Where has “Japanese women’s language” gone?: Notes on language and political economy in the age of control societies

Abstract

During the 1990s Japan’s economy, inflated by speculation, collapsed and a decades-long recession began. Contributing to this special section that revisits the paradigm of language and political economy, this essay discusses the new semiotic condition that has emerged in postbubble Japanese society. Taking a cue from Gilles Deleuze’s notion of control societies, I will specifically focus on the fate of “Japanese women’s language,” or a set of speech forms exclusively associated with femaleness. This essay will ask what has happened to “women’s language” as the society shifts from disciplinary society (Foucault) to control society (Deleuze).