A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE RESIGNATION SPEECH OF JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER SHINZO ABE
Nadya Inda Syartanti

Universitas Brawijaya

Abstract

On August 28, 2020, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caught the world^s attention by stating his resignation as prime minister of Japan who had served for four terms due to health reasons which is Ulcerative Colitis or chronic colitis that he had suffered for a long time. The statement of resigning as prime minister was delivered and summarized in his last political speech which taken from the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet^s websites namely kantei.go.jp.These political speeches was analyzed in Van Dijk^s critical discourse analysis to reveal all aspects from the structure of the text, social cognition, and social context. The results showed that in text structure^s aspect, Shinzo Abe^s final speeches have been schematically structured and detailed in both cohesion and coherence. Then, in social cognition^s aspect, when Shinzo Abe was reproducing a text with his point of view, he always thought and considered Japanese people. He did not want his health condition to lead to mistakes in making important policy decisions. Lastly, in social context^s aspect, when Shinzo Abe delivered this last speech, Japan faced various national issues, especially the issue of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic that have not subsided, Shinzo Abe was forced to submit his resignation as prime minister due to his health condition that had not improved after being diagnosed ulcerative colitis for a long time.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, political speech, social cognition, social context, text structure

Topic: Humanities