The Fourth-Person Structure in Sasaki Takuma's "Yukari": Relationality as Ontological Entity in Japanese Projection Poetry

Abstract This paper presents a structural analysis of “Yukari” by Takuma Sasaki, demonstrating the first documented instance of fourth-person narrative structure in popular music lyrics. Unlike conventional love songs that operate within a dyadic I-You framework, “Yukari” introduces four distinct ontological agents: (1) Watashi (I), (2) Anata (You), (3) Shiawase-san (personified Happiness), and (4) Ano Hito (That Person = the relationship itself). Through meticulous textual analysis, we prove that “Ano Hito” refers neither to “I” nor “You,” but to the relationality between them—treated as an independent entity requiring protection. This structure creates what we term the “Accountability Square”: a cognitive…