Abstract
In 1993, the Japan Epilepsy Association criticized Tsutsui Yasutaka's novel “Robot Police” as discriminatory to epileptics, and sought to have it from a textbook published by Kadokawa Publishing. In response to the criticism, he declared a “Writing Strike” and appealed for freedom of expression. This declaration drew public attention, and raised a storm of controversy. The aim of this paper is to explicate the divergence of problem setting in the controversy. First, I will show that the declaration was situated in the context of victim contest. Then, I will demonstrate that the context was prepared through the shift of roles in the early stages of the controversy. Finally, I will present a rhetorical analysis of how the shift of roles occurred in the responsive context of the controversy.
