50 Fun Facts About Japanese Language

What does the Japanese word karaoke, coined for singing over a backing track, literally mean?

Empty orchestra is the literal sense: 'kara' means empty and 'oke' is clipped from ōkesutora, a borrowing of the English word orchestra. So the term is half Japanese and half English.

What does the Japanese word emoji literally mean, despite its chance resemblance to the English word 'emotion'?

Picture character is the literal meaning, from 'e' for picture and 'moji' for character. The symbols spread worldwide in the 2010s, after Unicode began encoding them.

The monster name Gojira, anglicized as Godzilla, is said to blend the Japanese words for gorilla and which animal?

Whale is 'kujira' in Japanese and gorilla is 'gorira', which together give Gojira. In the best-known account it was the nickname of a burly employee at the Toho film studio.

Japanese speakers call a green traffic light 'ao', a color word that normally translates into English as what?

Blue is the usual translation of 'ao', an old color word that also took in green. Japan's 'go' signals are still called ao, and so are green apples and fresh vegetation.

Some Japanese hospitals and hotels have no room four because 'shi', a word for four, also means what?

Death and four are both 'shi' in Japanese, which makes the number unlucky. Speakers often prefer the alternative reading 'yon' instead.

What does the name of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi literally mean, a meaning drawn in its red company logo?

Three diamonds is the usual translation: 'mitsu' means three and 'hishi' is the water caltrop, a plant whose name also serves as the Japanese word for a rhombus. The 'h' becomes a 'b' inside the compound.

Which group of stars gives Japanese carmaker Subaru both its name and the six stars on its badge?

The Pleiades are called Subaru in Japanese, and the cluster also stands for the companies that merged to form the carmaker's parent. One of the 'Seven Sisters' is said to be invisible, hence six stars.

Which English word for a business magnate began as a Japanese title meaning 'great lord', used for the shogun?

Tycoon comes from 'taikun', a diplomatic title for the shogun in dealings with foreign countries. Abraham Lincoln addressed an 1861 letter to the 'Tycoon of Japan'.

Which group of Japanese people has no surname at all, its members being known by given names alone?

The imperial family uses given names alone, such as Hirohito, and even those are rarely spoken in Japan. People prefer to say 'the Emperor' or 'the Crown Prince' as a mark of respect.

In 'Fuji-san', the name Japanese speakers use for Fuji, 'san' is not the polite title but a word meaning what?

Mountain is the meaning: this 'san' is a Chinese-derived reading of the kanji 山, which is 'yama' on its own. That is why 'Mount Fujiyama' says the same thing twice.

Which standard Japanese daytime greeting is really the opening of a longer sentence that began 'as for today'?

Konnichiwa joins 'konnichi', meaning this day, with the topic marker 'wa'. It is what remains of fuller greetings such as 'How are you doing today?'

Which Japanese expression of thanks grew out of an old adjective meaning 'difficult to exist', and so rare?

Arigato began as a word for something hard to come by, shifted to rare and special, and by the fifteenth century meant welcome or thankful. The full polite form adds 'gozaimasu'.

Which Japanese phrase, literally 'to humbly receive', is traditionally said just before starting a meal?

Itadakimasu joins the humble word 'itadaku', to receive, with the polite ending '-masu'. It expresses gratitude to everyone and everything that made the meal possible.

Which Japanese toast, a close cousin of the Chinese 'ganbei', is the equivalent of saying 'cheers'?

Kanpai is the Japanese counterpart of 'bottoms up', a call to drain the glass. Mandarin 'ganbei' and Korean 'geonbae' are the same word, built from the same two Chinese characters.

The Japanese greeting 'moshi moshi', derived from a humble word meaning 'to speak', is used mainly when doing what?

Answering the phone is its main job, though it can also check that a listener is still there. The phrase repeats 'mōshi', from a humble word meaning to speak.

Which Japanese farewell is a shortening of an old phrase meaning 'if that's the way it is'?

Sayonara shortens 'sayō naraba', first recorded around 1742 as a linking phrase meaning 'if it's like that, then'. Its use as a standalone goodbye dates from the 1780s.

In Japanese, where sound-mimicking words called giseigo fill everyday speech, which animal says 'wan-wan'?

A dog barks 'wan-wan' in Japanese, one of a huge stock of mimetic words. The language even has them for things that make no noise at all, such as 'shīn' for silence.

Which Japanese word for 'cute' names an aesthetic of innocent charm exemplified by Hello Kitty?

Kawaii culture took off in the 1970s, driven by youth culture and by cute mascots such as Hello Kitty, created by Sanrio in 1974. The similar-sounding 'kowai' means scary.

Which Japanese word for 'I', the form used in formal contexts, also carries the meaning 'private' or 'personal'?

Watashi is the standard polite 'I', and its kanji 私 also means private or personal. Boys and men often prefer 'boku', which carries a masculine, youthful impression.

Which Japanese title, literally 'born earlier', is used for teachers, doctors, lawyers and accomplished artists alike?

Sensei is written 先生, 'born earlier', and honors anyone who has mastered a skill. Chinese reads the same two kanji as 'xiansheng', an everyday title equivalent to Mr.

Which Japanese script, whose name means 'fragmentary kana', is used for loanwords such as 'mēru' for e-mail?

Katakana signs began as fragments of more complex kanji, used by Buddhist monks working through Chinese texts. In modern writing they act rather like italics, marking foreign terms, emphasis and sound effects.

The Japanese kanji 森, built by tripling the simpler sign for 'tree', carries which meaning?

Forest, 'mori', is the meaning, the tripled trees suggesting a great many of them. Just two of the same sign side by side, 林, make 'hayashi', a smaller wood.

In the traditional Japanese format called tategaki, text runs down the page in columns ordered in which direction?

Right to left is the order, a layout inherited from Chinese practice. It is why a traditionally printed Japanese book opens with its spine on the right, back to front to Western eyes.

Which Heian-era novel by court lady Murasaki Shikibu was written largely in hiragana, then popular among women?

The Tale of Genji dates from the early eleventh century and is often called the first novel, a title scholars still debate. Hiragana had caught on among court women, who were denied the schooling given to men.

Which American missionary doctor devised the main system for writing Japanese in Roman letters, used on passports?

James Hepburn introduced the spelling system in the Japanese–English dictionary he published in 1867. Japan's foreign ministry requires it on passports, and it is the standard on road and station signs.

Which Japanese reading aid, common in books for young readers, prints small kana beside kanji to show how they sound?

Furigana, also known as 'rubi', glosses rare kanji and clears up unusual or ambiguous readings. It lets learners follow text containing kanji they have not yet been taught.

Which feature of written English is normally absent from Japanese text, which may break lines at any point?

Word spaces are normally omitted from Japanese text, and a line is free to wrap without regard for where one term ends. The full stop survives, though it is drawn as a small circle.

In Japanese kana spelling, what does a small 'tsu' placed before another kana tell the reader to do?

Double the consonant that follows: the small 'tsu', known as the sokuon, is all that separates 'kite', meaning come, from 'kitte', a postage stamp.

What do the two kanji of Nihon, the Japanese name for Japan, literally mean when read together?

The sun's origin is the literal sense, usually rendered as the Land of the Rising Sun. Marco Polo's 'Cipangu', an early European name for the country, came from a Chinese reading of the same name.

Which term names a Japanese kanji's 'sound reading', the pronunciation adapted from Chinese rather than native speech?

On'yomi are Sino-Japanese readings, based on Chinese pronunciations reshaped to fit Japanese sounds. A kanji used alone as a whole word more often takes its native reading instead.

Which surname, borne by roughly two million people, is the most common in Japan, ahead of Suzuki?

Sato is traced by tradition to a Fujiwara governor of Sano, whose descendants are said to have joined the 'sa' of Sano to the 'tō' of Fujiwara. Suzuki and Takahashi follow it in the rankings.

Japanese puts the surname before the given name, an order shared by which European country?

Hungary shares the so-called Eastern name order with Japan, China, Korea and Vietnam. Publications abroad often flip Japanese names into the Western order.

The ending '-ko' in Japanese women's names such as Keiko and Hanako is written with a kanji meaning what?

Child is the meaning of 子, an ending long tied to women of the imperial court. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 it spread to ordinary girls' names and stayed fashionable until the 1980s.

Which small personal item, known in Japanese as a hanko, traditionally takes the place of a handwritten signature?

A name seal still signs contracts and other important paperwork in Japan. Emperors, shoguns and samurai once pressed personal seals onto edicts to show authenticity and authority.

Which Japanese honorific, more respectful than 'san', is attached to 'okyaku' when addressing customers?

Sama is the respectful step up from 'san', used for customers, guests and deities alike. Applied to oneself, as in 'ore-sama', it signals extreme arrogance.

Which Japanese dish owes its frying technique, and probably its name, to sixteenth-century Portuguese missionaries?

Tempura began in Nagasaki, where missionaries introduced frying in a flour-and-egg batter. Its name is usually traced to 'tempora', their Latin term for the fasting days when Catholics ate fish and vegetables.

From which language did Japanese borrow 'arubaito', the everyday word for a student's part-time job?

German 'Arbeit', meaning work, became 'arubaito', usually clipped to 'baito'. Japan learned Western medicine from Germans in the Meiji era, so many medical terms arrived by the same route.

Which chronicle of myths, presented to Empress Genmei in 712, is Japan's oldest surviving literary work?

Kojiki means 'Records of Ancient Matters', and it dates from before Japan had a script of its own. Most of it is in Classical Chinese, but its songs spell out Old Japanese using Chinese signs purely for their sound.

Which Pacific nation contains Angaur, a state whose 1982 constitution names Japanese an official language?

Palau was run by Japan under the South Seas Mandate, and many of Angaur's elders had been schooled in Japanese when the constitution was written. In Japan itself the language is official only by custom.

The Japanese idiom for 'taking the plunge' speaks of jumping off the stage of which Kyoto temple?

Kiyomizu-dera has a stage 13 meters above the hillside, and Edo-period belief held that surviving the jump granted a wish. The same temple hosts the announcement of Japan's kanji of the year each December.

Which English slang word for a boss was picked up from Japanese, where it meant 'squad leader'?

Honcho comes from 'hanchō', a squad leader, built from 'han' for squad and 'chō' for chief. American servicemen picked the word up in Japan during the 1940s and took it home.

Which Japanese word, literally 'divine wind', first named the storms said to have wrecked Kublai Khan's invasion fleets?

Kamikaze was the name given to the storms of 1274 and 1281, credited with saving Japan from two Mongol fleets. It was revived in the Second World War for pilots sent on suicide attacks.

Which tire maker's English-sounding name is a reversed translation of its Japanese founder's surname, Ishibashi?

Bridgestone flips 'stone bridge', the meaning of Ishibashi, the surname of founder Shojiro Ishibashi. He founded the company in 1931 in the city of Kurume.

In Japanese restaurants, 'baikingu', a loanword from the English word 'Viking', refers to what kind of meal?

A buffet is called a 'viking' in Japan, a name said to come from a Tokyo hotel restaurant that was the first in the country to serve meals that way. Dessert 'vikings' are especially popular.

Japanese word order is flexible, but its one strict rule requires which part of the sentence to come at the end?

The verb closes a Japanese sentence, giving the basic order subject, object, verb. Small particles attached to each noun show its role, which is why the other parts can be moved around.

Which short particle turns a polite Japanese statement into a question when added to the very end?

Ka works like a spoken question mark, as in 'Wakarimasu ka?', meaning 'Do you understand?'. Casual speech usually leaves it off and relies on rising intonation instead.

The closest relatives of Japanese, unintelligible to its speakers, are native to which island chain?

The Ryukyu Islands, the chain that includes Okinawa, are home to a separate branch of the Japonic languages. Japanese speakers cannot follow them, and speakers of one Ryukyuan language mostly cannot follow the others either.

Which language of Hokkaido's indigenous people has no proven link to Japanese or any other tongue?

Ainu is counted as a language group of its own, and scholars do not agree on where it came from. Its ancestor is thought to have been spoken in Japan before the forerunner of Japanese arrived from the Korean peninsula.

Japanese has word pairs, such as two spelled 'hashi', that differ only in which feature of speech, unmarked in writing?

Pitch accent, the point in a word where the voice falls, is all that separates 'hashi' meaning chopsticks from its twin. Kana spelling does not show it, and it differs from one dialect to the next.

Which member of the boy band Arashi played an amnesiac quiz host in the 2009 Japanese TV drama The Quiz Show 2?

Sho Sakurai played the host opposite You Yokoyama in the NTV drama, a role that brought him a Best Actor nomination at the Television Drama Academy Awards.