Analyzing Japanese Media Representation of the Israel-Hamas Conflict: A Linguistic Study of Online Sources

This paper examines Japanese media coverage and analysis of the recent Israel-Hamas war. Specifically, it argues that the Japanese public, media and government are being exposed to a distorted view of Islam and Muslim countries. For instance, Japanese academia seems captivated by anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, leading to the radicalization of students. This, in turn, results in distorted perspectives on Muslim affairs for the Japanese people, media and government. This paper will focus on a case study from YouTube conducted by Akari Iiyama, a Japanese author. It will illustrate how her analysis unveils a distorted perspective of the Israel-Hamas war. Further, this study suggests that media reports play a crucial role in our comprehension of language dynamics in contemporary everyday life. It aims to enhance our understanding, especially in the context of Israel-Hamas war reporting, of the theory of speech style in socio-linguistics. Specifically, the theory of “involvement” will be discussed in relation to Japanese web-based data.