Promising without Speaking: Military Realignment and Political Promising in Japan

Abstract

Preprint of chapter from Hodges, Adam (ed) Discourses of War and Peace. 2013 Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-993727-1This chapter discusses a plan to relocate US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and focuses particularly on charges that former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama failed to deliver on a promise to remove the base from Okinawa in 2010. The promise of action came not from any particular speech by Mr. Hatoyama, but was an interdiscursive achievement involving many individuals. A metaphorical promise is defined as an expectation of future action created not through any specific speech act but through complexes of social interaction.