Resignifying the Japanese father: Mediatization, commodification, and dialect

Abstract

A new style of Japanese masculinity targeting the new middle class, specifically stereotypical salarymen, is highlighted in the 2013 Cannes Jury Prize Award winning movie, Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son). Belabored by the ongoing economic slump and ever-decreasing birthrates, masculinity is (re)presented both visually and audibly as a hands-on caregiving father who speaks a regional dialect.Through mediatization and language commodification, Osaka dialect is resignified and linked to an affective, hands-on fatherhood. The juxtapositioning of Standard language and dialect serves to underscore a distinction between a cold, distant father and a warm, affective one. The film provides valuable insight into the emergence of a new ideal of fatherhood that is indexed through language.