Quotation Statements as a Linguistic Strategy in Japanese Parliamentary Questions

This chapter aims to identify the sources that Japanese members of the National Parliament (Diet) quoted or paraphrased during the Budget Committees meetings in both houses of the Diet in 2023 i.e., which sources were used by members of which political parties, and then to explain the purpose of the quotations used by focusing in particular on the linguistic strategy of members of a given party, and the attributes of the questioners. Analysis of 3,322 questions posed during the Committees’ work, and examining in particular two rhetorical strategies at the center of the used quotesQuotes to strengthen a given standpoint or to undermine opponents’ position—revealed five factors that affect political discourse in the Diet: ideological distance from the government and the ruling party; use of undisclosed sources; the electoral system by which one was elected; the questioning style practiced in both houses; and the Diet membersDiet members (Japan)’ attributes. Selection and citation of a particular source not only reflect the way a politician (or a political party) views a given issue within an already recognized framework of ideas supported by others, but also affect the way the audience frames its understanding of policy and the polity.