This article analyzes seven Japanese all-male friendly conversations,
focusing on stereotypically gendered sentence-final particles to
ascertain whether and how Japanese men native to the Kansai (western)
region of Japan, aged 19–68 years, use these features to create a
gendered identity. Quantitative methods are employed to establish the
frequency with which such stereotypically gendered forms are used. A
close discourse analysis investigates how the men use these forms in
particular contexts to index particular identities, which may or may
not correspond to traditional notions of Japanese masculinity.Earlier versions of this article were
presented to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Iowa
and to the Stanford Sociolinguistics Research Group at Stanford
University. I thank the members of those audiences for their vital
feedback. I am indebted to Janet S. (Shibamoto) Smith, Michael
Silverstein, Miyako Inoue, Shigeko Okamoto, Laura Graham, Scott Fabius
Kiesling, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, Hari Kanta Ogren, Jane Hill, and an
anonymous reviewer for carefully reading and commenting on drafts.
Without the support of the Kobe College Corporation and the National
Science Foundation (Grant # BCS9817943) this article and its larger
project would not have been possible.