4 indicates all the all the second-person pronouns in aidoru talk.

Table 7-4. Second-person pronoun “you” in aidoru talk OC AKB48 2nd-person “you” omae (singular) kimi (singular) pronoun omae-tachi (plural) omae (singular) omē (singular) temē (singular) “yourself” jibun jibun

As mentioned in previous discussions on personal pronouns in Japanese (See Section

2.5.1), the Japanese equivalent for the English word “you” is not common, and the speakers often prefer to use names or nicknames instead of the second-person pronouns. However, several second-person pronouns do appear in talk. Interestingly, all of them are masculine

“you.” The different choice of second-person pronouns is remarkable between OC and

AKB48. A few very vulgar second-person pronouns are used among OC members such as omae, omē and temē. Five OC members of Nitta, Uchimi, Kokushō, Kawai, and Fukunaga use them, and the situations in which these vulgar second-person pronouns are employed are 200 when the members are playing around. As I mentioned earlier (See Section 7.3.1.1), super- masculine endings are often used by OC members in a joking frame. Considering that aspect, it is understandable that frequent vulgar second-person pronouns are found in these joking situations.

In AKB talk, two types of second-person pronouns stood out, omae and kimi. Omae is used once as in nani yattendayo, omae “What are you doing?” by Satō, when pointing out when someone was acting unprofessional. Kimi is used by two members, Takahashi and

Ōshima. Takahashi is the leader of AKB48 and Ōshima often takes on a leadership role as well. Both of them usually use either names or nicknames as to create second-person deictic references. However, they tend to use kimi when they are playing the role of leader or sempai

“senior.” For instance, when Takahashi’s successor as the next leader Yokoyama tells

Takahashi that yappari zettai ni ato 10 nen tsuzukaseru kara tte omotta “I really thought I will make AKB48 thrive another 10 years for sure.” In the reply, Takahashi tells Yokoyama that 10 nen kimi ga 10 nen yaranakute ii n da yo “You don’t have to be responsible for (the entire) 10 years (by yourself).” Similarly, Ōshima tells one of the most worthy aces,

Watanabe, kimi ga jiki sentā da kara. toriaezu watashi ga ganbarimasu kedo fumidai ni shite kudasai “You are the next ace, so I will try my best for now but please use me as your stepping-stone.” As seen in the examples, kimi seems to occur in an advice-giving occasion from the sempai “senior” to the kōhai “junior.”

All sorts of third-person references are found such as last name, first name, and full name, with varying honorifics, in aidoru talk. Both groups contain many girls; therefore, different degrees of friendship and relationship exist within the group. Some are very close, but others do not get along. Consequently, various references emerge based on the different levels of familiarity. It is common to use name and name + suffix -chan, or last name 201 throughout the documentaries. It is a probable that members of AKB48 do not know everybody, since the group may reach up to a few hundred when including all the sister groups. There are a lot more people in AKB 48; therefore, of course there are more third- person pronouns or address forms referring to others in AKB48. The major difference between the two groups is use of suffix -san (formally Mr. and Ms.). Many kōhai “junior” members in AKB48 call sempai “senior” members with first name-san, last name-san and even nickname-san. AKB 48 has lasted more than a decade, and the members’ age gap is wide as new members continually join various sister groups. When these young juniors join the group, they were just regular girls who see AKB48 in the media originally as fans.

Suddenly, popular aidoru AKB48 members have become their peers. The gap in both the age and fame cause kōhai members who have a great respect to refer to sempai AKB48 members with the formal suffix -san.

In contrast, OC only lasted two and half years. There were not many sempai-kōhai relationships, so the formal suffix -san did not appear. Their relationship is more akin to being classmates with each other (Kitagawa et al. 2013, p. 56), and they lack professionalism

(Sayawaka, 2015, p. 113). However, this was part of the intended marketing strategies which demanded these kinds of friendly attitudes for OC members. Thus, observing personal pronouns gives insight into the members’ relationships, roles and social situations within the group.

7.3.1.3 Lexemes

Unlike song lyrics where only feminine lexemes appear in OC songs, gendered lexemes occur both in Onyanko and AKB48 talk. However, gendered lexemes in OC talk occur much more than in AKB48 talk. In OC talk has 21 feminine lexemes, and they are grouped into interjections such as exclamations including wā “oh my” with high pitch and 202 ara “oh dear,” and polite prefix o- as in o-tōfu “bean curd.” Attenuated forms appeared a few times like oyame ni natte “Please stop (it),” although they are just using these forms for fun since they are practicing the songs in which these forms appear in the song lyrics. The masculine lexemes appear 20 times, which are exclamations such as yoshi “good” and kuso

“shit” and predicates like umai “delicious” and the masculine form of ~te ageru, ~te yaru “I will do it.”

The occurrence of these feminine gendered lexemes is limited in AKB48 talk. There are only 4 feminine lexemes, which are exclamations like kyā “eek” and polite prefix o- as in o-toshi goro “ puberty/marriageable age.” The masculine lexemes appear 11 times. Besides umai “delicious,” all of them are exclamations such as yossha “good” and ō “wow.”

The tendency that AKB48 has fewer gendered expressions is in accordance with the results of the previous analysis of ending forms. Just as ending forms have undergone gender- neutralized, the use of gendered specific lexemes is also likely dwindling.

7.3.1.4 Pronunciation

Specific intonation and pronunciation patterns are tied with certain gender identities as well. The emergence of gendered pronunciation is abundant in both groups. This section explores a few identity-indexing items. I first explore examples of three feminine pronunciations of [i]/[r] deletion, lengthening and high pitch, and liquid [l], then two masculine pronunciations of [ē] instead of [ai]/[oi] and trilled [r].

(i) [i]/[r] deletion as feminine pronunciation

The[i]/[r] deletion is considered to be the feminine pronunciation. This phenomenon is the major gendered pronunciations in both groups’ talk. The difference between the group is that the [i] deletion occurs quite often in OC talk, while the [r] deletion is prevalent in

AKB48 talk. One of the most remarkable examples in OC talk is the lexeme, yada “(I) don’t 203 like it” in which [i] is deleted from iyada. Yada occurs 16 times, and several other variations that include yada like yadā, yada ne, yāda yō and yān add up to 34 times, which is equivalent to half of the gendered pronunciation in OC talk. The characteristic of yada is pronounced with lengthening (which I briefly explore soon after). Yada does occur in AKB talk, but only twice. The [i] deletion itself indexes feminine identity, but adding to lengthening gives even more feminine quality. Considering that the meaning of yada “(I) don’t like (it),” it connotes not only feminine but also childish whining.

(ii) Lengthening and high pitch as feminine pronunciation

Another feminine pronunciation that I included for the analysis is excessive lengthening. Among several examples in the data, the following excerpt displays how OC members are aware that lengthening and also high pitch can portray heightened-feminine identity. In Excerpt 7-5, all of the OC members are outside and waiting to perform at a live concert in winter. They are freezing in their performance costumes. Uchimi, Tatsumi and

Shiraishi are standing in circle and complaining about how cold it is. They are shaking and rubbing their hands to cope with the cold. Shiraishi suggests getting heat from the lighting, then continues to suggest kawaiku furueyo “I am going to shiver cutely” (O5-4). This metapragmatic comment about shivering cutely is a rich moment because it shows agency.

Nagoya, who is usually a tomboyish persona, joins in the circle and says samū~i (O5-5)

“(It’s) cold” with a high pitched voice. She uses all sorts of resources to act cute. First, she lengthens /u/ in samui for a quite long time while raising her voice pitch. Moreover, she rubs her hands warm while shaking her body slightly. Nagoya directly looks into the camera while acting out. All three members burst into laughter and Tatsumi even points at Nagoya to indicate how funny Nagoya is. The whole scene is comical and everyone including Nagoya knows that she is performing cuteness. Another member sees how Nagoya is acting and 204 comments Mikā burikko burikko mitai. burikko burikko! (O5-7) “Mika, you seem to be burikko burikko. burikko burikko!” Thus, this interaction shows that everyone in the scene share similar images of cuteness, and Nagoya’s overly feminine acting does align with the notion of burikko.

Excerpt 7-5. Lengthening followed with a high pitch voice (OC) O5-1 Uchimi samū~i (fake crying voice). It’s cold. O5-2 Tatsumi samukute samukute. It’s cold and cold. O5-3 Shiraishi raito no mae de attamaro. Let’s get warm in front of the light. O5-4 Shiraishi ⇨ kawaiku furueyo. Let’s shiver cutely. O5-5 Nagoya ⇨ samū~i (with high-pitched/ It’s cold. lengthening voice, while overly shaking, rubbing her hands) O5-6 Uchimi @@@@ O5-7 Tatsumi @@@@ (while pointing to Nagoya) O5-8 Shiraishi @@@@ O5-7 M ⇨ Mikā! burikko burikko mitai. Mika! You seem to be burikko burikko burikko. burikko.,, burikko burikko

(iii) Liquid [l] as feminine pronunciation

Unlike the English alveolar liquid [l] and [ɾ], Japanese uses flap ([ɾ]) for /ra/, /ri/, / ru/, /re/ and /ro/. When [l] is used instead of [ɾ], it gives a feminine or childish impression.

During the OC’s music tour, everyone is having a barbecue after their live concert. One of the popular OC members, Nitta asks o-niku tabeleru? mō (O6-1) “Is the meat okay to eat already?” She pronounces /tabeleru/ instead of /tabereru/ ‘to eat.’

Excerpt 7-6. Feminine [l] (OC) O6-1 Nitta ⇨ onuku tabeleru? mō Is the meat okay to eat already? O6-2 M un, koko no wa tabereru. Yes, this one right here is okay to eat.

The phoneme /l/ does not canonically exist in Japanese; therefore, it is difficult to distinguish [l] and [ɾ] for many native Japanese speakers. This kind of particular pronunciation regarding the case of [l] is often described as shita tarazu “(lit. lacking tongue), baby-talk register.” Similar to feelings towards being burikko, people have mixed judgements 205 towards shita tarazu. Since shita tarazu is similar to the baby-talk register, some people see it as cute, sweet, lovable (especially among men), and makes people want to protect who has it.

A negative list includes burikko, irritating, calculating, flirty and immature (“Shita tarazu,”

2017).

The way Nitta talks is often described as shita tarazu. Naturally, her speech is seen as burikko and cute for certain male fans, but by the same token, burikko and annoying for certain other people (e.g., “Nitta Rie,” 2013). After Nitta resigned as an aidoru, she made a

TV show appearance in 2013 when in her forties. Her shita tarazu register was still present and it brought all kinds of discussions online and has evaluated very negatively. The negative judgements towards her shita tarazu register include “It’s too old to speak like that.” “If she is young and cute, her speech may have been cute.” “It hurts to listen to her speech.” “It used to be one of her attractive features, but not any more.” That speech used to be likable only among men at that time, but her speech and her age do not match any more.” One even calls her buri baba “burikko granny” (“Nitta Rie,” 2013).

According to the results of gendered expression in Figure 7-3, Nitta (OC) uses masculine endings quite a lot, which exceeds her feminine speech (25.5% masculine vs.

15.7% feminine). The member who uses the highest amount of masculine endings is

Kokushō (27.7% masculine vs. 13.8% feminine), and she was known for using ‘manly’

Japanese. One of the OC books that discusses the members’ anecdotal stories also states how

Kokushō’s (OC) word choices contain rough Japanese (Kasai, 1986, p. 22 and p. 67).

However, none of these comments being vulgar or manly are directed towards Nitta’s speech.

This suggests that pronunciations might be a more crucial feature in making a stronger impression (i.e., Nitta’s femininity) than gendered ending forms (i.e., Kokushō’s masculinity). 206

(iv) [ē] instead of [ai]/[oi] as masculine pronunciation

Previous researchers have often discussed the phonological modification from [ē] instead of [ai] and [oi] as one of the masculine pronunciations (e.g., Shibamoto, 1987;

Okamoto & Sato (1992); Ide (1982, 1990)). This type of phonological modification is the main one indexes masculinity in terms of gendered pronunciations: five out of six times in masculine pronunciations in OC talk and eight out of eight times in AKB48 talk. In OC talk, sugē (from sugoi) “very” if it is adverb and “terrible, wonderful” if it is adjective, shinji ran nē (from shinji rare nai) “unbelievable," akanē (akanai) “it won’t open” from and otosun ja nē (otosun ja nai) “Don’t drop (it)” from otosun ja nai appear. Each of these occurrences is spoken by different OC members. In AKB48 talk, sugē (sugoi) is repeatedly used, and others are usse (ussai) “noisy,” fuzaken ja nēzo (fuzaken ja nai zo) “Don’t joke around,” nandemo ne

(nandemo nai) “Never mind” are found. Among the eight occurrences in AKB48 talk, four of them are by the leader, Takahashi. The biggest difference between OC members and

Takahashi is the situation where this masculine pronunciation occurs. The OC members use it when they are chitchatting, but Takahashi from AKB48 tends to use it when she is playing a role as a leader such as scolding other members at their practice. The tendency matches with the result of gendered endings, which OC members use super-masculine endings in a joking frame, but AKB48 members use it in a serious frame.

(v) Trilled [r]

The pronunciation of trilled [r] indexes strong masculinity. There is one case where trill [r] appears from Kihara in OC talk. In Excerpt 7-7, Kihara is trying to unlock the door with a key. After a few attempts, she gives up and asks Nagoya to help (7-3) by saying yatte kurre “Do it (for me).” In the same excerpt, Kihara uses a few masculine expressions 207 including zo as SFP (O7-2), directive kure “Give me” (O7-3) and yoshi as exclamation

(O-7-5).

Excerpt 7-7. Trilled [r] (OC) O7-1 Kihara akanai. It won’t open. O7-2 Kihara hen da zo. It’s strange. O7-3 Naogya ⇨ yatte kurre. Do it (for me). O7-4 Nagoya (She opens the door.) O7-5 Kihara yoshi Good.

Sreetharan (2004) states that trilled [r] is highly stylized and stereotypical of masculine speech and these expressions are often used by working-class male speakers or by fictionalized gangsters on television (p. 285). Taken into the consideration that aidoru is perceived as one of the most feminine careers in Japan, it is quite astonishing to find trilled

[r] which indexes working-class male speakers occurring in aidoru talk.

In this section, I compare gendered expressions between the two groups: endings, personal pronouns, lexemes, and pronunciations. However, importantly, gendered speech is different language feature that is supposedly only available for either gender. Ochs (1992) also points out that gendered speech is never used by one gender exclusively, but they work through the complex indexing system. Masculine speech connotes hegemonic masculinity, and all of the indexical baggage that comes with it, including assertiveness, directness, coarseness, roughness, and vulgarity. Conversely, feminine speech connotes hegemonic femininity. Referential meanings coupled with all kinds of non-referential meanings always come through in speech. This meaning negotiation is done by both party of producer and listeners. Therefore, both members in OC and AKB48 manipulate their speech in order to portray the appropriate identities they wish to be associated with, and also the audience form the aidoru images based on their speech among other factors. 208

7.3.2 Non-gendered identities

In addition to gendered expressions, other identities are also apparent throughout the presentations by the aidoru. The most visible of these are regional identity and youth identity.

7.3.2.1 Regional identity

The Japanese language is rich in dialectal variation. The difference in linguistic features include lexemes, sentence-final particles and pitch-accent pattern. When the region are geographically very far from each other, the dialects can be mutually unintelligible

(Shibatani, 1990, p. 185; Okamoto, 2008). The unintelligibility caused a problem when the

Japanese government attempted to create nationwide Japanese-language textbooks as a series of compulsory education in the late Meiji period (1888-1910). In choosing the standard

Japanese, a dialect variation from the Yamanote area in uptown Tokyo was selected because the educated middle-class people lived there (Inoue, 2004, p. 63). The language unification has brought long-lasting and multitudinous issues that are associated with the language ideology. Shibatani (1990, p. 186) offers that stigmatization of regional dialects is a product of the Japanese governmental policy on the standardization of Japanese (i.e., Tokyo dialect), though it was with good intentions of making nationwide Japanese-language textbooks, establishing the standard of Japanese resulted in making all other marginalized regional dialects inferior.

Thanks to the influence of a few factors such as the language unification policy and the broadcast mass media, the Tokyo dialect has spread nationwide. Anywhere in Japan people can immerse themselves in the Tokyo dialect. As a consequence, many people, especially the younger generations, are now able to speak both their regional dialect and the

Tokyo Japanese or at least a hybrid of the two variations (Okamoto, 2008). 209

With an advancement in the field of sociolinguistics, brought fourth by ‘third wave’ approaches (e.g., Coupland 2007), the idea that the regional dialect indexing merely the local identity is long past, but instead these regional dialects are thought to index multiple inherent social meanings. Eckert (2008) has introduced the concept of “indexical fields,” describing all of the inherent “potential meanings” floating in the indexical field. These have been largely utilized and amplified by the media, giving the speakers the stylistic tools to project certain identities. In this case, more specifically, the Tokyo dialect indirectly indexes

“modern, urban, educated, formal, correct, authoritative, white-collar,” but the regional dialects index “countryside, unsophisticated, informal, emotional, intimate, working class, rough, crude” (Shibamoto, 1990; Okamoto, 2008; Inoue, 2006).

The aidoru in Japan functions as one of the symbols of the middle-class urban culture, because this career has originated from urban Tokyo, and has grown in the process of Japan’s modernization and economic growth among the white-collar middle-class after WWII

(Aoyagi, 1999). In the conversations in the analyzed documentary, both OC members and

AKB48 members, in their capacity in the urban occupation of aidoru, speak most exclusively in the urban variation of Tokyo dialect. Although the Tokyo dialect is the shared speech style in the data, a few regional dialect features are also found.

First, Kokushō from OC uses the Hiroshima dialectal lexeme once in the data, as she exclaims taigī “tired.” In fact, Kokushō may not be aware that she is using Hiroshima dialect because she does not usually use any dialectal forms elsewhere. Second, Takai (OC) utters uso dabe “lie-dabe,” although the context or other detailed conversation pieces are inaudible.

Dabe is a sentence-final ending, and it can be found in a few places in Hokkaido, Kanagawa, and more broadly the Tōhoku area. Takai is from the Fukui prefecture, and dabe is not in the

Fukui’s dialect, so there is a chance that she is using the regional dialect in a joking frame. 210

Third, when Kashiwagi (AKB48) visits her friends in her hometown in Kagoshima, she modifies her pitch-accent with emphasis on the last mora, as in nanī “What?” with a low-high pitch (LH) and “yakkyokū? “Drug store?” (LHHH), which is a common accent type in

Kagoshima (Kubozono, 2012). In the Tokyo dialect, the word, nani has a high-low (HL) pitch accent (Kindaichi, 1958, p. 533).Kashiwagi does not speak the Kagoshima dialect whenever she speaks to her fellow AKB48 members, and speaks solely in the Tokyo dialect elsewhere in the documentaries. The fact that Kashiwagi switches to her native regional dialect when talking to her local friend and speaking the Tokyo dialect to her AKB48 fellows may be likely due to a few plausible motivations. The first is based on her identity projection. She projects her native Kagoshima identity when she speaks with her local friends in Kagoshima. She projects urban identity as an aidoru when she speaks the Tokyo dialect. As another motivation, ‘audience design’ is present, by which speakers select a speech style depending on the addressee (Bell, 1984). Kashiwagi accommodates her speech and speak he Kagoshima dialect because her friends, her audience, speak the dialect. Similarly, Kashiwagi chooses to speak the Tokyo dialect as an accommodation to her fans, AKB48’s fans’ and more broadly the anonymous documentary viewers. It is impossible to find out the three members’ intentions in speaking their regional dialects; however, the regional identity was still projected, as Goffman (1959) indicates the identity can be intentionally ‘given’ and unintentionally ‘given off.’

In contrast, the way Takahashi from AKB48 employ the Kansai dialect is notable and needs for a further exploration. Originally, there was a binary comparison between Tokyo

Japanese versus any other regional dialects. Therefore, the Kansai dialect was merely a regional language just as with other regional dialects. Sreetharan (2005) illustrates that that

Kansai dialect was regarded as “dogitsui (gaudy/garish) and harsh” up until the 1980s 211

(Sreetharan 2005, p. 431). However, the Kansai dialect has undergone a unique path. In the

1980s, because the art form of manzai “comedy” boomed in the Kansai, people in the Kansai area were viewed as funny (i.e., humorous), and gradually the Kansai dialect itself has associated with being funny as well (Sreetharan 2005, p. 431). Thus, the Kansai dialect has been “enregistered (Agha, 2007)” to be comical.

Takahashi occasionally speaks the Kansai dialect even though she is not from the

Kansai area. She started to employ it only after she was assigned to be a leader. In Excerpt

7-8, Takahashi is giving advice to the much younger kōhai “juniors.” After observing two juniors’ practice, Takahashi initiates talking to Nishiyama in Kansai dialect, egao wa anma nigate yaro? “I assume you are not good at smiling?” (A8-1). Nishiyama nervously chuckles

(A8-2), and Takahashi utters na “right?” (A8-3) again to seek agreement. Na as an eliciting agreement is available both in the Tokyo dialect and the Kansai dialect, but its classification as a gendered speech feature differs based on region. Na in the Tokyo dialect is considered to be masculine, while na in the Kansai dialect is regarded to be neutral (Sreetharan, 2004, p.

280). Takahashi’s na in A8-3 can be from either dialect; however, most likely Takahashi maintains speaking the Kansai dialect until she receives a legitimate response from

Nishiyama. Nishiyama finally takes a stance of agreement in A8-4, then Takahashi switches back to Tokyo dialect after that. Takahashi encourages Nishiyama while showing empathy in mentioning that she used to be like Nishiyama (A8-7).

Excerpt 7-8. Takahashi’s fake Kansai dialect (AKB48) A8-1 Takahashi ⇨ egao wa anma nigate yaro? You are not good at smiling, aren’t you?

A8-2 Nishiyama fufu (smiling) haha A8-3 Takahashi ⇨ na? Right? A8-4 Nishiyama un Yes A8-5 Takahashi futsū ni waraeru noni ne? Even though you can smile normally (now), (I wonder why you can’t behave the same in front the audience.) 212

A8-6 Nishiyama warae tte iwaretara I cannot smile when I am told to smile. waraenai A8-7 Takahashi waraenai deshō. mae no You cant smile, can you. You are the watashi to issho. waraenai same as me in the past. It’s impossible yo ne. ī n da yo. toku ni to smile, isn’t it. That’s okay. No mondai nashi. problem. Enjoy. tanoshiminasai.

According to Takahashi (2015), the Kansai dialect is cute, and that is why she started to use it more and more. However, she reveals that she has a specific reason why she chooses to speak in Kansai dialect and provides metapragmatic remarks as follows:

Many younger members who have just joined AKB48 recently think I am very scary because of the previously aired AKB48 documentaries. In the earlier stages of my aidoru career, I used to scold other members with super-masculine speech such as omae-ra tarunderu zo! “You guys are being slackers!” by employing a trilled [r] pronunciation. The younger generation has confessed that they thought I was absolutely scary. I wanted to improve my impression, so I loosened up and acted friendlier when we are off-stage. Using a fake Kansai dialect is very helpful in the creation of a friendly mood. (Takahashi, 2015, p. 47; translation is my own)

Takahashi also asserts that these younger members regard her as having a playful persona even more so because she has an inauthentic intonation of the Kansai dialect. Any kinds of inauthenticities are usually perceived negatively and are often less powerful regardless of language use. The in/authenticity arises based on the group to which people belong including nationality, region, race, gender and so on. For instance, native English speakers are often seen as superior and more authentic in English teaching settings. Thomas (1999) expresses a shared struggle among non-native English instructors, stating that “we often find ourselves in situations where we have to establish our credibility as teachers of ESOL before we can proceed to be taken seriously as professionals” (p. 5). The judgement arises when someone is trying to be someone else in terms of race and gender. More specifically, Chun’s (2011) study at a multiethnic high school reveals that students devalue other friends who are not true to 213 their perceived race and their racial identity and linguistic/semiotic performance do not correspond to each other.

However, variant choice can functions as a recourse for style management. Coupland

(2007) asserts that “[s]tylisation can be as strategic inauthenticity, with complex implications for personal and cultural authenticity in general” (p. 154). For instance, Moore (2011) finds abundant use of “Irish accent” in texts on websites, newspapers and books as a resource to project a comedic tone. Moore (2011) also generalizes that “accent imitation —in whatever medium — are almost always deployed for comical effect” (p. 230). This is the manner in which Takahashi uses non-native Kansai dialect, strategically, utilizing the inauthentic nature of powerlessness in order to reduce her authority, and come down to the level of and to create more harmonious relationships with her juniors. Takahashi’s use of the Kansai dialect is indubitably stylization and performance in impersonating the Kansai regional identity.

One question that may remain is why was the Kansai dialect chosen? The reason why

Takahashi chooses the Kansai dialect is likely not simply because she thinks it sounds cute like she explains. In fact, Takahashi utilizes the image of the Kansai dialect as a communication tool when she wishes to project a playful persona. In a way, Takahashi is a native Tokyo Japanese speaker, so her Kansai dialect is inauthentic. However, even though

Takahashi employs an inauthentic speech style, she is still authentic according to

Pennycook’s framework of “authenticity.” Pennycook (2007) examines the case of Malaysian rappers and challenges the idea that copying is inauthentic, and instead emphasizes the importance of localization. He explains that when Malaysian rappers use English, the motivation of using English is not simply to use the language of English but to convey the image which is attached to English. The use of a language does not have to be seen as just

“copying” the language but can be viewed as “enactment” whereby words are 214 recontextualized and take on a new meaning based on local parameters (Pennycook, 2007).

Rappers are “authentic” to themselves because they “localize” in their raps. They become

“inauthentic” if they just copy what American rappers would do. This is exactly the same motivation Takahashi has when she uses the Kansai dialect. The difference between authentic and inauthentic is not just the language choice in itself. In the case of Takahashi, she uses the

Kansai dialect because she thinks it is cute, funny and friendly and she wants to be perceived as such; however, she remains authentic in the sense that she has not changed her identity as who she is and the content of what she says. She gives a supplementary explanation as in

“whenever I scold, I never speaks the Kansai dialect, but choose to do it in my native Tokyo dialect. This style-shift is effective because all the AKB48 members listen to me attentively and they know it is not play time” (Takahashi, 2015, pp. 46-47).

In Chapter 5, I made reference to “heteroglossia” (Bakhtin, 1981) when I elaborated upon how the male songwriter, Akimoto, manipulates the two different voices of “female” in

OC song lyrics and “male” in AKB48 song lyrics. Originally, Bakhtin uses the concept of heteroglossia when he explicates the method of using multiple voices in order to assign an individual character certain traits in literary work. He also states that multiple voices exist within a society and also within a single person. Despite the fact that the “standard language” is often regarded as correct, powerful and prestigious, Bakhtin favors the multidialectal coexistence. Takahashi’s strategic manipulation of employing two different regional dialects is a derivative form of heteroglossia. Bakhtin illustrates two belief systems are interconnected within the heteroglossia: (i) “a multiplicity of ‘language’ and verbal-ideological belief system” (1981, p. 311) and (ii) “(t)he incorporated languages and socio-ideological belief systems” (p. 312). In other words, the first belief is that different personae have different perceptions of the world and their views are reflected in their language style. The second 215 belief is that the society’s (as well as author’s) perspective about the persona and their language use are always taken into account. Takahashi’s Kansai dialect use and her metapragmatic comment embody Bakhtin’s two beliefs concerning heteroglossia. More specifically, Takahashi uses two regional languages based on her perception of the Kansai dialect.

This section demonstrates a few regional dialectisms that appear in both groups’ conversations even though the Tokyo dialect is the normative language variation among these aidoru, and Tokyo/urban identity is part of aidoru identities in general. It is unknown whether every regional dialect use is purposeful because of the lack of metapragmatic comment; however Takahashi’s employment of the Kansai dialect is evidence that a regional dialect is applicable to portray a comical/friendly identity as a strategy. Importantly, this effect would not be conveyed without the shared social meaning towards the Kansai dialect by both parties of the speaker and the interlocutors.

7.3.2.2 Wakamono kotoba “youth language” and young identity

A specific age-group is a type of social identity as well. A few examples of wakamono kotoba “youth language” are perceptible in both OC and AKB48 talk.

(i) Lexemes

Some expressions are popular only among young people and only for a specific time period. These transient popular language features are often referred to as wakamono kotoba

“youth language.” Tomita (1994) illustrates wakamono kotoba to be the language used by young people living in a specific time period, because they are the most immersed and adapted to it, and can therefore be considered its quintessential representation. In addition, these wakamono kotoba represent the social condition and fashion of the time (p. 47). Many other researchers also have been exploring youth language in terms of the meaning, 216 etymology, and the users’ demographics (e.g., Horasawa, 2000; Kuwamoto, 2002; Yarimizu,

2013). When certain words or phrases are popular for a specific time period by the wide generation in general, they are called as ryūkōgo “fashionable word.” The users of ryūkōgo are implied to understand that they are following the trend, and are thus hip and young- spirited. Once the trend has passed, the expressions and its users are seen as out of date.

Eventually, these ryūkōgo die out and turn into a shi-go “dead language” unless they are frequently recycled by newer generations and become lexicalized.

Both OC talk and AKB48 talk has one prominent youth language feature that repeatedly appears: abunai “dangerous/risky” among the OC members and yabai “risky/ excellent” among the AKB48. Tomita (1994) has investigated wakamono kotoba that were popular during the time from 1980 to 1993. Based on referring to a Gendai Yōgo no Kiso

Chishiki “Basic Knowledge of Contemporary Terminology” which is published annually for the hit wakamono kotoba of the year, he selects several wakamono kotoba which made appearances at least five times in the dictionary during these given years. His study indicates that the word “abunai” appeared five times in 1987, 88, 89, 90 and 93 (p. 46). These years overlaps with the years when OC was active between 1985 and 1987.

The word “abunai” in appears eight times in OC talk. Excerpt 7-9 describes a situation where OC members are looking for members’ funny pictures while flipping through their magazine and commenting on them. Prior to this excerpt, Kawai and Uchimi are talking right next to Nakajima, and Nakajima assumes they are talking about her, so she asks them nani? nani? (O9-1) “What? What?”. Kawai shows the picture to Nakajima, and Uchimi says minna hen (O9-3) “Everyone (looks) weird.” Nakajima says abunāi (9-4) “dangerous” and

Kawai also follows up with abunai ttara nai n da kara (9-5) “Nothing more dangerous than it is.” 217

Excerpt 7-9. abunai #1 in OC talk O9-1 Nakajima nani? @ nani? (serious in loud That? That? voice) O9-2 Kawai kore (showing the picture to Here. Nakaji) O9-3 Uchimi minna hen. minna hen. @@ Everybody (looks) weird. Everybody (looks) weird. O9-4 Nakajima ⇨ @@@ abunāi Dangerous. O9-5 Kawai ⇨ abunai ttara nai n da kara. Nothing more dangerous than it is.

Another example of abunai in OC talk is found when Kawai is asking for

Yoshizawa’s room number in a hallway at the hotel where they are staying, after their live concert is done, as shown in Excerpt 7-10. After Yoshie tells her the room in (O10-2), Kawai tells that her room is two rooms away (O10-3). After Yoshizawa repeats what Kawai just has told her (O10-4), Kawai said abunai in O10-5.

Excerpt 7-10. abunai #2 in OC talk O10-1 Kawai Akie-chan doko? Where are you, Akie-chan? O10-2 Yoshizawa 622 622 O10-3 Kawai niko mukō dayo two rooms away, I tell you. O10-4 Yoshizawa ⇨ niko mukō two rooms away O10-5 Kawai ⇨ abunai. (It’s) dangerous.

Although the literal meaning for abunai is “dangerous/risky,” the translation is not quite applicable for both situations above and others as well in the data. There is no way to find out what kinds of pictures they are looking at in Excerpt 7-10 or what made Kawai think that the situation is abunai in Excerpt 7-10; however, it is predicted that nothing is literally dangerous or risky about the situation. In this particular situation in Excerpt 7-9, abunai can mean similar to “weird” as Uchimi describes right before Nakajima says abunai (O9-3). Even considering that abunai can function like an interjection with a range of versatility, the use of abunai in OC talk is peculiar. Tomita asserts that “wakamono kotoba include many unique expressions and phrases, so they are often incomprehensible for the adult” (2004, p. 47).

Therefore, it is natural that the audience who is in a different generation in age and different 218 time period as OC members has no clue about what the abunai in the 1980s really means. In addition to the frequent use of abunai in OC talk, the fact that the title for their successive live tours includes the word abunai as in abunāi kagai jugyō “dangerous extracurricular classes” implies that abunai was once a trendy wakamono kotoba at the time.

When investigating the same lexeme, abunai in AKB48 talk; however, it is taken as the literal meaning of “dangerous.” In Excerpt 7-11, AKB members are practicing singing and dancing. Ōshima asks whether Itano moves her position in dancing (A11-1). As Itano says ugoku (A11-2) “I move," Akimoto adds further explanation, abunai n da yo ne “It’s risky, isn’t it?” Based on Ōshima’s reply a, jā aman nai yo, tabun (A11-4) “oh, so, there is not spare (time), probably” and Itano’s comment mushiro maniau ka dō ka (A11-5) “rather whether I (get there) in time.” Abunai from Akimoto’s utterance is predicted be the dictionary meaning.

Excerpt 7-11. abunai in AKB48 talk A11-1 Ōshima ugoku no? Do you move? A11-2 Itano ugoku (I) move. A11-3 Akimoto ⇨ abunai n da yo ne It’s risky, isn’t it? A11-4 Ōshima a, jā aman nai yo, tabun Oh, so, there is not spare (time), probably A11-5 Itano mushiro maniau ka dō ka rather whether I (get there) in time.

Since there is about a two decade gap between OC and AKB48, their wakamono kotoba do not overlap. Abunai appears once in AKB48 talk, so the recurrent use is not present in AKB48 talk. Instead, yabai “risky/excellent” frequently appears among AKB48 members.

The characteristics and use of yabai in AKB48 talk seem very similar to that of abunai in OC.

Both abunai and yabai originally mean “dangerous/risky” but they are used to indicate something different as well. In Excerpt 7-12, AKB48 members are eating lunch together.

They are concerned about one of the members, Watanabe’s small appetite and pickiness 219

(A12-1&12-3). Ōshima finds out that Watanabe does not eat any vegetables (A12-4), and

Takahashi says yabai yabai (11-5) “Risky, risky.”

Excerpt 7-12. yabai #1 in AKB48 talk A12-1 Ōshima Mayu-chan tabeteru? Mayu-chan, are you eating? A12-2 Watanabe tabetemasu. shōshoku na Yes I am. I have a small appetite. node. A12-3 Takahashi mayu-chan honto shōshoku Mayu-chan, you really have such da yo ne a small appetite A12-4 Ōshima yasai tabenai n da. You don’t eat vegetable. A12-5 Takahashi ⇨ yabai yabai Risky, risky. A12-6 Takahashi yoku sorede hada tsurutsuru I cannot believe how your skin is da yo ne smooth like that.

Takahashi is surprised how Watanabe’s skin is smooth even without consuming any vegetables, but the comment “risky” makes sense because Takahashi is worried about

Watanabe’s health condition. The two next examples are atypical usages of yabai. Excerpt

7-13 occurs behind the concert stage when they are about to perform in front of a large audience. As members hear the loud cheering from the crowd of spectators, two members,

Shimada and Ōba say yabai yabai (A13-2 and 13-3). There are various potential translations for yabai, and maybe the English youth slang of ‘OMG’ would be apt in this situation, but no matter the translation, what is certain is that both Shimada and Ōba are restless and excited at the moment that this recording was taken.

Excerpt 7-13. yabai #2 in AKB48 talk (Loud cheering from the crowds of spectators.) A13-1 Shimada ō sugē Oh wow A13-2 Shimada ⇨ yabai yabai (nervously jumping) OMG OMG A13-3 Ōba ⇨ yabai yabai (waving hands) OMG OMG

Another example of yabai in Excerpt 7-14 also demonstrates a nontraditional meaning. Shimada received an encouraging text from Takahashi, who is the general leader, 220 prior to their live concert10. Shimada mentions that she wondered whether she should share the text with the other members (A14-2). One of the members responds kore wa yabai yo

(A14-2) “This is yabai yo.” Shimada replies ne, ureshī kara “Right? I am happy, so…” in

A14-4.

Excerpt 7-14. yabai #3 in AKB48 talk A14-1 Shimada (Reading the text fromTakahashi) A14-2 Shimada ma, iu ka mayotta n da kedo, ne, I wondered whether I should tell takamina-san kara no mēru ga you, but I have received a text atta kara from Takahashi-san (so…) A14-3 M ⇨ kore wa yabai yo This is yabai (excellent). A14-4 Shimada ne? ureshī kara. yappa honban Right? I am happy, so…I mae ni iō ka mayotta n dakedo… hesitated whether I tell (you) before the actual live performance, but …

Based on the Shimada’s affirmative comment in A14-4, it is plausible that she regards yabai in A14-3 as a positive message.

Several researchers have regarded that yabai is currently a member of the category wakamono kotoba. In 1995, Okamoto translates yabai into “troublesome,” and treats the term as strongly masculine or vulgar (1995, p. 35). Kuwamoto (2000) introduces Komekawa’s

(2000) arguments that wakamono kotoba is one of the specific group’s language features, and the case of yabai belongs to a group of juvenile delinquents. Despite the fact that both the uses and users of yabai were negative in the past; however, recently researchers recognize the shift in the meaning of yabai and discuss how it has expanded from only negative to both negative and positive (e.g., Kuwamoto, 2002, Takahashi, 2012). Rizal (211) indicates that the positive meanings of yabai include the best, great, very (adverb), cool, good, delicious and so on. Moreover, not only adding the meaning, but also the age group of its users of yabai has

10 AKB48 is the ace team, but it also has several smaller subgroups. Many members belong to a few groups simultaneously. The general leader of AKB48, Takahashi does not belong to the same group as the members here in Excerpt 7-13, so the captain, Shimada, received a supportive text from Takahashi. 221 been generalized from the youth to the wider population (Takahashi, 2012), and from men to both genders (Rizky, 2014).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government have conducted an annual public opinion poll on national language. In 2004 and 2014, the questionnaire asked the respondents to examine whether they use yabai to mean “excellent” and the results are shown in Figure 7-4. The original figure is in Japanese, so the English equivalents have been added. The dotted lines indicates the answer of “Yes, I use yabai to mean excellent.”11 In

2004, the results shown with a triangle (▲) indicates that the percentage of answering “yes” are as follows: teenagers (71.1%), people in their 20s (52.5%), 30s (24.1%), 40s (16.4%), 50s

(10.4%), 60s (8.4) and 70s and above (2.2%). The results of 2014 shown with the diamond- shaped dots (◆) are: teenagers (91.5%), people in their 20s (79.1%), 30s (53.9%), 40s

(32.8%), 50s (18.2%), 60s (11.4) and 70s and above (5.1%) (Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government, 2014, p. 14).

Figure 7-4. The generation difference in the use of yabai as a positive way

(Taken from survey on national language from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2014)

The comparative longitudinal outcomes show a few major points. First, the positive meaning of yabai is used substantially more among the younger generations of speakers. Second, it is

11 The solid lines indicates the answers of “No, I do not use yabai to mean excellent.” 222 used more in 2014 than in 2004. Lastly, since the percentage gap is wider among younger people than older people, younger people are more adaptable to recently added meaning and most likely fashionable word in general. The results are consistent with the discussions towards the use of yabai in the previous studies. Interestingly, however, despite that yabai became heavily analyzed as wakamono kotoba in the early 2000’s, it is still almost 20 years later being considered as such. This may signify that the word is undergoing lexicalization, but only time will tell if the word will retain its positive meaning.

The examined data of AKB48 talk come from between 2011 and 2016, and many of them are teenagers or in the early 20s. It is easy to speculate that the use of yabai would be rare or non-present in OC talk, and sure enough it is not present. Two wakamono kotoba were examined in this section, but wakamono kotoba is not the only resource which indexes youth identity.

(ii) Intonation

In fact, specific prosodic features of pitch-accent patterns and intonations can index youth identity. For instance, previous studies have introduced several examples including

“bottom-up intonation” whereby any final part of a phrase has a high pitch-accent while being lengthened (Horasawa, 2000; Inoue, 2006; Heichi, 2008), “deaccentuation” which is a flat pitch-pattern on nouns (e.g., Tanaka, 2010; Giriko, 2011; Horasawa, 2000) and “jumping intonation,” which has a gradual intonation raise on a phrasal unit particularly ending with the negative nai as in muri ja nai” “Isn’t it impossible?” or kawaiku nai? “Isn’t it cute” (e.g.,

Inoue, 2006; Heichi, 2008; Okada & Ezaki, 2012; Kori, 2018).

In AKB48 talk, the “jumping intonation” is very common. Rising intonation is indicated with a rising arrow (➚) in Excerpt 7-15. In the data, AKB48 members including 223

Miyazaki (A14-1) and Kasai (A14-2) are thanking Akimoto, a team captain, who has been the captain for the past few years. Akimoto is being humble and tells the entire team that she did not do (contribute) anything as in nande, uchi nan mo yatte naku nāi➚? (A14-4) “Why? Isn’t it that I didn’t do anything ➚?” Figure 7-6 indicates the pitch contour of yatte naku nāi? by using Praat (Boersma&Weenink, 2018).

Excerpt 7-15. Rising intonation contour in AKB talk A15-1 Miyazawa itsumo hontōni arigatō Thank you so much, always. A15-2 Kasai Sayaka, yaku yonen kan Sayaka, thank you for these four arigatō. kyaputen ganbatte ne. years. Do your best as captain. A15-3 Akimoto uchi nan mo yatte nai jan. I didn’t do anything. A15-4 ⇨ nande, uchi nan mo yatte Why? Isn’t it that I didn’t do naku nāi➚? anything➚?

Figure 7-5. “Jumping intonation” on yatte naku nāi➚? by Akimoto (AKB48)

The pitch contour shown in Figure 7-5 clearly indicates the rising intonation towards the end. This phenomenon of gradual rising intonation was originally commented on at a conference by Yukari Tanaka in 1993, which she termed hanetobi onchō “jumping intonation” (Inoue, 2006, p. 218; Okazaki & Ezaki, 2012, p. 331). Tanaka and Hayashi (2015) state the phenomenon has spread since the 1990s. Other researchers have also recognized it as a new intonation pattern and explored the phenomenon. Inoue (2006) illustrates how the intonation has actually shifted nowadays. He states as “In the past, “kawaiku nai?” (Isn’t it 224 cute?) was pronounced in two separate accent units with a falling pitch after “i” of “-iku” and a rising intonation at the last vowel of “nai”” (Inoue, 2006, p. 218). Kori (2017) explains that the jumping intonation is apparent when the speaker expresses his/her feelings while avoiding being assertive, yet is still asking for an agreement from the interlocutor (p. 257). He calls the jumping intonation “the Heisei intonation,” since the phenomenon become visible only after the Heisei period (1989-present, but it is scheduled to end in 2019). There is general agreement among these previous researchers that the jumping intonation is: (1) a relatively new intonation pattern, (2) sociolinguistically associated with multiple identities of young generation, the regional of Tokyo area and women, and (3) potentially assigned to any phrases that end in the negative, nai.

Observing Akimoto’s utterance in line A15-4 again, she says nan mo yatte naku nāi➚? “Isn’t it that I didn’t do anything➚?” Grammatically, she uses the double negative construction. This double-negative construction has not been closely investigated, but there is a case where naku nai? as an independent phrase was sampled in suspending talk by Iwasaki (2018). She analyzes the double-negative construction as functioning to mitigate opposition or challenges towards the interlocutor (Iwasaki, 2018, p. 89).

Though academic analysis is lacking, this grammatical construction has drawn public attention online, especially among those who had difficulty in parsing the meaning, including the older generation and learners of Japanese as a foreign language. Many comments were posted in 2005 because a TV commercial script by Acecook included a line kore tte igai to yoku naku nai? “Isn’t this surprisingly not ungood?” While the grammaticality of attaching the negative prefix “un” attaching to “good” is very questionable in English, this mirrors the impression of what yoku naku nai means in Japanese as well. In response to the script, people posted to ask for an explanation, demanding the exact meaning and use and expressing their 225 confusion and uneasiness towards the expression on blogs and online discussion forums (e.g., awayuki_ch, 2005). The following excerpts are posted relatively recent in 2014 on Yahoo!

Japan Chiebukuro (“Nihongo, ” 2014).

Excerpt 7-16. An inquiry about the “naku nai” grammar construction (“Nihongo, ” 2014) 日本語の使い方 「これ、似てなくない？」と言われた場合…似てないことはない＝似てる（これ似てるよ ね？）という意味でしょうか。それとも、似てない）という意味でしょうか。考えれば考 えるほどわからなくなってきてしまいました（汗） How to use the Japanese language If someone says “Isn’t this not unsimilar?”…Does“it does not mean that it is similar” mean = similar (Is it similar?) or (Is it not similar? The more I think, the more I get confused (sweat)

The questioner chose the following comment as the best response.

Excerpt 7-17. The best answer on the “naku nai” grammar construction (“Nihongo, ” 2014) 「～なくない?」は「～なんじゃない?」の新しい言い方ですので、「似てるんじゃな い?」の意味になります。でも「似てるんじゃない?」よりも話者の意見が希薄になりま す。強要を避けたい最近の若者言葉です。 “(It’s) not… un-” is a new expression of “(Isn’t) it not…”, so it means “Isn’t it similar?” But the speakers’ opinion is diminished than in “Isn’t it similar?” This is a recent wakamono kotoba who wants to avoid forcefulness.

In another blog (Moeko, 2005) as well, the blogger states that “I as a middle-aged woman cannot follow the trend (sweat). I want to know where do these expression emerge and how it is spread (sweat)” Therefore, “naku nai?” expression is understood as wakamono kotoba in the world of online discussion. Horasawa (2000) argues that wakamono kotoba is deviant from the perspective of Tokyo normative ‘standard’ Japanese, thus is often judged and regarded as “corrupted Japanese,” however, the principle behind wakamono kotoba is very simple. Creating new language is a way for young people to build solidarity among the peers and enjoy communicating with each other (p. 40). 226

In this section, I explored two lexical items with similar uses, abunai in OC talk and yabai in AKB48 talk, and one intonation expression of “jumping intonation” as well as the

“naku nai” grammatical construction and some perceptions related to it, as examples of wakamono kotoba. Because of a lack of sociophonetic research from this time period, prosodic features were not investigated in OC talk, as the wakamono kotoba that was popular in the mid 1980s is different from that used nowadays. However, these examples are sufficient evidence that the two aidoru groups employ wakamono kotoba of their respective times, and wakamono kotoba functions as a tool to index youth identity. Aoyagi (2013) mentions, two of the primary function of aidoru is sharing the experiencing the youth and growing up together with the fans (p. 146). Through their language use, aidoru members do portray the youth identity regardless of their intention.

7.4 Chapter summary and discussion

This chapter investigated aidoru conversation from different perspectives, mainly looking at gendered expressions, but also regional dialect and youth language. Various identities such as feminine, masculine, regional and young are perceptible in OC and AKB48 talk. While there exist an almost endless variety of combinations of linguistic components available for the speakers, the speakers constantly choose language styles based on what suits them in a given situation. Identity construction is sometimes a conscious performance and at other times is unconscious. Regardless of the presence of intention, identities are constructed by every possible party of speakers, interlocutors and observers in a given society. As

Goffman states, “identities are not fully controllable and subject to strategy or management” (1959).

First, gendered expressions of the sentence ending forms in OC and AKB48 talk were quantitatively compared. Generally speaking, both masculine and feminine gendered 227 expressions are more frequent in OC talk. I addressed that the main factor as to why OC talk included more feminine gendered expressions when compared to AKB48 talk is due to the plentiful use of the SFP no, which is relatively feminine even by current perceptions.

However, specific uses of no, the SFP no in question such as tabete īno? “Is it okay to eat?,” has became neutral. Consequently, any SFP no in both affirmative and question sentences were categorized as feminine in the original classification, however, the SFP no in affirmative sentences was classified as feminine but the SFP no in questions was classified as neutral in the modern classification. Therefore, there is a gap between the results from the quantitative analysis and perception, and OC talk does not come across as being overtly feminine, as the results may suggest.

Very masculine or even vulgar expressions appeared in OC talk. Further qualitative analysis disclosed that these super-masculine utterances tended to appear when they are playing and having fun. They use super-masculine expressions as a tool in creating a joking atmosphere. In fact, having multiple joking scenes among OC members indicates how OC are often relaxed. They constantly joke around and their attitudes are reinforced by their giggles even during the singing and dancing lessons. Therefore, the documentaries include several scenes where the OC members are scolded by staff because of the lack of their seriousness.

Their stance is further supported by their frequent use of yada “I do not like it.” Their whiny behaviors can be perceived as powerless kawaii “cute” quality, because whiny behaviors evoke childish and lack of seriousness as seen in Table 3-1 (c.f. Chapter 3).

As for AKB48 talk, nearly 90% of sentences are classified into gender neutral.

Previous researchers address that gender neutralization in speech has spread since the 1990s.

A great deal of neutral expressions may be due to the gender neutralization. The previous studiy also elaborates that the speakers are well-acquainted with the presence of hegemonic 228 men’s language and women’s language, but intentionally choose gendered neutral language in daily conversation, unless they are being sarcastic or making fun. The discussions about neutralization hold true when observing the results in Figure 7-1, which displays that both masculine expressions and feminine expressions are diminished, and the use of neutral forms are much greater in AKB48 talk than in OC talk. The results are in accordance with the time frame, where OC talk was recorded in the 1980s and AKB48 talk was recorded in the 2000s.

The language neutralization occurs in-between OC and AKB48.

Among the staggering amount of neutral forms in AKB48 conversation, the super- masculine speech by Takahashi and Ōshima stands out. The difference between the masculine expressions in OC talk and in AKB48 talk is also notable. Unlike the OC members, the

AKB48 members are very serious and usually they are mad when they employ vulgar masculine expressions. Even though the super-masculine linguistic forms themselves are identical, they can index completely different connotations. The super-masculine forms can help in creating additional humorous atmosphere in a joking frame, but they can create intimidating atmosphere in a serious frame. These examples underline the importance of observing each context in order to understand the meaning.

There are times when AKB48 members are joking around; however, AKB48 takes the aidoru career very seriously. Therefore, whiny attitudes are hardly visible among AKB48.

Throughout the AKB48 documentaries, they strive to improve their individual singing and dancing skills and provide better live performances for the fans. They work hard both by competing against each other, and by helping each other. That is why, Takahashi, the general leader, and Ōshima, the experienced ace member, use super-masculine expressions in scolding other members as sempai from time to time. 229

In OC documentaries, the staff play the role of encouraging and scolding when OC members were not behaving. However, there were many scenes that sempai AKB48 members give advices to kōhai members. These AKB48’s stern and self-disciplined behaviors fall under the category of “anti-cuteness” power in Table 3-1 such as “strength,” “maturity,”

“serious.” Aidoru are “kawaii” traditionally, but AKB48 indicates un-kawaii identity and they are challenging to the normative kawaii quality.

The use of personal pronouns along with self- and other-referent forms suggests speakers’ social identities. Although the major first-person pronoun is watashi “I” for both groups, other variations are used. For instance, names (first and last) and nicknames are used as self-referent forms for OC along with varieties of jibun “I (lit. myself)” or uchi “I (lit. home).” Names (first and last) and nicknames are used by AKB48 members. Among them, the self-reflexive jibun almost always appears during interviews. Very vulgar second-person pronouns such as temē and omē “you” are used only among OC members, and seem to be used to create a joking frame. Lastly, age differences among AKB48 members influence the young juniors to employ a title prefix -san to a person's name, and it is attached not only to the interlocutors’ first and last name, but even to their nicknames.

Other lexical items such as polite prefix o- as in o-niku “meat” and certain pronunciations portray politeness, and thus they are often linked to the feminine. The [i]/[r] deletions such as in wakannai from wakaranai “I do not know,” lengthening, high pitch and shita tarazu “baby-talk” register, are considered to project feminine identities, while [ē] from

[ai]/[oi] as in kakkē from kakkoii “cool,” and trilled [r] link to form masculine identities.

These feminine polite prefix and masculine pronunciation appeared more in OC talk.

Regional dialects were also found in both OC and AKB48 talk. The prominent regional dialect is the intentional use of the Kansai dialect by Takahashi, in which she 230 explains that she uses it as a tool to create a friendly persona and to build amicable interactions with the juniors especially when she is giving suggestions as an experienced mentor. Previously, I illustrated how Takahashi uses super-masculine expressions in scolding other members. Takahashi never used the masculine expressions when she is scolding an individual member. She employs the super-masculine expression when she scolds other members as a collective group, but she chooses the Kansai dialect when she gives advice individually. Her manipulation of different styles shows that she understands the impact of the two distinct registers.

In addition, a few wakamono kotoba “Youth language” of a given time period are observed, as seen with abunai “risky” used by OC members in the 1980s and yabai “risky/ excellent” by AKB48 in the 2000s. Qualitative analysis indicates the connotation of abunai is negative, but yabai is both positive and negative. Besides the referential meanings of abunai and yabai, they seem like they function like interjections, though the actual meaning appears to be entirely context-dependent. In this sense, they appear to be versatile yet meaningless at the same time. It was shown through previous literature that these empty interjections, abunai and yabai can express various emotional states.

Interestingly, aidoru identities of hyper-feminine burikko speech are rarely seen in both OC and AKB48 talk. Even if both groups are considered to be “ordinary,” and their behaviors are also like regular people in general, my speculation was that ordinary aidoru in the 1980s tended to speak a lot more femininely. It is beneficial to revisit the emergence of women’s language when looking for the reason for the lack of hyper-feminine burikko speech in aidoru talk. Inoue (2006) unpacks what actually happened regarding the establishment of women’s language in history. The shift from the teyo-dawa speech being negative and despised to being the “unmarked” women’s voice (i.e., women’s language) happened between 231

1890-1930. In this period, the middle-class modern family was emerging and with it the capitalist market which discovered schoolgirls as potential consumers. Therefore, commercial magazines that were more and more numerous started using the teyo-dawa speech to target the schoolgirl group as a marketing strategy. This teyo-dawa speech was still seen as negative by male intellectuals, nationalists, female educators and even socialist feminists at that time.

However, it was embraced by the commercial magazines to appeal to their young readers.

This was the first time where the teyo-dawa speech was used productively as register, instead of being “cited” by others in a critical way. Eventually, it has spread so much that the authorities decided that instead of criticizing it, it was better to embrace it and make it the symbol of the ideal “Good Wife, Wise Mother” Japanese women. In short, the process of the shift is primarily based on the marketing strategies to sell products and the government’s ploy to reinforce the notion of controllable women. Despite the fact that women’s language was crafted based on the male intellectuals’ “subjective listening,” the true process is

“erased” (Inoue, 2006). What people recognize as women’s language exists in Japan as a social construct, and like any social construct, it is a moving target which defies adequate description, and whose future trajectory remains to be seen. In a similar vein, all the collective aidoru images including clothes, mannerisms and linguistic use might have been just imagined, crafted, and circulated by male authorities in the entertainment industry. Just as no one really talks like schoolgirls’ teyo-dawa speech, aidoru may have been speaking quite normally, and aidoru performance also may have been an illusion.

In order to further compare the imagined and/or crafted aidoru identities and the projected identities by aidoru themselves, I pull the results of linguistic use in song lyrics from Chapter 5 and actual linguistic use from this chapter. Figure 7-6 is created based on the previous results from Figure 5-12 and Figure 7-1. The left chart shows the results of OC in 232

lyrics and talk based on the original classification, and the right chart shows the results of

AKB in song lyrics and talk based on the modern classification. The lighter gray bars are the

distributions of gendered expressions in song lyrics. The black bars are the distributions of

gendered expressions in talk.

Figure 7-6. Comparison of ending forms in lyrics and talk between OC and AKB48 OC ending forms AKB48 ending forms 100% 100% OC lyrics 88.7% AKB48 lyrics OC talk AKB48 talk

75% 71.3% 75% 67.8% 62.3%

50% 50%

31.4% 25% 25% 22.1%25% 15.6% 4.5% 6.8% 3.7% 0.8% 0% 0% Feminine Neutral Masculine Feminine Neutral Masculine

Starting from OC chart on the left, the most striking outcome is how fewer percentage

of masculine expressions are used in song lyrics. The qualitative analysis discloses that the

masculine expressions primarily used in song lyrics are borrowed from another song, and

without this inclusion, it would have been zero percent. Masculine expressions in talk exceed

masculine expressions in song lyrics greatly, but feminine expressions in song lyrics exceed

feminine expression in talk. This demonstrates that the aidoru image in terms of linguistic

use is truly crafted, and the song lyrics intend to portray a more feminine identity of OC than

what they actually are in their speech. The opposite trend is seen for AKB48, hinting that

their identity is crafted as being more manly than how they actually speak in reality. The

difference in results between OC song lyrics vs. AKB48 song lyrics clearly shows how

aidoru images are crafted based on two different time periods and two different audience, and 233 the comparison between OC talk vs. AKB48 talk reveals that their difference in talk is not as big as their song lyrics.

The focus of this chapter was to investigate how current aidoru speak differently compared from the past aidoru. There were several differences. First, more masculine and feminine expressions appeared in OC talk. However, most of expressions in AKB48 were neutral. Some regional dialects were found in both groups. They have different sets of youth language. However, the aidoru talk from the two different time periods did not behave drastically differently unlike the crafted language in song lyrics. What has been highlighted from the results is the complicated and strategic characteristics of natural talk. For instance, the mixed gendered ending forms and many sentence-internal particles appeared, and there was a need to exclude them in order to perform the quantitative analysis. It is also important to take into account situational context of these usages, as super vulgar expressions were shown to index humor in OC talk. The Kansai dialect indexes light-hearted and friendly features in AKB48 talk. This chapter concludes by restating that meaning is truly context- dependent, and that the examples shown here have demonstrated this fact. 234

CHAPTER 8. DISCUSSION, IMPLICATION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

8.1 General summary and discussion

The purpose of my dissertation was to explore social identities and investigate the relationships between ideology, linguistic styles, other aspects of style (such as clothing and physical appearance) and identity construction. I will now summarize each chapter and pull all the major outcomes together to answer my research questions (RQs).

RQ 1. How are aidoru portrayed in the images on CD covers and song lyrics, and are

the portrayed current aidoru images different from past images?

To answer the first and second research question, in Chapter 5 I compared the visual images on CD jacket covers and song lyrics that are scripted by a male songwriter, Akimoto.

First of all, the obvious identity is their “Japaneseness.” This is easy to overlook because it is so mundane. However, when you step back and observe, the song titles are written in

Japanese and the songs are sung in Japanese. Moreover, school uniforms are repeatedly selected as performing costumes, which also embody the Japanese identity (e.g., Kinsella,

2000), in addition to student identity and youth identity (Weekly Playboy Editorial

Department, 2011), modernity (e.g, Kinsella, 2000; Inoue, 2006), and government and control (Symes & Meadmore, 1996). Another undeniable common identity is female identity.

All the CD jacket covers include pictures of the aidoru, presenting openly as women, more specifically focusing on their kawaii “cute” physical traits.

The kawaii visual images are everywhere on both Onyanko Club (OC) and AKB48

CD jacket covers. OC CD jacket covers project the kawaii identity via matching style costumes, school uniforms, accessories, the latest curly hairdo called “Seiko-chan cut” at the time, smiling expressions and title texts of pastel color and maru moji “round scripts” font.

AKB48 CD jacket covers also portray the kawaii identity through cute costumes such as 235 colorful kimono, mini skirts, flower hair accessories and girly mannerisms. Additionally,

AKB48 CD covers project more complex identities. For instance, their black leathered costumes index toughness as if they are powerful fighting heroines. Other times, they are dressed in white wedding gowns, but the gowns are ripped and covered in dirt. Thus, AKB48

CD covers demonstrate alternative aidoru identities such as tough and kakkoii “cool.”

The visual images on AKB48 CD covers are in accordance with their song themes.

The main topics of OC songs are boys and romantic relationships. In contrast, AKB48 songs are at times related to romance, but other times they display strong nerves in overcoming difficulties and the importance of having an unyielding spirit. The protagonists and language use in their songs are distinctive as well. In OC songs, the protagonists are always girls who employ a feminine “voice” (Bakhtin, 1981). Together with the feminine content and feminine language use in OC songs, it is assumed that the audience believes the crafted feminine identities of OC to be their identities. In AKB48, the protagonists are often concealed, but most songs are from a man’s perspective, thus a masculine “voice” is employed.

In summary, what OC projects is Japanese young cute girls who sing about romantic relationships by using a feminine “voice” in kawaii costumes. In contrast, what AKB48 presents is Japanese young cute girls who sing about romantic relationships by using a masculine “voice” in kawaii costumes, and also sing encouraging songs by using a masculine

“voice” in not kawaii costumes. Taking these observations into consideration, the portrayed aidoru images of kawaii is shared between the two aidoru groups, but the current aidoru group - AKB48 - projects a wider range of un-kawaii identities as well.

RQ 2. How do aidoru view aidoru identity and position themselves?

Thematic analysis reveals how aidoru themselves understand aidoru identity (e.g., fate, role and expectations) and how they align with and dis-align with their views towards 236 aidoru. First, aidoru members are very aware that they are expected to be young. AKB48 has lasted more than a decade as of 2018; therefore, some of the old-time members worry about getting older. In contrast, OC lasted only a few years, so there was no evidence of them being concerned about their age.

Both past and current aidoru members understand that they have to project“clean” public images, by avoiding “inappropriate” behavior such as smoking or dating. Being single and available is very important for an aidoru because many fans have romantic feelings towards aidoru. Some OC and AKB48 members have violated this tacit agreement, and they were forced to leave the aidoru group. Discourse analysis revealed that some of them are faithful to the no-dating rule, others follow it unwillingly, and others occasionally violate it.

However, aidoru usually have to pay some penalty if they are found to have violated this agreement, with the consequences varying according to the situation.

Aidoru embody burikko, engaging in “fake hyper-femininity”(Miller, 2004, pp.

156-157), and the notion of burikko includes various kawaii features such as appearance, speech, behavior and personality. Cheerfulness is a crucial aspect of burikko identity.

However, many aidoru members have struggled to maintain their cheerful quality and cute images. This is especially true for AKB48 members, as their private lives are more exposed to the public via documentaries and blogs. Some of them constantly try to behave as burikko aidoru as much as possible, while others give up trying and reveal who they really are, such as otaku or being mean-spirited. AKB48 members go against the normative aidoru identity on purpose to be noticeable, like Miyazawa. She mentions “I was searching for what I have.

Many people perceive me as boyish, then I realized nobody in AKB48 had a boyish character; therefore, I decided to own the boyish persona as my character” (Iwai et al., 2011).

Her comment shows that establishing the boyish character is part of her strategy to stand out. 237

Even though some aidoru think they are projecting non-kawaii identities to be visible, they still fall into the realm of kawaii to the general public. They have to find a balance of projecting non-aidoru identity while fulfilling the fundamental aidoru kawaii identities.

In general, aidoru are expected be somewhat mediocre aspects in looks and performing skills at the beginning of their aidoru careers because lack of competence is a part of being kawaii, as McVeigh discusses (1996). OC members were overtly instructed to be average and to remain ordinary, so OC members accept their mediocrity and project being ordinary. On the other hand, current AKB48 members lament theor lack of exceptional appearance and performing skills. They are eager to improve their individual skills, and at the same time, AKB48 members collaboratively strive for excellence in singing and dancing.

They are trying to push the boundaries of the traditional “mediocre” feature of aidoru in all possible ways. The AKB48 members’ serious attitudes induce individual professionalism and sempai members to take the leadership and become a role model for kōhai members.

The AKB48 sempai teach not only how to become a successful aidoru, but show how to graduate from the aidoru career. AKB48 members are aware that their aidoru career, both individually and as a whole group, will not last forever. They constantly have a sense of crisis over their position as aidoru; therefore, they have further dreams after resigning from the aidoru career. A good number of former AKB48 have succeeded in making the transition to different careers, including becoming models, actresses and influencers.

In answering this specific aspect of how aidoru view aidoru identity and position themselves, it turns out that the information about OC is too scarce to provide a sufficient answer. Although it is unclear how OC members viewed aidoru identity and how they positioned themselves, they projected youthful, childish, cheerful and mediocre features based on the observation of data of the OC documentaries and the media. Their features align 238 with the traditional aidoru images. The reason why there is not enough data that reveal OC’s feelings and opinions may be because OC is from the 1980s and the data is difficult to find or lost. However, at the same time, the lack of data suggests the possibility that even in the documentaries that we do have, their voices were unheard because aidoru were not supposed to show their inner feelings at that time. One of the OC members, Nitta, describes that aidoru were expected to play a role of “puppet” (Hasegawa, 2013, p. 224). If that is the case, their feelings and opinions did not matter, and thus were not shared.

On the other hand, there is plentiful data about how AKB48 members view aidoru identity as well as expressing all kinds of aspects and emotions in various media including documentaries, TV shows, magazines, and books. Some members try to align with the aidoru identity, but others are outspoken about going against the aidoru norms. A few members even admit that they fake super feminine kawaii aspects as a part of their performance. Thus, this fakeness is acknowledged by both aidoru and fans (Katsuki, 2014, p. 70). Compared with aidoru in the past, the current aidoru are relatively freed from the preconceived aidoru ideologies. That is why they can resist following the traditional aidoru ideology. This leads to another research question.

RQ3. Has the aidoru ideology, including images and social expectations, changed over time?

The cause of the shift in how fans view aidoru and what fans expect in aidoru is partly due to the change of the platform where aidoru appear. In the past, the main stage for aidoru was exclusively TV. Fans had limited chances to witness aidoru performances. Being fake and putting on a kawaii performance was not difficult because of the limitation on exposure to the fans. However, current fans have various venues to see aidoru either in person (e.g., live concert) or on social media, which makes it hard for aidoru to only show 239 one segment of their character. Eventually, fans figured out that aidoru’s femininity is a kind of performance. Nowadays, while this fake cuteness is still appreciated to some extent, fans also value aidoru’s genuine personalities (2012, p. 70). Ultimately, fans still regard AKB48 as authentic aidoru (Pennycook, 2007); therefore, they keep supporting them.

According to Pennycook (2007), authenticity does not arise from copying the original resource, but rather being true to oneself (i.e., “keepin’ it real”) counts more in judging authenticity. In the article, Pennycook (2007) introduces that a few international rap groups initially imitated all sorts of U.S. rap styles because U.S. originated rap culture. However, they later adapted the rap essence into their own local circumstances. The establishment of social position plays the key as well. Likewise, many unknown aidoru may have to portray an ultra kawaii feminine persona at the beginning of their career, but once they gain enough fame like AKB48, kokumin-teki aidoru or “national idol” (Galbraith & Karlin, 2012), they are allowed to act freely and are still recognized as authentic aidoru by the wider audience. In conclusion, current aidoru are not asked to put on an aidoru performance as much as before.

Instead, more or less life-sized genuine characteristics are accepted. Aidoru ideology including images and social expectations has changed following the shift in social change, including technological advancements and the closer relationship and relationships between fans and aidoru.

RQ4. What kind of linguistic features do aidoru use to project certain identities, and does contemporary language use of aidoru differ from the past?

In uncovering the linguistic features of the two aidoru groups, I compare OC talk and

AKB48 talk. Reflecting on the findings in aidoru talk, both OC and AKB48 employ Tokyo

Japanese as default. Tokyo Japanese itself indexes the standard language, and thus also carried with it airs of “propriety” and “authority,” and of course, metropolitan identity. 240

In terms of gendered expressions, the quantitative results in aidoru talk indicate that

OC members employ both feminine and masculine ending forms more frequently than

AKB48 members. In fact, OC members use more masculine endings than feminine endings overall. The results were consistent with the four top OC members who produced the most sentences, and their masculine ending forms still remained greater than their feminine ones.

This result cannot be read into too far, however, as it does not necessarily imply that OC members demonstrated masculinity in their language use, because their use of masculine expressions are understood as an instrument for joking around. Even though masculine endings are notably fewer in AKB48 talk, they mean to use masculine endings to be more assertive and authoritative. Their masculine expressions actually challenge gender norms. In summary, masculine expressions index humorous identity in OC talk, but index masculinity in AKB48 talk.

The distribution order of gendered expressions were the same between OC and AKB talk, so neutral expressions appeared the most, then masculine, while feminine expressions appeared the least. The fact that AKB48 members employed much fewer feminine ending forms and masculine endings forms suggests that gendered language has neutralized to some extent among Japanese language speakers. Previous studies have referred to this phenomenon as “gender neutralization” or “women’s language corruption” and it became prevalent since the late 1980s (e.g., Ozaki, 1999; Inoue, 2006). This period is exactly when OC was sensational. The gender neutralization had already infiltrated at the time when OC documentaries were recorded, but the results demonstrate that the language neutralization clearly escalated in AKB48 talk.

The movement of language gender neutralization reflects general public opinion towards gendered language. According to the survey conducted by the Agency for Cultural 241

Affairs of the Japanese government, an annual public opinion poll asked the participants’ viewpoints regarding language gender neutralization in 2002 and 2012. The response is as follows:

1) Gendered language is not preferred. 12.2 % (2012) vs. 7.8% (2002) 2) Gender neutralization is unavoidable. So be it. 47.1% (2012) vs. 34.8% (2002) 3) Gendered language is preferred. 36.8% (2012) vs. 52.0%(2002)

The percentage shows that people have started to favor less gendered language, and gradually have accepted language neutralization. Language change is moving forward based on public evaluation towards language, because the link between language ideology and linguistic use is fluid and constantly negotiated by the people in a given society at a given time.

Analysis of gendered lexical expressions and pronunciations at the sentence-internal level disclose various identities as well. For instance, most of the aidoru in OC and AKB48 use the feminine first pronoun, watashi, but a few members use their first name or nickname to refer to themselves. This is considered to be very child-like expressions. However, OC members use exceptionally vulgar second person pronouns like temē and omē, compared with

AKB48 members, especially when they are joking. OC members also tend to apply more feminine phonological modifications than AKB48 in general.

There is a considerable amount of online discussion comments about how AKB48 members employ vulgar expressions. Excerpt 8-1 was posted in 2011 on Yahoo! Japan

Chiebukuro (boc, 2011). The contributor was disappointed at an AKB48 member, Ōshima’s vulgar language. This contributor is concerned about how AKB’s fans would feel. She is eager to find out where Ōshima’s bad language comes from, and asks if Ōshima has male siblings. 242

Excerpt 8-1. AKB48 language (boc, 2011) ＡＫＢ４８の言葉遣いについて たまたまＮＨＫでＡＫＢの特集？を見ていたのですが、大島さんの言葉遣いの悪さに幻滅 しました。深夜にやっていたプライベートおっかけ番組もたまに見ていましたが、言葉遣 いが気になるメンバーが何人かいました。ファンの皆様は言葉遣いに幻滅しないのでしょ うか？ちなみに大島優子さんは男性のご兄弟はいらっしゃいますか？ About AKB48’s language I happened to watch the feature program about AKB on NHK, but I was disappointed with Ōshima-san’s bad language. I happened to watch another feature program (on AKB48) late at night as well, and there are several people whose language use I was concerned about. I wonder if their fans are not disappointed at their language. By the way, does Ōshima have any male siblings?

Responses to the post vary. There are people who agree with the contributor and mention that

AKB48 members are coarse and do not have any common sense. On the other hand, many people defend Ōshima and approve her including her vulgar language, as in “Such a casual attitude is her strength” (wad********, 2011), “Ōshima Yūko-san is known to be manly among AKB. That’s her character. She is popular because of her blunt, older-brother-like character ” (djr********, 2011), and “I don’t understand what’s there to be disappointed about. AKB48 shows good and bad… Fans support each AKB48 member’s individuality.

Fans do not ask for perfect aidoru in AKB48.” (byc********, 2011). It seems that people who are not fans tend to evaluate AKB48’s rather vulgar language negatively, but fans accept the individuals for who they are.

Some discussion forums directly make direct comparisons between OC and AKB48 in general, and also between OC talk and AKB48 talk specifically. Excerpt 8-2 directly compares their language use and states how AKB48 members employ vulgar expressions, but how OC members did not employ vulgar expressions and instead behaved like aidoru (“Nitta,

2013). 243

Excerpt 8-2. AKB girls AKBの子は言葉遣い乱暴だよね 。「てめえ！」とか「～～じゃねーよ！」なんてアイドル どころか女の子としてどうよ？って言葉遣いが目立つ 。おニャン子だって他のアイドルに 比べたら言葉遣い悪いほうではあったけど、乱暴な話し方はしてなかった 。一応アイドル として振る舞ってた。 AKB48 girls’ language is rough, don’t you think? Expressions such as temē (“you”) and ~ ja nēyo! (“It’s not~”) stand out and they are not appropriate not only for aidoru but also for girls (in general). Onyanko Club’s language was relatively bad compared to other aidoru, but they did not employ rough speech, and they behaved as aidoru more or less.

Despite the fact that these posts explicitly mention that AKB48 members use vulgar language and OC members use more polite language and behave (properly) as aidoru, the results of this study actually indicate the opposite. OC members employed a lot more masculine expressions, even regarding that they were jokingly using them.

In the article “What Does Language Remember?: Indexical Inversion and the

Naturalized History of Japanese Women,” Inoue (2004) illustrates how women’s language did not exist originally, but was established based on subjective listening by male intellectuals, and this crafted women’s language gradually became unmarked women’s language over time. Taking the developmental process of women’s language as an example, even if it was originally crafted, after it circulated repeatedly and widely, it became gradually accepted as natural. Thus, making the argument of its authentic validity is no longer important. The language once perceived as crafted eventually became legitimate and authentic.

Similarly, it is highly possible that the public opinion towards OC being feminine has arisen because of feminine identity projection in OC commodities such as CD jacket covers and song lyrics. People do not remember how OC actually used to speak, but they are oblivious enough to believe that the crafted aidoru identity, which has been portrayed through 244 images and language expressions in the name of profitable purposes, is really true to aidoru themselves in reality.

Gender identities are constantly formed through various styles and recourses, which influence the gender ideologies, and the link between ideologies and identities is fluid.

Nakamura (2004, p.135) asserts that gender relations, gender ideology, and gender identities are inseparable, and she proposed the dynamic model of language, and gender studies as in

Figure 8-1. Nakamura describes that “Gender identities refer to a variety of gender-related identities that subjects actively (re)construct in discourse practices. Gender ideologies include gender-related categories, social subjects, social relationships, and conceptual frameworks which have been historically constituted and ordered by previous discourse practice. Gender relations refers to the gender-related power structure in society” (2004, p. 135).

Figure 8-1. Nakamura’s dynamic model of language and gender studies Gender Relations (Social Structures) ⇅ Gender Ideologies (Discourse Orders) ⇅ [restrict and provide resources to] [produce, reproduce and subvert] ⇅ Gender identities (Discourse Practices) (Adopted from Nakamura, 2004, p.135)

By borrowing the model, aidoru ideologies either restrict or provide the resource to aidoru identities (practice), and in return, aidoru identities (practice) can produce, reproduce or subvert aidoru ideologies concurrently. Not to mention, the reciprocal relationships are always affected by gender relations in a given society. The aidoru ideologies are socially constructed based on previous aidoru identities. Thus, the identity-making process is ongoing. 245

In addition to gendered expressions in aidoru talk, a few regional dialects occurred, although the metropolitan Tokyo dialect is the predominant variety in aidoru talk. Among them, the use of the Kansai dialect by Takahashi is unique. She explains that she uses the

Kansai dialect only when she wants to project a friendly persona to give advice to much younger peers (Takahashi, 2015). Although Takahashi’s Kansai dialect still indexes the

Kansai region as in the first indexicality order (cf. Silverstein’s indexical order, 1976), that is not her primary purpose in employing the Kansai dialect. The social perceptions of Kansai people being funny and the Kansai region are connected (2nd order), and Takahashi uses the dialect as a resource to be comical (3rd order). One of the Kansai SFPs, -yaro Takahashi used in the data have variable potential meanings that are negotiated in the sociohistorical process and that are situated in an indexical field (cf. Eckert, 2008). Which meaning from the indexical field is activated is still open to further negotiation between the speaker and the interlocutor. Takahashi mentions that her Kansai dialect is effective, so her junior interlocutors are aware of her manipulation as well.

Finally, different types of wakamono kotoba “youth language” per time period appeared as well. Wakamono kotoba peculiar to a specific time span index stylishness, youth and the specific time period as in the data. Abunai “risky” indexes cool young people in the late 1980s and yabai “risky/excellent” indexes cool young people in the 2000s. The double negative grammar construction naku nai➚? is regarded as wakamono kotoba today, and the gradual rise intonation (➚) is referred to “Heisei intonation,” is found in AKB48 talk only.

In short, the OC and AKB48 aidoru talks project all kinds of multilayered identities from socio-cultural framing (macro-level social frames) to interpersonal framing (macro- level social frames): Japanese, metropolitan, feminine, masculine, young, stylish, regional, temporal certain time periods of the late 1980s and 2000s, comical, serious and more. 246

Although contemporary language use of aidoru is not drastically different from the past, contemporary Japanese includes fewer gendered expressions in general.

8.2 Implications

Over the last few decades, much attention has been paid to Japanese pop culture, such as fashion, anime and manga, as well as aidoru. Previous studies and media have unpacked who aidoru are, what they do, what their roles are, how the aidoru industry has developed in

Japan, how Japanese aidoru industry is unique and aidoru’s economic contribution is to the society, through both non-academic and academic approaches. Aidoru have most typically been explored through the field of anthropology, but the analysis in the field of sociolinguistics has remained lacking. Therefore, this study proposed a direct contribution to sociolinguistic analysis by examining language use in aidoru talk and lyrics thoroughly.

Some of the findings from the observations in this research relate to other academic fields such as gender studies, (linguistic) anthropology, and media studies.

Based on the results from observing visual images on CD covers, many semiotic signs such as costumes, facial expressions, facial traits, body gestures, colors and script fonts negotiate meanings. Additionally, this study investigated corresponding songs and revealed personae’s characteristics and language use in the songs. Previous studies primarily focused only on a single aspect, opting out of the more holistic approach taken here. The interactions of visual images, personae’s identities in songs and language choice in song lyrics can magnify the projected identities in their commodities.

What makes this research worthy of attention is the sampled data. All the songs belong to the same genre of J-pop aidoru music, come from the two different time periods, and most importantly, are written by the same songwriter, Akimoto, who was one of the main producers of OC, and founded AKB48, and remains the producer of the latter. These unique 247 features of the data make this study a quasi-longitudinal study that investigates differences between the two groups of different time periods. The striking finding about how Akimoto uses a feminine female voice in OC songs of the 1980s, and how the same songwriter manipulates a male voice in AKB48 songs of the 2000s highlights two aspects. First, aidoru identity projection is all based on Akimoto’s strategic decisions. The decision is motivated by his marketing strategy, which is a reflection of social issues and national status. Akimoto employed a female voice to discuss relationships in OC songs in order to provide an imaginary girlfriend for male aidoru otaku in the 1980s, when things were going well in

Japan. He then employed a male voice in AKB48 songs to give encouraging messages to the audience and to the whole nation in a time when Japan has been struggling against economic depression.

The second feature is about aidoru’s crafted identities. Aidoru identities can be easily manipulated by a third party through their commodities and aidoru performances, regardless of their actual characters. In the field of sociolinguistics, the relationship between language

(discourse) and identity is often grounded in a view of language as discourse (e.g., Coupland,

2007; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). The research has examined the association between the speakers and their own speech styles in different settings, with differing roles and interlocutors to understand the characteristics of identity. However, identity construction is still ongoing even when the speech styles are molded by someone else, like when you are singing someone else’s song lyrics. Powerful authorities often influence identity construction.

For instance, women’s language was established by male perception and description of female schoolgirls’ language. Furthermore, linguists as experts also generally endorse the link between language and identity. This current study indicates that a male songwriter as a producer reinforced the language and identity both in the creation and circulation level 248 whenever the audience listen to the songs. This is not restricted to aidoru identity exclusively, and it is possible that any identity could be crafted by the proper authority.

This study contributes to the existing pop-culture, especially aidoru, studies by employing documentaries as data. This is not limited to aidoru, but any other closed community where it is not easy for outsiders to get involved and observe. Documentary data allows the analysis of both the interview-setting talk and also aidoru’s everyday speech, which have been overlooked in previous aidoru research. Although the documentaries are official products, the camera can catch a glimpse of aidoru’s everyday life and everyday speech. Studying aidoru’s everyday speech among their peers is fruitful to sociolinguistics and particularly gender studies that investigate the link between gendered language and identities, especially in the case of Japanese language, since a great amount of gendered expressions tend to appear in the vernacular, casual speech style (Okamoto and Sato, 1992).

Furthermore, the relationships constructed in interactions among aidoru peers in documentaries are distinct from any other interactions that occur in the public media because they reveal an insiders’ perspective on aidoru.

The close observation of relationships between aidoru peers and sempai-kōhai

“senior-junior” interactions manifests a social learning framework, in which specific traditions are passed down from master to apprentice, that is called “community of practice” (CoP). These “[c]ommunities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor” (Wenger, 2006, p. 1).

Wenger explains CoP have three crucial characteristics: the domain, the community, and the practice. Aidoru members share the domain where young aidoru girls learn how to become successful aidoru while maintaining (emphasizing and negotiating) aidoru identities that can be used to survive in the music industry. Within the aidoru community, they engage in live 249 performances, media appearances, and interactions with their fans, and serve as role models for the younger girls. Aidoru members practice “aidoru” while sharing activities and experiences among participant members to tackle common issues and tasks. Wenger illustrates a figure that explains multiple ways to engage in social learning. While not exhaustive, the following Figure 8-2 illustrates possible participants of the aidoru community of practice. The people, including staff members and fans, participate in different roles and at various levels to form the community.

Figure 8-2. Level of participation in the aidoru industry (AKB48)

(Adopted from Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, “Slide,” 2011)

AKB48 seniors are located at the center of the square as a core group. The center of the square undoubtedly contains the producer. Other AKB members are located in active, occasional and even peripheral locations based on how much they engage and practice. The very beginners start their aidoru career as peripherals since they are novice aidoru. Fans are also situated within the square because they play an important part in supporting AKB48.

Through a series of aidoru practices, aidoru perpetuate the aidoru ideology in Japan. 250

The mainstream view on aidoru has been solely feminine kawaii at least until the

1980s. However, it started to change because since the 1990s several aidoru who challenged the gender norm appeared(e.g., Watanabe, 2011; Stanlaw, 2000). OC was formed in 1985, so they should fall under the category of typical kawaii aidoru; however, the concept of OC was regular girls. Previous literature evaluated OC member as “average” (Schilling, 1997) and

“ordinary” (Okajima & Okada, 2011). Likewise, AKB48 is often recognized as a similar aidoru group to OC (Beattie, 2011), and both OC and AKB48 members are considered people who could easily be someone’s classmate because of their ordinariness (Sakai, 1987;

Kitagawa et al., 2013).

What this study disclosed is that there are different levels of “ordinariness” between

OC and AKB48. Physical appearance is subjective, so even disregarding that aspect, AKB48 members’ skills in singing and dancing performance are incomparably better than those of

OC members. One of the OC members, Kokushō (2012) is aware of the difference and expresses that “the only common feature between OC and AKB48 is a large number of girls.

Nothing else…The singing and dancing skills are greatly different. All the AKB48 members have foundations of singing and dancing.” The question is what is the definition of

“ordinary.” Sacks (1984) explains that “being an ordinary person is not a condition or a quality of a person, but the product of constant work” (p. 414). Paoletti & Johnson (2007) states “the notion of ‘being ordinary’ can mean different things for different people… what is meant by being ordinary, taken for granted, normative, the way it should be, is not the same for everybody” (p. 98). The term “ordinary” carries a similar nature as deictic expressions, because the denotational meaning varies depending on time. Borrowing the principle of indexicality (Silverstein, 1976), the “ordinariness” is used to index OC and AKB48’s characteristics as aidoru; however, what was indexed as ordinary a few decades ago is 251 drastically different from what is indexed now. It shows that one of the salient characteristics of both groups, the “ordinariness” aspect, is variable.

This study has explored social identities that are portrayed in different data sets. Most importantly the data derives from two sources, goods created by the producer and speech by the aidoru themselves. Investigating multiple sets of data enables the research to look into diverse dimensions and to explore the correlations between the respective results. The findings of this study emphasize that identities of individuals or subcultural groups are grounded in both linguistic and nonlinguistic stylizing resources in reference to the prevailing ideologies. I used a subculture of female aidoru as data and investigated what forms aidoru identity, but readers of this study could apply this research method to any other subculture.

8.3 Areas for future research

This analysis was primarily based on style and identity. Ideology, language, and identity are inseparable from one another, and the dynamics between them are constantly changing. Therefore, therefore, there is a need to continue to examine the complex links between language, identity, and ideology, and to keep analyzing appropriately to the latest norm. Simultaneously, it is important to scrutinize whether the outcome is accepted by the public, thus generalizable. Based on my findings, future studies could investigate the issues that I outline below, and they could also be fruitful to related to academic fields.

First, the quantitative analysis employed the modified gendered classification based on the previous studies in this study, so that the classification is appropriate to the language varieties that exist today. It has been a few decades since gender neutralization was first hypothesized to be occurring. It is absolutely beneficial to create an updated classification by conducting both production and perception studies, recruiting a wider range of participants to explore how people use or do not use gendered language, and how they perceive other 252 people’s speech styles. That way, the resulting classification will represent the current language use. Furthermore, in order to examine the validity of the results from the quantitative analysis of OC and AKB48 talk, the comparison between how people perceive these groups versus what the analysis shows is advantageous. I included a few evaluations towards AKB48 talk as in Excerpt 8-1 and 8-2, however, more structural investigation is vital.

Second, when a sociolinguistic study investigates the variation of language and gender, it is customary to focus more on women, because the dominant approach, which assumes men to be the norm, is preferred to the difference approach, that sees men and women as equal sets, particularly in the field of gender studies (Coates, 1993). In a similar vein, studies about female aidoru have been more prevalent compared to male aidoru studies, just as this present research investigated only female aidoru. However, interest in male aidoru has increased because hegemonic masculinity has been challenged similarly to how we saw AKB48 doing so with canonical femininity. Dasgupta (2010) discusses that post

World War II Japanese masculinity used to be identified with white-collar salarymen who were devoted to a company. A sequence of recessions motivated men not to commit to working for the company, but rather to value their individual time by enjoying hobbies or spending quality time with their family. Dasgupta (2010) comments that many women cherish this change. This shows that the ideal masculinity is negotiable by all members of a society. Chambers (2007) interviewed several Japanese men who participated in cooking classes and asked how they felt about the traditional gender roles in Japan and their relationships with their wives. Their attitudes were very different from the traditional male- dominant ideologies. These men were supportive of working wives, and the husbands seemed 253 to enjoy participating in raising their children. These husbands who actively engage in child- raising are called ikumen (Oyama, 2014).

Both Nagaike (2012) and Glasspool (2012) address the fact that kawaii features are desired not only for the female but also for the male aidoru. Similarly, just like aidoru are expected to have the characteristics of shōjo, who are young, unmarried, single, and lacking libido, male aidoru are also expected to be the male equivalent of shōjo, shōnen who share exactly the same qualities as shōjo except for being male. Since feminine male aidoru are in demand nowadays, I hypothesize that their linguistic and non-linguistic style has been shifting to be more feminine, or at least more neutral (which might be perceived as feminine).

Taking the difference approach and analyzing both parties, female and male aidoru, could truly contribute to the field of pop-culture and to understanding a young subset group, the aidoru identity.

Third, Tanaka (2013) lists anime and manga as the two top fields of “cool Japan” that are a representative subculture and pop-culture in the world, and he then articulates that aidoru has the high potential to be the next “cool Japan” soft culture product. Since AKB48 became such a nationwide sensation, the combination of the “cool Japan” products are already present. AKB48 has been taken into many modes including anime, manga and drama.

For instance, an animation based on AKB48, AKB0048 was created in 2012 as in Figure 8-3.

Akimoto, AKB48’s producer, was involved with the anime as producer and also director. The story is set in the immediate future where all entertainment is banned, so many people are depressed, and AKB0048 members try to cheer people up by providing live concerts. 254

Figure 8-3. AKB48 anime a.k.a. AKB0048

(Taken from the AKB0048 official website, n.d.)

Characters in the anime are not the same as AKB48 members, and the setting is science fiction; however, character settings and their roles are very similar to many real-life

AKB48 members. The animated members are competitive towards each other, yet they are collaboratively growing together to be successful aidoru. Therefore, AKB0048 seems to exist in-between fiction and non-fiction. In addition, other iconic participants including the producer and ota (otaku fans of AKB48) play an important role in the anime just as in reality.

The producer was depicted as a god, and ota often lend a hand when AKB0048 members are in trouble. The animation is a semiotic register, and certain striking characteristics and unique features are often exaggerated in order to create memorable personae, similar to a caricature.

It is intriguing to investigate what kinds of tools and resources are used to create a fictionalized persona, while maintaining enough connections to the original aidoru to capture the interest of the fans. Drawing comparisons between how they are similar or different from the real-life AKB48 members would likely be a very fruitful avenue for future research. This anime has now been dubbed into English. It is also worth investigating what features are added, subtracted and/or modified in the translation process, to understand the different cultural backgrounds that are assumed on the part of the audience. 255

Lastly, Akimoto has produced several sister aidoru groups throughout Japan: SKE48 since 2009 (Sakae in Nagoya), NMB48 in 2010 (Namba in Osaka), HKT48 in 2011 (Hakata in Fukuoka), NGT48 in 2015 (Nīgata prefecture), and STU 2017 (Setouchi area consisting from seven prefectures’ collaboration). In 2014, Akimoto has created a new group called

Team 8 whose concept is “aidoru that come see you,” in contrast with the concept of AKB48

“aidoru that you can meet.” Each Team 8 member is selected from all the 47 prefectures in

Japan, and they have visited many prefectures thus far (“AKB48 Team8,” 2011).

Tanaka (2013, p. 97) asserts young people have been attracted to the center, Tokyo, from the period of high economic growth (approx. 1955-1973) till the bubble in the early

1990s, and so is the aidoru industry. Aidoru are originally a metropolitan business. However, the economic recession since the late 1990s had young people revalue the strength of local communities. More and more localized aidoru emerged and appealed to young people who own a sense of regional identity.

The salient characteristic of Team 8 is to promote localness. For instance, in their representative Team8 song called 47 no suteki na ano machi e “To the 47 splendid towns,” each member shout their own prefectures. A drink company, Asahi Soft Drinks, selected a few AKB48 members and Team8 members to create one national version and six regional versions to advertise their new coffee product (“AKB48 Team8,” 2014). Each regional version includes several Team 8 members who are from the region. They say ohayō, sugoku

ōen shiteru yo “Good morning. I am rooting for you” in their own regional dialect, for example, ohayō, buchi ōen shichoru kē in the Yamaguchi dialect and ohayōsan meccha ōen shiteru de in the Osaka dialect. These localized aidoru, including Team8, no longer index the metropolitan nature of aidoru based in Tokyo. 256

As a matter of fact, AKB48 has branched out into other Asian countries. Akimoto formed the first AKB48 sister group in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2010, named JKT48. He later produced SNH48 (Shanghai in China, 2012-2016), TPE48 (Taipei in Taiwan, 2015-present),

MNL48 (Manila in Philippines, 2015-present), BNK48 (Bangkok in Thailand, 2015-present), and schedules to produce another group, MUM48 (Mumbai in India) in 2018 (“AKB,” 2017).

Interestingly, some members hold multiple posts in a few groups, transfer to another group, and collaboratively perform in the same live concert. JKT48 was even chosen by a Japanese enterprise to promote their skin product in 2012. AKB48 was born in Tokyo, but went on localizing domestically and globalizing transnationally. In this sense, aidoru does not merely index metropolitan Japanese anymore, but indexes “glocalization" instead.

Of course, each place has its linguistic practices, norms, traditions, beliefs and religious rules specific to the region. Akimoto has mentioned that whenever he forms a new group in a foreign country, he makes sure that the content of the lyrics and the costumes are acceptable to the local culture (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 205). Akimoto further states that the age range should be adjusted depending on the country as well. For example, the age limit in Russia will be a lot younger compared to Japan, because Russian girls are considered to be adults around 16 years old (Akimoto & Tahara, 2013, p. 205). Further research could focus on comparing different aidoru groups to shed light on the transnational flow of pop culture, and to what extent linguistic resources are used from local languages and cultural images are enacted to create both a coherence among these sister groups and distinctiveness of the local. 257

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