JAPAN INC. AND THE GROWTH OF NEOLIBERAL IDEOLOGY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
Open Access
Author:
Toula, Christopher M.
Graduate Program:
Media Studies
Degree:
Master of Arts
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 01, 2010
Committee Members:
Matthew Frank Jordan, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Matthew Frank Jordan, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Keywords:
Ideology Japan Inc. Neoliberalism Japan Economics
Abstract:
This thesis explores the methods of normalization that the ideology known as neoliberalism deployed within US news discourse from 1980 to 1999. To examine how ideology propagates itself in this way, the author conducted a Critical Discourse Analysis on the concept of “Japan Inc.” The concept represented a state-centered, collectivist economic model that stood as a contradiction to the universalistic mode of economics sought by neoliberalism of free markets, free trade, liberalization, privatization, and deregulation. The analysis was conducted by searching for the phrase “Japan Inc.” from 1980 – 1999 in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post and assessing the ways in which the use and meaning of the term changed over time. Findings concerning the historical place of neoliberalism demonstrate the contingent nature of its ideological spread and normalization. This thesis demonstrates that Japan Inc. was, in the 1980s, not merely a simple racist construct but at times a conceptual mirror for viewing expectations of the American political economy. The author also found that Japan Inc. did function in a way which problematized the neoliberal view of economic development and that, following the Cold War and the Japanese Bubble Economy, neoliberal economic orthodoxy could develop legitimacy within US news discourse.