Bio


Miyako Inoue teaches linguistic anthropology and the anthropology of Japan. She also has a courtesy appointment with the Department of Linguistics.

Her first book, titled, Vicarious Language: the Political Economy of Gender and Speech in Japan (University of California Press), examines a phenomenon commonly called "women's language" in Japanese modern society, and offers a genealogy showing its critical linkage with Japan's national and capitalist modernity. Professor Inoue is currently working on a book-length project on a social history of “verbatim” in Japanese. She traces the historical development of the Japanese shorthand technique used in the Diet for its proceedings since the late 19th century, and of the stenographic typewriter introduced to the Japanese court for the trial record after WWII. She is interested in learning what it means to be faithful to others by coping their speech, and how the politico-semiotic rationality of such stenographic modes of fidelity can be understood as a technology of a particular form of governance, namely, liberal governance. Publication that has come out of her current project includes, "Stenography and Ventriloquism in Late Nineteenth Century Japan." Language & Communication 31.3 (2011).

Professor Inoue's research interest: linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, semiotics, linguistic modernity, anthropology of writing, inscription devices, materialities of language, social organizations of documents (filing systems, index cards, copies, archives, paperwork), voice/sound/noise, soundscape, technologies of liberalism, gender, urban studies, Japan, East Asia.

Academic Appointments


  • Associate Professor, Anthropology
  • Associate Professor (By courtesy), Linguistics

Administrative Appointments


  • Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, and Department of Linguistics, Stanford University (2007 - Present)
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Department of Linguistics, Stanford University (1996 - 2006)
  • Visiting Faculty, Stanford Center for Technology and Innovation, Doshisha University (2010 - 2010)
  • Faculty Member, Linguistics Institute, Stanford University (2007 - 2007)
  • Adjunct Instructor, Women's Studies Program, Portland State University (2005 - 2005)
  • Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford (2011 - 2012)
  • Fellow, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford (2011 - 2012)
  • Gordon and Dailey Pattee Faculty Fellowship, Stanford University (2007 - 2008)
  • Alden H. and Winfred Brown Faculty Research Fellowship, Stanford University (2001 - 2002)
  • Dean's Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Washington University (1994 - 1995)
  • University Fellowship, Washington University (1993 - 1994)
  • University Fellowship, Washington University (1987 - 1990)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • Reviewer, American Anthropologist
  • Reviewer, American Ethnologist
  • Reviewer, Anthropological Quarterly
  • Reviewer, American Quarterly
  • Reviewer, Cultural Anthropology
  • Reviewer, Human Organization
  • Reviewer, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
  • Reviewer, Social Science Japan Journal
  • Reviewer, Multilingua
  • Reviewer, Journal of Sociolinguistics
  • Reviewer, positions
  • Reviewer, Pragmatics
  • Reviewer, Journal of Asian Studies
  • Reviewer, Blackwell Publishers
  • Reviewer, Routledge
  • Reviewer, Stanford University Press
  • Reviewer, Duke University Press
  • Reviewer, University of California Press
  • Member, Editorial Board, Oxford University Press, Series in Language and Gender Studies
  • Member, Advisory Board, Journal of Sociolinguistics.
  • Member, Advisory Board, Semiotic Review
  • Member, The International Editorial Advisory Board, Social Anthropology
  • Co-editor, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology (2008 - 2010)
  • Member, H&S Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Stanford University
  • Member, The University IRB Committee, Stanford University

Program Affiliations


  • Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Science, Technology and Society

Professional Education


  • Ph.D, Washington University, St. Louis, Department of Anthropology (1996)
  • MA, University of Tsukuba, International Affairs, American Studies Program (1991)
  • MA, Washington University, St. Louis., Anthropology (1989)
  • BA, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, English (1986)

2024-25 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • GENDER AND LANGUAGE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO GENDER AND JAPANESE CULTURE Inoue, M., Coates, J., Fraser, L., Pendleton, M. 2020: 40–49
  • Word for Word: Verbatim as Political Technologies ANNUAL REVIEW OF ANTHROPOLOGY, VOL 47 Inoue, M., Brenneis, D., Strier, K. B. 2018; 47: 217–32
  • Matsutake Worlds Research Group. "A New Form of Collaboration in Cultural Anthropology: Matsutake Worlds." Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Reader Inoue, M. edited by Robben, A., Sluka, J. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 2012; 2nd: 409–440
  • Neoliberal Speech Acts: The Equal Opportunity Law and Projects of the Self in a Japanese Corporate Office Global Futures in East Inoue, M. edited by Anagnost, A., Arai, A., Hai, R. Stanford University Press. 2012
  • Stenography and ventriloquism in late nineteenth century Japan LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION Inoue, M. 2011; 31 (3): 181-190
  • A new form of collaboration in cultural anthropology: Matsutake worlds 106th Annual Meeting of the American-Anthropological-Association Choy, T. K., Faier, L., Hathaway, M. J., Inoue, M., Satsuka, S., Tsing, A. WILEY-BLACKWELL. 2009: 380–403
  • Matsutake Worlds Research Group: Strong Collaboration as a Method for Multi-Sited Ethnography Multi-Sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research Choy, T., Faier, L., Hathaway, M., Inoue, M., Satsuka, S., Tsing, A. edited by Mark-Anthony, F., Hall, C. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. 2009: 197–241
  • Things that speak: Peirce, Benjamin, and the kinesthetics of commodity advertisement in Japanese women's magazines, 1900 to the 1930s POSITIONS-EAST ASIA CULTURES CRITIQUE Inoue, M. 2007; 15 (3): 511-552
  • Echoes of Modernity: Nationalism and the Enigma of "Women's Language" in Late Nineteenth Century Japan Words, Worlds, Material Girls: Language and Gender in a Global Economy. Inoue, M. edited by McElhinny, B. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 2007: 157–204
  • Language and Gender Identity in the Age of Neoliberalism Gender and Language Inoue, M. 2007; 1 (1): 77-89
  • Vicarious Language: Gender and Linguistic Modernity in Japan Inoue, M. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2006
  • Standardization. Commissioned Essay Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics Inoue, M. edited by Silverstein, M. Oxford: Elsevier Limited. 2006; 2nd
  • What does Language Remember?: Indexical Order and the Naturalized History of Japanese Women Journal of Linguistic Anthropology Inoue, M. 2004; 14 (1): 39-56
  • Gender, Language, and Modernity: Toward an Effective History of Japanese Women's Language Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology: Cultural Models and Real People. Inoue, M. edited by Okamoto, S., Shibamoto, J. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004: 57–75
  • The History of Ideology and the Ideology of History: Temporality in and through Linguistic Ideology. Introduction to Special Issue. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology Inoue, M. 2004; 14 (1): 1-5
  • Speech without a speaking body: "Japanese women's language" in translation LANGUAGE & COMMUNICATION Inoue, M. 2003; 23 (3-4): 315-330
  • The listening subject of Japanese modernity and his auditory double: Citing, sighting, and siting the modern Japanese woman CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Inoue, M. 2003; 18 (2): 156-193
  • Gender, language, and modernity: toward an effective history of Japanese women's language AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST Inoue, M. 2002; 29 (2): 392-422
  • Vernacular Theories of Japanese Honorifics The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese Inoue, M. 1999; 33 (1): 68-101
  • A Women Manager and "Local" Metapragmatic Knowledge in a Tokyo Corporate Office Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the Symposium about Language and Society Inoue, M. 1995: 41–48
  • Gender and linguistic modernization: Historicizing Japanese women's language 3rd Berkeley Women and Language Conference on Cultural Performances Inoue, M. BERKELEY WOMEN & LANGUAGE GROUP. 1994: 322–333
  • Japanese-Americans in St. Louis: From Internees to Professionals City and Society Inoue, M. 1989; 3 (2): 142-152