ABSTRACT
This chapter details interpersonal interactions between interviewers and officials during broadcast political interviews in Japan. Based on data collected during 145 live interviews with national and local politicians, the chapter examines, from a cross-national, cross-cultural comparative perspective, the extent to which each of the participants succeeded in controlling the content of the televised interview, that is, the frame of the dialogue, the issues raised and discussed, and the scope and nature of the information disseminated to the public. It further analyzes how changes in government affect the behavior of politicians from different political parties as they switched roles from opposition to ruling coalition and vice versa during the course of the study. Two main findings are suggested regarding televised political interviews in Japan and the participants’ (interviewers and interviewees) dominance over the content of these shows. The first is related to the type and mood of the questions asked and the corresponding type of the replies provided. The second concerns the reactions of interviewers to the replies provided by the interviewees and the interviewees’ feedback to the questions posed. Both findings reflect cultural and political cultural features, which in turn affect the political and the rhetorical cultures in Japan.
