Japanese and English share a relatively short but intense history during which the number of English‐based loanwords in Japanese has risen to at least 10 per cent of the entire lexicon. This paper explores the creative uses of English (loan)words in Japanese punning, where homophonic, homonymic and paronymic relations between English words and Japanese phrases play a crucial role in creating amusing ambiguities that arise only due to the peculiar and extensive processes of loanword assimilation into Japanese which render them phonologically undistinguishable from ‘original’ Japanese words. English is thus naturalized in the Japanese language to such an extent that it can be widely and creatively applied to generate humor.

Objective: To investigate cross-cultural differences in self-assessments of eating behaviors of female university students who bear responsibility for their own eating behaviors and who will, in the future, likely determine a family’s eating style. Design: A cross-cultural comparison. Setting: Japan, South Korea, and Austria. Subjects: Female university students from Japan (n = 276), Korea (n = 103), and Austria (n = 127). The survey comprised a questionnaire containing ten sections about eating behaviors (eating habits, regular meal times, and frequency of food intake) and eating attitudes. Results: Eating behaviors and attitudes differed significantly among the three cultures. Japanese students practiced healthier eating behaviors than did Korean and Austrian students, on the basis of their variety of food intake and regular consumption of three meals, but rated themselves lower on healthy eating behaviors. Austrian students tended to have more independent attitudes toward eating and food preparation (e.g., “I want to eat only my favorite dishes”) than Japanese or Korean students. Conclusions: Effects of cultural differences in psychological processes, such as self-cognition, emotion, motivation, and values, on self-assessment of eating behaviors is suggested

The battles for Aleppo (2012–2016) and Mosul (2016–2017) were two intense and brutal sieges, which resulted in 31,000 and 40,000 largely civilian casualties, respectively, as well as hundreds of thousands of refugees. Even though both campaigns were similar in many ways, they received an entirely different media echo. While Aleppo in its final phase was covered almost daily, detailing the suffering of civilians and the brutality of the Syrian government and its Russian allies, while ignoring actions of rebels, Mosul received much sparser treatment, mostly relating to atrocities committed by the Islamic State (backgrounding casualties inflicted by coalition forces). In both cases, the respective governments claimed to be fighting terrorists, but only in the case of Mosul was this narrative naturalized by the media. Drawing on various methods from critical media studies, this article analyses how and why the two battles were reported on differently by British mainstream media across the ideological spectrum. The purpose is to show how systemic bias based on a binary us vs them distinction leads to distortion and a reinforcement of dominant, populistic and partisan narratives that may threaten to background or ignore uncomfortable but important facts that would challenge people in power.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, in many parts of the Global North, the public has looked to the media as an important source of information about new developments and measures to combat the spread of the virus. The main measure propagated by governments in this respect was the mass vaccination program. In this context, two important concepts in the media coverage were herd immunity and vaccine efficacy, both of which had to be reevaluated over time. In this study, we looked at the discursive construction of “the science” in the discourse on herd immunity and vaccine efficacy in two Austrian broadsheet newspapers. Our corpus-based analysis showed a tendency to overuse linguistic items implying certainty in the face of a very fast-changing, and thus uncertain, situation. We also found evidence that these two Austrian media outlets no longer function as corrective of power, but have taken on the role of mediators of sanctioned government narratives. We argue that the uncritical reporting of government narratives in such a fluid situation has led to unresolved and unreflected inconsistencies in the reporting, arguably decreasing the public’s trust in the accuracy of the COVID-19 information presented in the media.

Kondō Toshihiko, the Hidaka family, the Sugiyama family, Wakayama Ikuyo, Hanamura Atsuko, Ōnishi Noriko and many, many more. Of course, completing my dissertation would not have been possible were it not for the financial support of generous sponsors. In Austria, these were the University of Graz and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture thanks to whose continuous support I was able to pursue my research smoothly from the start. In Japan, I owe much gratitude to the Japan Foundation which throughout half a year more than generously supported my research and thanks to which I was able to stay in Japan long enough to completely finish my research, which would have been impossible without the Japan Foundation's fellowship program. I would especially like to extend my thanks to Mr. Kobayashi Gō, the Japan Foundation's man in charge of me whose kindness and effort often saved me from troubles. Finally, I would like to thank those who have always supported me mentally, who have encouraged me to continue writing when I was about to give up, and who were there for me when I needed them most (which was often, as anyone who has written a dissertation will certainly agree). I want to thank my parents who have always believed in me and on whom I could always rely; I owe it to them that I had the opportunity to study in the first place, and eventually to write my dissertation. I also want to thank my sisters and my brother who keep encouraging me and believing in my abilities more than I can. Most importantly, I want to thank my dear Eri for being always at my side, for helping me with my Japanese translations, and for having patience with me also when the dissertation was not progressing well and its end was out of sight. Were it not for her, I might have lost track of my goal, and of why I was writing this thesis at all. I owe this all to her. […] the English word looted by the Japanese can expect to be systematically stripped of its national identity after a series of cruel and little known initiation rites (cited in Loveday 1996: 138). What this implicates simply is that any word, whatever language it may derive from, on arrival in the Japanese language is remodeled and recreated, reborn as it were, as a Japanese word with just a foreign touch. The issue of Western loanwords in the Japanese language, despite its fascinating dynamics and intricacies, has been sparsely dealt with in English linguistic literature. Miller (1967) has written extensively on the Japanese language, on its history, its grammar, its dialects, but paid only little tribute to the complex issue of loanwords, but was rather interested in contact varieties between English and Japanese. Others like Hoffer (2002) and especially Loveday (1986; 1996) have discussed the loanword issue more broadly in their works, from the sociolinguistic point of view. Kelley A note on the transcription of Japanese words and names This paper will follow the common Japanese transcription of names which mentions a person's last name before their first n...