Japanese Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Japanese language, including Japlish. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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konpanyan n. A booth babe is referred to as a “konpanyan-san,” with “konpanyan” being the Japanese pronunciation of the English word companion and san being the old “Daniel-san” that just about everybody knows. [English-derived Japanese Japan] [full cite] (Jan. 2, 2005)

lolicom n. It seems that the path of yaoi growth is exactly the same as that of lolicom thing: from doujinshi to anthologies and magazines. [English Japanese Japan] [full cite] (Jan. 17, 2005)

lolicom n. The reports have said that one of the most disturbing features of the teenage prostitution phenomenon is the premium younger girls fetch from “lolicom” clients—older men with “Lolita complexes” for little girls. [English English-derived Japanese Japan Sex & Sexuality] [full cite] (Jan. 17, 2005)

moe n. Moe is a new word, roughly two years old. Its meaning is tough to pin down. Essentially, it suggests the strong emotional connection otaku feel with their favorite characters. “In 2003,” says a think tank analyst, “books, films and games possessing moe quality racked up an estimated 88.8 billion yen in sales.” [Japanese Entertainment] [full cite] (Sep. 5, 2005)

mojibake n. Mojibake is a word to describe unintelligible gibberish displayed on a screen or printed on a paper when a software fails to handle encodings or fonts in the data stream. Mojibake is spelled in Japanese as “文字化け” which literally means “ghost characters” or “disguised characters.” Here, a set of ideograms “文字” means “character(s)” and an ideogram “化” means “change(d),” “transform(ed),” “haunt(ed)” or “ghost.” [Japanese Technology] [full cite] (Jan. 27, 2005)

mottainai n. Maathai, who is also an Assistant Environment Minister, urged the world to adopt “mottainai”, a Japanese term for reducing, reusing and recycling resources. [English Japanese Environment] [full cite] (Mar. 30, 2005)

muda n. The Japanese word for waste is muda. In Japan, muda refers to any activity that is not value-adding. Taiichi Ohno, who introduced the just-in-time (JIT) production system at Toyota Motor Company, was the first person to recognize the enormous amount of muda or waste in the everyday work activities of an organization. [Japanese Business] [full cite] (Sep. 12, 2005)

nawashi n. The unfortunate side effect is the influx of what I call “the kimono boys.” They’re American white guys who call themselves “authentic Japanese rope masters.”…These rope masters say they have studied “the traditional Japanese way of the rope”—although most of them have never actually visited Japan. But their conversation is strewn with Japanese words, and they often give themselves the title “Nawashi,” which they say means “rope bondage artist.” And, yeah, they often show up at fetish events wearing kimonos. [Japanese Sex & Sexuality] [full cite] (Feb. 19, 2006)

netsuzo n. The practice of false reporting is so commonplace among the nonestablishment Japanese press that journalists have coined a term for it: netsuzo, or “the manufacturing of the news.” [Japanese Japan Media] [full cite] (Oct. 17, 2004)

nyotaimori n. Rachael was a human sushi platter for the evening, the centerpiece of an opening party last month for Hadaka Sushi on the Sunset Strip. Taking gentle breaths, she kept as still as possible so as not to disturb the clusters of oil-infused sushi rolls, sashimi and other pieces of raw fish artfully arranged on the banana leaves in a style known as nyotaimori. Nyotaimori is a Japanese term that translates as “female body arrangement.” It is also known as body sushi. [Japanese Body Food & Drink] [full cite] (Apr. 18, 2007)

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