Power and elegance: the language of Sakurai Yoshiko

Abstract Informed by the social constructionist framework, with particular reference to “linguistic indexicality” and “the positionality principle”, this study examines how the Japanese conservative journalist Yoshiko Sakurai uses her language to construct seemingly opposite male and female images. It finds that she uses a variety of language forms and strategies, along with other aspects of her image construction, to successfully portray a feminine image ‘package’ while, at the same time, owning a very masculine nationalistic and patriotic ideology and choosing to be linguistically dominating and confrontational as she perceives the situation requires. This study provides empirical evidence to complement and add to previous findings about how Japanese women use linguistic strategies to deal with the power dynamics in their professional lives.