Discourse construction of Chinese women’s image in Japan as exemplified by news reports in Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun

Representations of women in the news media is an important topic in feminist and gender media studies. Chinese women in Japan are the largest group of foreign women in Japan. The discourse construction of this group in the Japanese media is also an area of concern. This paper employs a combined approach of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to scrutinize relevant reports on Chinese women in Japan in the mainstream Japanese newspapers Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun (2013-2023). Our investigation reveals that there are four types of images of Chinese women in Japan: (1) female criminals who disrupt social order, (2) female victims who are passive and subject to men, (3) female laborers whose labor rights are seriously violated, and (4) female figures committed to promoting Sino-Japanese friendship. Through discursive representations such as “categorization” and “nomination” strategies and passive voice, as well as narrative techniques such as direct quotations and characterization, the reports implant racist bias and gender bias while constructing the images of Chinese women in Japan. The image of Chinese women in Japan represented by mainstream Japanese media reflects the social conditions faced by this group. Some biased reports can significantly reinforce social gender norms and Japanese people's racial prejudices and stereotypes towards Chinese women in Japan.