著者

ウンサーシュッツ ジャンカーラ

出版者

立正大学心理学研究所

雑誌

立正大学心理学研究所紀要 = The Journal of the Institute of Psychology Rissho University (ISSN:13482777)

巻号頁・発行日

no.18, pp.13-21, 2020-03-31

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The East Japan Railway Company’s December 2018 announcement of the new station nameTakanawa Gateway on the Yamanote line was met with much criticism in the popular press. Althoughinitial criticism focused on the fact that results from a popular vote were not honored, many articlesconcentrated on the name’s characteristics, despite the fact that similarly named new stations—suchas Toranomon Hills, which also featured a mix of loan words( geetowei‘ gateway’, hiruzu‘ hills’) andhistorical place names( Takanawa, Toranomon)—were largely accepted. To examine why TakanawaGateway was especially targeted, this article conducted a close discourse analysis of 33 articles publishedfrom December 2018 to August 2019 in three major newspapers, which revealed three centralthemes: aichaku ‘affection’, loan words, and historical connections. Affection was given by both ordinarycitizens and company representatives as a core evaluative factor, but for ordinary citizens, theuse of loan words emphasized Takanawa Gateway’s international—rather than local—identity; this,combined with the lack of semantic transparency of geetowei—despite East Japan’s historical motivationsbehind the choice—appears to have contributed to a sense of alienation amongst the generalpublic. These results suggest that consideration not just of the image companies wish to produce butalso of the relationships they wish to form with local communities should also be factored into selectingnames for public spaces.