Conceptual Transformation of the South Kuril Islands’ Image in Japanese Media After 24 February 2022 (based on the materials of the English-language Japanese media)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the conceptual image of the South Kuril Islands in the leading English-language mass media of Japan after the beginning of the Russian Armed Forces’ special military operation in Ukraine. The relevance of the study is explained by the preservation of the hotbed of military and political tension near the Far Eastern borders of Russia, manifested in Japan’s territorial claims to the southern part of the Kuril Islands, which acquired a strongly pronounced verbalized ideological shift after February 24, 2022. The conceptual characteristics of the image of the islands (and closely related images of Russia/USSR) were identified using the methods of content analysis, cognitive-discursive analysis, cognitive interpretation, cognitive modeling, as well as elements of cognitive matrix analysis.