Anywhere but here: Discourses and representations surrounding same-sex marriage in Japanese newspapers

Although support for same-sex marriage has grown in Japan, discussions on its legalisation have been slow in the Japanese parliament. To contribute to a more meaningful discussion on this issue, this study uses corpus-driven and corpus-based methods to explore how issues surrounding same-sex marriage are represented in media discourse. It compares two corpora comprising articles from two Japanese national newspapers: the more conservative Yomiuri Shimbun (608,305 words) and liberal Asahi Shimbun (1,681,133 words). The data are from 1 April 2015, when Tokyo's Shibuya Ward started certifying same-sex couples, to 15 March 2024, the day after the Sapporo High Court ruled on same-sex marriage. Keywords, collocation, and concordance analysis are used to identify the differences in discourses and representations, exploring how their opinions on same-sex marriage are explicitly and implicitly delivered. The findings reveal that the Yomiuri Shimbun mostly depicts gay and lesbian people as fictional characters, or foreigners and argues against same-sex marriage in terms of child welfare. In contrast, the Asahi Shimbun considers the issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people to be related to human rights and criticises traditional heteropatriarchal family values as obstacles to advancing same-sex marriage movements and women's rights alike.

本研究以语料库辅助话语分析法（CADS）为方法，探讨日本保守派与自由派两大国家级报纸关于同性婚姻合法化的相关话语与表述，旨在回答以下问题：保守与自由派报纸如何讨论同性婚姻合法化？这些报纸如何再现同性伴侣、男同性恋者与女同性恋者？日本同性婚姻相关话语与表述在多大程度上与现有文献中的讨论相似或有所不同？

本研究采用CADS方法，结合定量语料库语言学与定性批评话语分析（CDA）工具，探究日本《读卖新闻》和《朝日新闻》关于同性婚姻的论述与再现。话语被视为塑造世界认知的文化与历史建构，具有操控意识形态和权力的功能。为缓解CDA分析者偏见，研究通过语料库驱动方法，以关键词和搭配词分析实现自下而上的数据挖掘。数据来自2015年东京涩谷区颁发同性伴侣证至2024年札幌高等法院裁决，共5102篇文章，构建《读卖》语料库（1658篇，608,305词）与《朝日》语料库（3444篇，1,681,133词）。借助Sketch Engine工具，通过关键词提取与logDice值计算考察搭配关系，结合语境进行共现分析，识别语义韵与论述模式。采用三角验证法，结合量化分析与话语历史方法，围绕关键词与社会行为者名词（如“同性恋者”“性少数者”）进行语义与修辞分析，考察话语如何通过提名、谓述与论证策略建构同性婚姻的社会再现。

本文通过对日本发行量最大的两家报纸的语料库分析，揭示了有关同性婚姻的论述与再现，呈现了其他方法难以捕捉的视角。《朝日新闻》的“父权制受害者”论述表明，异性恋父权家庭价值观是日本同性婚姻合法化的主要障碍，且该报强调需要改变政治体系，这隐含了对父权制的批判。而《读卖新闻》通过“对同性伴侣抚养儿童的担忧”论述，间接表达了异性恋家庭价值观，认为同性伴侣因无法生育和缺乏血缘关系可能对儿童福祉产生负面影响。与西方文献中以宗教自由为理由反对同性婚姻的论述策略不同，日本报纸鲜有采用“受害者反转”策略，这可能与日本宗教背景的差异有关。此外，《读卖新闻》将男同性恋者置于虚构世界和外国语境，女同性恋者几乎未被提及，进一步削弱了同性恋群体的社会能见度，阻碍其争取平等婚姻权利。因此，提升同性恋者的真实声音和社会能见度，赋予其作为社会行动者的政治代理性，对于推动同性婚姻合法化具有重要意义。