Japanese model Rora and comedian Sugi-chan, both nominated for most popular Japanese word
Every year, the ‘Basic Knowledge of Modern Words Dictionary’ creates a list of fifty new words and phrases that have come into common usage over the past year. These words often reflect social trends, technological advances, and references to popular culture. This year’s list is no exception, with the influence of the London Olympics and political protest having a strong presence among the nominated words.
The article translated below announces the fifty nominated words, and we’ve also translated and explained a selection of those words below the article. If you’re going to Japan anytime soon, you’re bound to hear them. And of course, this is followed by what Japanese netizens think of the words that have been selected to represent how the Japanese language has evolved during 2012.
From Yahoo!News.co.jp
Announcement of Fifty Nominations for ‘The Grand Prix For New and Trending Words’; Among the Nominations are ‘How Wild Am I?’ and ‘Strongest Girl Primate’
Japanese comedian Sugi-chan, whose catchphrase is ‘How wild am I?’
On 8 November, the fifty words nominated for the annual ‘The Basic Knowledge of Modern Words Dictionary 2012 Ucan Grand Prix for New and Trending Words’, that determines the neologisms and fashionable terms that have become talking points over the last year, were announced by the competition office. Among the words selected as nominees for the prize, ‘How wild am I?’ the catchphrase of Sugi-chan, a new comedian who had his big break this year after coming second in last year’s ‘R-1 Grand Prix’, and ‘Strongest Girl Primate’ the name given for the immense achievements of the athlete Yoshida Saori, who achieved her thirteenth successive world championship title at the London Olympics in the 55kg and under women’s wrestling competition, and who received the People’s Honour Award for her success.
Last year’s winner was ‘Nadeshiko Japan,’ the name of the Japanese women’s national soccer team. You can see the list of last year’s top ten here.
Women’s 55kg and under wrestling gold-medallist Yoshida Kaori
From the London Olympics this summer, ‘I won’t let [Kosuke] go home empty handed,’ a comment by Matsuda Takeshi, a member of the 400m swim relay team who secured a silver medal, and middle-weight boxing champion Murata Ryota’s statement, ‘A life that doesn’t miss out on the gold’ have been selected. Words such as ‘Tanita Kitchen’, ‘long breath diets’, ‘core strengthening’ and ‘Shio-kouji’ have also been nominated, reflecting current health trends.
Aside from these, ‘iPS cells’ a term which suddenly spread when Kyoto University Professor Yamanaka Shinya won the Nobel Prize, ‘Nuclear Power Zero’, which has seen widespread use during the Fukushima nuclear incident and subsequent clean-up operations, and ‘Hydrangea Revolution’, a term that indicates the large-scale demonstrations by citizens who opposed the reactivation of Oi nuclear power plant, ‘Kira-kira names’ which refers to children’s names that are eccentric and difficult to read, and ‘Social hunting’ a pun referring to those who those who undertake their job hunts online, have been selected.
‘The Hydrangea Revolution’: Protesters demonstrate against nuclear power in Japan.
The prize committee selects from ‘words’ which wittily express signs of the times, and ‘words’ that have generally been in the eyes, mouths and ears of the general populace. The grand prize and the top ten words will be announced on December 3. A broad selection of the nominated words are explained below.
Nominations for Best New Japanese Word
オスプレイ
[osupurei]
Osprey; refers to the use of the Osprey military aircraft in Japan.
いいね！
[ii ne]
‘Like’; the Japanese equivalent of a Facebook ‘like’.
原発ゼロ
[genpatsu zero]
Nuclear Zero, protest slogan arising after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
ナマポ
[namapo]
Welfare benefit; this is a deliberate mis-reading of the characters 生保[sei ho] which are an abbreviation of 生活保護 [seikatsu hogo], which means ‘state welfare benefits.’ This has been a big issue in Japan over the past year.
iPS細胞
[iPS saibou]
Induced pluripotent stem cell.
もっといい色のメダル
[motto ii iro no medaru]
‘A nicer coloured medal’; refers to the disappointment felt by Ryousuke Irie after an olympic race, when he implied that the race would not be over until every member of the Japanese team had competed. The journalist he spoke to found this comment particularly touching, and the term spread.
手ぶらで帰らせるわけにはいかない
[te bura de kaeraseru wake ni wa ikanai]
‘I won’t let [Kosuke] go home empty handed,’; a comment by Matsuda Takeshi, a member of the 400m swim relay team who secured a silver medal, talking about his team-mate. The phrase is apparently being used in business, with people replacing ‘Kosuke’ with the name of the person they want to help.
竜巻
[tatsumaki]
Tornado, as experienced in Tsukuba in May 2012.
ネトウヨ
[netouyo]
Netouyo; refers to right-wing netizens.
50℃洗い
[go jyuu do arai]
’50℃ wash’ is a new way of washing vegetables at a high temperature to bring them back to freshness, or to elongate their shelf-life. It was discovered by scientist Hirayama Ichimasa.
終活
[shuu katsu]
‘End Activities’; basically refers to the activities one should carry out towards the end of life, such as planning for the future of loved ones, funeral planning, and so on. The term originated in the weekly magazine Asahi Shuukan.
ロングブレスダイエット
[rongu buresu daietto]
‘Long breath diet’; a diet trend started by the actor Miki Ryousuke.
ＬＣＣ
[eru shi shi]
Life Cycle Cost; the total cost of ownership of an asset over its lifetime.
美魔女
[bi majo]
‘Beautiful Witch’; a term invented by the women’s magazine ‘STORY’ to refer to women over 35 who are still so beautiful it’s as though they must be using magic.
決められない政治
[kimerarenai seiji]
‘Indecisive politics’. The term appeared in newspapers several years ago, but has recently been popularised in a speech by Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko.
体幹トレ
[taikan tore]
‘Torso training’ or ‘core strengthening’; exercises to improve posture and decrease the amount of fat stored around the midriff.
街コン
[machikon]
Huge dating events held in particular regions or parts of town, similar to go-kon [Japanese-style group dating] but on a larger scale, with most having around 3,000 participants.
ビッグパフェ食べたい
[biggu pafe tabetai]
‘I want to eat a huge parfait’; women’s judo gold medallist Matsumoto Kaori‘s statment to the press when asked what she would like to do when she got back to Japan. She was known for having a bad diet when she was younger.
奇跡の一本松
[kisseki no ippon matsu]
‘The miraculous pine tree’; this refers to the sole pine tree that was left standing following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
金メダルに負けない人生
[kin medaru ni makenai jinsei]
‘A life that doesn’t miss out on gold’; middle-weight boxing champion Murata Ryouta’s statement to the press when winning the gold medal for middle-weight boxing.
ソー活
[soo-katsu]
‘Social hunting’; a pun based on 就職活動[shushoku katsudou] or ‘job-hunting’, that describes people who job-hunt using SNS.
佐川男子
[sagawa danshi]
‘Sagawa boys’; these are men who are similar to ‘herbivore men’ in the sense that they are not sexually proactive, but they are also masculine and kind, like Korean male idols. The term comes from the title of a best-selling book of photographs, also titled ‘Sagawa Boys’. Sagawa refers to the Sagawa Express Co., a Japanese delivery company whose delivery drivers are thought to epitomise the trend. They are currently very popular with Japanese girls.
あじさい革命
[ajisai kakumei]
‘Hydrangea Revolution’ refers to a civil movement protesting against the use of nuclear power in Japan, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident.
イクジイ
[iku jii]
‘Fathering’. The Japanese is a pun on the term 育児[ikuji] which means to bring up a child, and ジイ which means ‘daddy’. It’s part of government campaign to encourage Japanese men to think about their role as father.
うどん県
[udon ken]
‘Udon Prefecture’; part of a tourism campaign for Kagawa Prefecture, starring the actor Kaname Jun. You can see the adverts here
ステマ
[sutema]
An abbreviation of ステルスマーケティング[suterusu maaketingu] from the English stealth marketing.
キラキラネーム
[kira kira nehmu]
‘Kira-kira name’ refers to children’s names that are eccentric and difficult to read. [Note: ‘kira-kira’ means to ‘sparkle’].
霊長類最強女子[reichourui saikyou joshi]
‘Strongest Girl Primate’; the name given for the immense achievements of the athlete Yoshida Saori, who achieved her thirteenth successive world championship title at the London Olympics in the under 55kg women’s wrestling, and who received the People’s Honour Award for her success.
オッケ～
[okkee]
‘OK!’ The cute catchphrase of Japanese model Rora.
Comments from Yahoo!News.co.jp
あっちゃん（gra…）さん:
I think ‘wild’ is the one(^-^)v
おかえりなさい。（n27…）さん:
‘Beautiful witch’ is horrible, both the way it sounds and the meaning.
デンデン（nij…）さん:
If they choose properly, then I reckon it’s bound to be Sugi-chan.
♂♀（kus…）さん:
HateKorea
清武爆弾点火中（tak…）さん:
Has to be Hara Tatsunori: ‘I didn’t know about the ‘anti-social forces’ [a euphemism for organised crime], but the one billion yen is real.’
syubainn111（syu…）さん:
Was ‘Strongest Girl Primate’ trending?
Sephiroth（bee…）さん:
Shouldn’t they have had ‘If you don’t want to see don’t look’ nominated in there?
ｍｚiｗｋｚｏ（okz…）さん:
梅村丹八（vma…）さん:
Arm twisting [forcing your opinion on others]
鳳翼天翔（zzz…）さん:
**kubija*a*aaa*aa（min…）さん:
Korean wave arm-twisting doesn’t seem to have been nominated [‘Korean Wave arm-twisting’ refers to recent protests against Fuji TV for being biased towards Korea]
モカ（ant…）さん:
Normally it would be ‘iPS cell’. That’s a freaking global discovery!
tmaormoo（tar…）さん:
Don’t legitimize ‘kira kira names’. It’s going to be a social problem that causes trouble for children because of their parent’s egos!
sta*ga*axy*009（sta…）さん:
Even if he gets the prize, I want Sugi-chan to stay around.
コモン（osa…）さん:
Come on, it’s got to be ‘fraudufesto’ [a pun on ‘manifesto’], referring to the lies in the manifesto of the DPJ
卍丸（man…）さん:
HateKorea HateChina.
問題発言ばかりする人（slo…）さん:
‘Strongest Girl Primate’← That’s just sticking words together, not a new word. It’s not popular, and it’s never gonna be.
藤 善太郎（tey…）さん:
Netouyo? As late as this?
満身タイアード（azu…）さん:
It’s gotta be Sugi-chan. The others are just blah.
おかえりなさい。（n27…）さん:
It’s probably been popular since last year, not this year, but ‘stealth marketing’ is well established online.
