Is the と here used as a conditional?

Question

I have the following sentence:

2019年に亡くなったジャニー喜多川氏から若いときに性被害を受けたと、ジャニーズ事務所のタレントだった人たちが言って、問題になっています。

I don't think the と in the first part of the sentence serves as a conditional, but I can't figure out what it is used for. The English translation doesn't help:

There has been an issue with former Johnny's Office talents saying they were sexually victimised by Mr Janie Kitagawa, who died in 2019, when they were young.

Does this answer your question: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/28250/9831 / https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/15364/9831 — chocolate, Sep 09 '23 at 11:54
This と cannot be conditional because conditional と never follows the past form of a verb. — Kaskade, Sep 09 '23 at 15:00

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 09 '23 at 12:21

The と is quotative. 「～～と[人]が言う」(「[人]が～～と言う」) means "[person] says (that) ～～."

From this post:

The 「と」 in 「～～と言った」 must certainly be quotative, right? It is if it directly precedes 「言う」.

When you see or think you are seeing a quotative 「と」 , try putting in imaginary quotation marks the part of the sentence that looks like it is being quoted.

So you have:

『2019年に亡くなったジャニー喜多川氏から若いときに性被害を受けた。』と、ジャニーズ事務所のタレントだった人たちが言って...

The English translation looks good to me.

... former Johnny's Office talents saying "We were sexually victimised by Mr Janie Kitagawa, who died in 2019, when we were young."
↓ ↓
... former Johnny's Office talents saying they were sexually victimised by Mr Janie Kitagawa, who died in 2019, when they were young.

Thanks! That's the first time I see と and 言って being separated like this. — Kapol, Sep 09 '23 at 21:23

Is the と here used as a conditional?

1 Answers1