From reality to discourse: analysis of the ‘refugee’ metaphor in the Japanese news media

ABSTRACT This article examines a recent trend in the Japanese news media of using the term ‘refugee’ as a metaphor. Japan is known for its extremely low refugee admission rate, granting asylum to less than 100 refugees each year. Why so few? In order to provide lexical observations on this situation, this article explores how the term ‘refugee’ (nanmin) is used in the Japanese news media. In 2007, a Japanese journalist popularised the sensational term ‘net cafe refugee’ for those who do not have a fixed address and sleep in 24-hour Internet cafes. The usage of ‘refugee’ in this context provoked a controversy and prompted cafe owners to release an official statement asking journalists to refrain from using the term. Despite the outcry, the term ‘refugee’ remains popular today as a metaphor for those who lack access to particular facilities, services, or experiences – for instance, ‘insurance refugee’, ‘information refugee’ and so on. Based on the analysis of textual data containing these metaphorical expressions, the article suggests that through the refugee metaphor, the term’s implications have shifted from visual to conceptual, and from international to domestic, with the possible effect of diverting public attention from the reality of refugee protection.