A bushel of buzzwords from Japan; the advent of phoneticization

November 6, 2024 @ 5:13 pm · Filed by under Alphabets, Word of the year, Writing systems

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Below are two lists of nominations for Japanese buzzword of the year.  Each has 30 entries, and from each list one will be chosen as the respective winner.  Since the two lists are already quite long and rich, I will keep my own comments (mostly at the bottom and focusing on phoneticization) to a minimum.

"From cat memes to Olympians with too much rizz, these are Japan's 2024 buzzword nominations"
The topics nominated for this year’s buzzwords of the year ranged from new banknotes and Olympian quips to political scandals and rice shortages.  By Yukana Inoue, The Japan Times (Nov 5, 2024)

Japan's 2024 buzzword nominations focused on money and the Paris Olympics, according to a list of nominations released by the organizer of the annual event Tuesday.

News on “uragane mondai” (slush fund scandal) dominated headlines this year after Liberal Democratic Party factions were found to be underreporting the sales of fundraising party tickets.

Other money-related terms included “shin shihei” (new banknotes) — the country recently redesigned the ¥10,000, ¥5,000 and ¥1,000 notes for the first time in 20 years — and “shin NISA” (new NISA investments), a tax-exempt investment program launched this year that aims to entice people to move money from savings to investments. NISA stands for the Nippon Individual Savings Account.

With the 2024 Paris Olympics held over the summer, many words from the competition dominated the nominations, including “bureikin” (breaking) — a sport that was included for the first time. Japanese B-girl Ami Yuasa won gold

Soundbites from notable Olympians made it onto the list of nominations as well, such as “meigen ga nokosenakatta” (I could’ve said something more quotable) by javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi and, “Yabai, kakkoyosugiru, ore” (Damn, I have too much rizz) by wheelchair tennis player Tokito Oda. Both won gold in their respective sports.

An unexpected bronze medal win came from the four-person equestrian team, and the name they used for themselves, "shorō Japan” (nearly elderly Japan) — due to the team's average age being 41.5 — was also nominated. It was Japan's first medal in the sport in 92 years.

Speaking of accomplishments, Shohei Ohtani's historic "50-50" milestone with the Los Angeles Dodgers — being the first player ever to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season — was also nominated as a buzzword of the year.

Words that trended on social media were also among the nominations, including French social media app BeReal, which became extremely popular this year among young people in Japan, and “neko mīmu” (cat meme) — a viral TikTok trend.

“Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” the title and lyric for Japanese hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts’ hit song, was nominated as well, following the popularity of BBBB dance videos using the song on social media, especially among children.

Like last year’s buzzword nominations, tourism-related words made the list, such as “inbaundon” (inbound bowl) — overly expensive seafood bowls often targeting foreign customers — and “konbini fujisan” (Mount Fuji convenience store), referring to disruptive tourists crowding a convenience store to take a picture of Japan's highest peak.

“Reiwa no kome sōdō” (the rice riots in the Reiwa Era), referring to the rice shortage in the summer, and “maina hokenshō ittaika” (My Number and health care card integration) — a controversial government plan to scrap national health care program cards starting in December — were also nominated.

Other terms included “tokuryū" (quasi-gangsters), those involved in crimes like “dark” part-time jobs, and “kasuhara” (customer harassment), or aggressive behavior from customers toward staff

The buzzword of the year, along with the top 10 picks, will be decided from the 30 nominated terms on Dec. 2 at the annual U-Can Shingo Ryukogo Taisho contest organized by the publishing house Jiyukokuminsha.

Here's the second list:

"Japan’s Words of the Year for 2024"  On November 5 the long list of nominees for 2024’s words of the year was announced, featuring a set of terms and phrases reflecting a year of disaster, political change, and sporting excellence.
Culture Language, Nippon.com (Nov 5, 2024)

A Linguistic Overview of the Year

On November 5, 2024, the publisher Jiyū Kokumin Sha announced its nominees for the words or phrases of the year for the year to date. As the creator of Gendai yōgo no kiso chishiki (Basic Knowledge on Contemporary Terminology), an annual guide to the latest additions to the Japanese language from fields including sports, politics, and popular culture this company releases its long list each November, with 30 terms once again this year.

This year’s nominees cover issues from cuisine to politics, social media trends, and sports. Many also touched on money and investment, inbound tourism, and crime, making the list as a whole a useful tool for gauging the trends of the times in Japan in 2024.

Our explanations of this year’s 30 nominees are below. The finalists and winners will be announced on December 2.

Nominees for the Words of 2024

アサイーボウル — Asaī bouru. A mixture of acai smoothie and cereal or other toppings, the “acai bowl,” based on a dish originating in Brazil, was a hit in Japan in the mid-2000s, and is enjoying another wave of popularity.

アザラシ幼稚園 — Azarashi yōchien. A rescue center for seals in Groningen, the Netherlands, went viral in Japan when an August post on X (Twitter) shared footage from its webcam, describing it as a “seal kindergarten” and showing the lovable young sea creatures swimming in a pool.

インバウン丼 — Inbaundon. A portmanteau of inbaundo (inbound), regularly used in Japanese to describe international tourists, and don(rice bowl), the word “inbound rice bowl” spread online to describe a high-end version of the usually down-to-earth dish, topped with fine seafood and priced at anything from several thousand yen to over ten thousand yen. While the nickname they received suggests they were devised to rip off unwary tourists, these luxury inboun-don were actually popular with many Japanese customers too.

裏金問題 — Uragane mondai. The “kickbacks issue” was a thread that ran throughout the year’s politics, implicating many Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers in a scandal, as they were found to have misreported donations from fundraising parties, and resulting in the LDP-Kōmeitō coalition losing its majority in the October 27 general election.

界隈 — Kaiwai. While it once meant “the local area” or “neighborhood,” among young people this word has come to be used for the people around one, like friends and others who are close.

カスハラ — Kasuhara. An abbreviation for “customer harassment” that describes unreasonable complaints and bullying by customers of service staff. In 2024, there were legal moves to tackle the issue.

コンビニ富士山 — Konbini Fujisan. With tourists flooding into Japan after the easing of pandemic restrictions, there was growing concern about overtourism. A scenic Yamanashi Prefecture Lawson convenience store standing in front of Mount Fuji became associated with this issue, as it attracted crowds of tourists to take photographs, causing a nuisance for residents. The local authorities made headlines by constructing a barrier to block the view of the “convenience store Mount Fuji.”

『侍タイムスリッパー』 — Samurai taimu surippā. The independent time-travel movie A Samurai in Time was originally screened in just one theater before taking off and receiving nationwide distribution.

初老ジャパン — Shorō Japan. Japan won bronze in the team eventing at the Paris Olympics, its first equestrian medal since 1932. The four members of the team had an average age of 41.5, and they self-deprecatingly dubbed themselves Shorō Japan—while the word shorō, “early old age,” was once used as another way of saying that somebody was 40 years old, in today’s Japanese it refers to somebody around 60.

新紙幣 — Shin shihei. In July, Japan issued new banknotes for the first time in 20 years, with stronger protections against counterfeiting. In an increasingly cashless era, however, they will not be used as much as earlier banknotes.

新NISA — Shin NISA. The Japanese government in January rolled out a new version of its NISA—short for Nippon Individual Savings Account—a tax exemption program for small investments. The new system aims to encourage people to shift from savings to investment and introduces a limitless tax-exemption period for capital gains, larger annual investment limits, and a total lifetime investment of up to ¥18 million.

ソフト老害 — Sofuto rōgai. Screenwriter Suzuki Osamu introduced this phrase in his book Shigoto no yamekata (How to Quit a Job) to describe a “softer,” less aggressive version of rōgai—actions and opinions of rigid-minded older people inflicted on those younger than themselves—after recognizing his own mildly obstructive stance toward his younger colleagues.

トクリュウ — Tokuryū. This new type of fluid, loosely organized crime group has been responsible for a growing list of illegal acts ranging from assaults to robberies to homicides. Syndicates quickly form and disband, making heads hard to track down. Members are often unacquainted individuals who are recruited online for illegal activities dubbed yami baito (shady side gigs) that promise high payouts, attracting minors, people in financial straits, and other vulnerable members of society.

南海トラフ地震臨時情報 — Nankai Torafu jishin rinji jōhō. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued its first ever megaquake alert following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake off of the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture on August 8. The JMA urged citizens to take precautions against a possible massive temblor along the Nankai Trough running below the sea south of Shikoku and western Honshū.

猫ミーム — Neko mīmu. Cat memes trended on social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube after a video starring a bouncing kitten and set to the children’s tune “My Happy Song” went viral, unleashing a flood of content featuring felines in an array of adorable situations.

はいよろこんで — Hai yorokonde. Meaning something akin to “I’d be glad to,” this song by singer-songwriter and Internet personality Kocchi no Kento pairs lyrics about the difficulties of life and society with a fast-paced dance rhythm. It gained popularity online, as did its accompanying retro-styled animated music video.

8番出口 — 8 ban deguchi. The walking simulator The Exit 8 takes players through an endless maze modeled on Japan’s underground passages, challenging them to pay attention to small changes in their surroundings to find their way to the titular Exit 8. The short gameplay struck a chord with YouTubers and VTubers who livestreamed and posted videos gameplay walkthroughs.

はて？— Hate? This expression of bemusement was regularly on the lips of Inotsume Tomoko, the heroine of national broadcaster NHK’s morning drama Tora ni tsubasa (The Tiger and Her Wings), based on the life of one of Japan’s first female lawyers, Mibuchi Yoshiko. Set in the 1930s, the story depicts Inotsume’s struggles in a male-dominated profession, with many viewers noting parallels in contemporary society.

BeReal. The French social-networking app gained popularity among young Japanese with its daily notifications challenging users to share authentic photos with friends during a randomly selected two-minute window and the ability to create images using the front-facing and rear-facing camera of phones simultaneously.

被団協 — Hidankyō. Nihon Hidankyō, the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, won the Nobel Peace Prize this year. The grassroots organization won the prize, in the words of the Nobel Committee, for “its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.” Seven years previously, the 2017 prize went to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), making this the second to go to a group active in this area in an era characterized by increased tensions and conflicts involving nuclear powers around the world.

50-50. Baseball phenomenon Ohtani Shōhei of the Los Angeles Dodgers marked both his fiftieth stolen base and his fiftieth home run in the 2024 regular season on September 19, making him the only member of the “50-50 club” in Major League history. He had become the sixth member of the “40-40 club” on August 23. He finished the season with 54 four-baggers and 59 stolen bases before going on with the Dodgers to win the World Series against the New York Yankees on October 31.

ふてほど — Fute hodo. The drama series Futekisetsu ni mo hodo ga aru (Extremely Inappropriate!), broadcast on TBS in Japan, was one of the big hits this year. With a script by Kudō Kankurō and starring Abe Sadao as the main protagonist and Kawai Yūmi as his daughter, the show involves a PE teacher swept through time from 1986 to 2024. Rather than simply portraying the views of the past as backward, or the modern “woke” era as misguided, the show strives to show that in all ages the key to mutual understanding is opening up to one another.

Bling-bang-bang-born. The Japanese hip-hop-inspired music group Creepy Nuts had a major hit on its hands this year with this pop song, used as the lead track for the anime series Mashle: Magic and Muscles. The song’s title doubles as part of the chorus and accompanies a dance move that became a huge hit in online video form as well, gaining massive popularity among kids down to elementary-school age as the “BBBB dance.”

ブレイキン — Bureikin.  “Breaking,” or breakdancing, hit the Paris Olympics as a new event this year. At the end of the tournament Japanese women’s competitor Yuasa Ami, who dances simply as Ami, took home the gold medal.

ホワイト案件 — Howaito anken. These tasks, advertised as “white jobs” on social media to attract people who need quick income but want to avoid the “black jobs” offered by unscrupulous employers, are actually as black as they come. This year has seen a rising number of crimes committed by job-seekers who signed on and found themselves instructed to commit home robberies or other criminal acts by shadowy ringleaders.

マイナ保険証一本化 — Maina hokenshō ipponka. “Unifying the ‘My Number’ system with health insurance cards” is a key aim of the government as it pursues simplification of record-keeping in taxation, healthcare, and other areas involving public spending and revenues. December 2 this year will mark the end of issuance of new standalone health insurance cards, as plan participants are urged to roll their proof of coverage into their “My Number” taxpayer identification cards instead. Speedbumps are foreseen in this plan due to the multiple data leaks and other scandals that have kept My Number card uptake low.

名言が残せなかった — Meigen ga nokosenakatta. Kitaguchi Haruka, upon winning the gold medal in the women’s javelin competition at the Paris Olympics, noted that while she was ecstatic at her victory—which brought Japan its first track and field Olympic gold in 20 years—and at her 65.80-meter personal best for the season, she was still disappointed in herself “for being unable to come up with an appropriate inspirational phrase” to celebrate the win.

もうええでしょう — Mō ē deshō. The drama Jimenshi tachi (Tokyo Swindlers), costarring Ayano Gō and Toyokawa Etsushi, aired on Netflix starting in July. The character Gotō, played by Taki Pierre, frequently trots out this phrase in various contexts—everything from “All right, I’ve heard enough” to cut off an uncomfortable negotiation session to “OK, fine” to keep a conversation moving along.

やばい、かっこよすぎる俺 — Yabai, kakkoyosugiru ore. Oda Tokito, upon winning the gold medal in men’s wheelchair tennis at the Paris Paralympic Games, thrilled his fans when he quipped: “Whoah, I’m just too cool, huh?”

令和の米騒動 — Reiwa no kome sōdō. The “Reiwa era rice riots” were not anywhere near as violent as historical uprisings when rice crops failed, but a serious lack of rice in Japan’s markets this summer led many to call the situation the equivalent for the Reiwa era, which began in 2019.

The list of The Japan Times is organized around themes, giving an idea of the wide scope of interest in new ideas and images in Japan, that of Nippon.com around individual terms, which shows the broad range of scripts and languages used in Japan:  sinographs, katakana, hiragana, rōmaji, Portuguese (Brazil), English, French….  Also remarkable is the rich variety of sources and media from which these buzzwords derive and the fecund creativity they evince.  Above all, for me, the plethora of terms written in katakana, a growing phenomenon that I first noticed four decades ago when some Japanese folks even wrote their own names (which were originally in kanji [sinographs]) in katakana.  Here we have "slippers", "time", and even — among many other surprising terms — "Japan".

 

Selected readings

[Thanks to Don Keyser]

November 6, 2024 @ 5:13 pm · Filed by under Alphabets, Word of the year, Writing systems


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