"How do you tell someone he's an asshole?" are invariably met with an embarrassed smile and the immediate response that the Japanese don't have words for these sorts of things. This reflects the honne and tatemae nature of Japanese society, in which reality (honne) is almost always subordinated to appearances (tatemae). And, as the more than 200 pages that follow will amply attest, this assertion simply isn't accurate.
The number of foreigners living in Japan continues to grow, and interest in the Japanese language is strong all over the world. But even those who have lived in Japan for decades have no idea how to make love in Japanese, how to express their displeasure when cut off in traffic by an overeager taxi driver, of derogatory Japanese language, or of the slang and jargon used by the younger generation.
In Susumu Eguchi, my co-author; I finally found a Japanese person willing to be open about such terms. Thus, the 200 columns entitled "Unspeakable Japanese" came to be. Susumu, a journalist and scholar having written several books on the Japanese language under the pen name of Oh Yamanaka, did the formidable job of researching the words and their history and etymology. I am also a journalist who has studied Japanese for more years than I would like to admit. To me fell the task of rendering the work into English and editing each column, as well as re-editing them into book form.
These columns ran from April 1979 to December 1982 on the Friday Page in the Mainichi Daily News. Several reader surveys conducted during this period proved them to be the most popular feature of the paper. Not surprisingly, they were also the most controversial.
To this book we have added some of the more scandalous expressions that we were not able to publish in the newspaper. We have also emphasized the spoken language rather than written words, concentrating on expressions, many of which are not yet covered in prestigious Japanese dictionaries.
The basis for our choice of expressions is that they were in use as of the spring of 1994 and can be expected to be around for a while. We have decided to include older and less fashionable expressions only when they are necessary in order to understand the general trends.
There has been little organized slang and jargon research by scholars, in spite of the fact that Japan has experienced a boom over the last ten years in Japanese-language studies and general interest books. With increased interest in Japan overseas as well, several books on colloquial and slang Japanese have been published. We are often surprised, however, to find that most of them don't go into the origins of the words or how their meaning has developed and changed over the years.
Words are a clue to human psychology; they also provide a window on the culture from which they have originated. In our research for this book, we have examined as much literature as possible and have limited the expressions to ones on which most opinions agree. We offer here what we believe is the most comprehensive and most scholarly research to date on Japanese slang, swear words, underground and sexual terms, scatology, and colloquialisms. We hope you find this book helpful in deepening your understanding of Japanese language and culture.
PART
BAD-MOUTHING
and
DIRTY WORDS
warukuchi,
kitanai kotoba
1
Stupidity and Drunkenness
(baka, yopparai)
Baka-Related
Baka (stupid) is a good word with which to start our book. It is literally a four-letter word, and is probably the first—and perhaps only—Japanese swear word that most foreigners learn. Kenkyusha's Japanese-English Dictionary fills several columns with translations and explanations of this word, one of which is the quaintly Victorian-sounding old socks. In reality, however, when spoken in tones of disgust or anger, it has the impact of goddamn you bastard, or you son of a bitch.
In 1993, a TV program aired by the Asahi Broadcasting Company in Osaka examined the nationwide usage of baka and its synonym ahō, and was quite a hit. A book based on the reporter's investigation was subsequently published, receiving even more attention. According to this voluminous work by Osamu Matsumoto, Zenkoku Ahō Baka Bunpu-ko (The Nationwide Distribution of Ahō and Baka), words related to stupidity and idiocy are roughly classified into the baka group in eastern Japan (including Tokyo), Kyushu, and far Western Japan; and the ahō group in Nagoya and the Kansai region (including Osaka and Kyoto). There are also many colloquial synonyms in dialect, such as honji-nashi in the Tohoku and dara in the Hokuriku and San-in regions. These are still in use in local conversation. Among them, though, baka and ahō or ahō are the two major swear words in Japan, with baka being the older of the two.
According to Matsumoto, both baka and ahō derive from ancient Chinese, and even standard Japanese dictionaries offer mistaken etymologies. This is the extent to which even famous linguistic scholars disagree about the origins of words.
Baka, manuke (stupid ass) omae no kāchan (your mother) debeso (literally, protruding navel), is a typical taunt of children in the Tokyo region. Let's examine the usage of baka first.
Bakka, baka ne, or baka da ne, when spoken in tones of sympathy, convey that exact sentiment—what a mess you've got yourself into, you poor thing. O-baka-san, used to refer to a person, has similar connotations. O-in this case is a prefix showing affection and-san is a suffix for respect. The inverted form of baka (kaba) is also used affectionately.
On a somewhat stronger level is baka yarō, rarely used by women, which might best be translated as up your ass. Yarō means fellow or guy. (Roll the "r" shamelessly for added effect). The impact of this word on the Japanese can be illustrated by the fact that, in 1953, the Diet was forced to dissolve because then-Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida used it during a main session of the House of Representatives. Baka tare has the same meaning and impact, and is used mainly in Kansai.
Kusobaka is very strong and is only used by men. The kuso in this expression means shit, and the word should only be used under the most extreme circumstances. Kuso can also be added to babā and jijii, which are derogatory terms for old woman and old man respectively, to create kusobabā and kusojijii. These words are used to refer to a really disgusting old person.
Women as well as men, however, are allowed to use bakarashii or bakakusai when they feel that something is absurd or silly. Sonna bakarashii for bakakusai) koto wa dekimasen means I can't do something that silly. Rashii is a suffix meaning look like, seem, or appear, as in onnarashii (womanly) or kawairashii (lovely, charming). Kusai means to smell bad. So bakakusai has the connotation of something just reeking of stupidity. Bakamitai (mitai also means to look like or appear like) is very similar. These two terms are frequently used in ordinary conversation.
Baka-bakashii, an emphatic form of bakarashii, is a popular opening phrase in rakugo, Japanese traditional comic storytelling. A typical opening line is maido bakabakashii hanashi deshite, meaning this is a stupid story, as always.
When one adds ni suru to baka, the meaning becomes to make a fool of. If, for example, you feel someone is making a fool of you, you might say baka ni suru na (don't make a fool of me). Kobaka ni suru, on the other hand, means to look with disdain upon someone. Ko-is a prefix meaning small or little.
Similar irony is present in the expression usu-baka. Usui actually means thin or weak (as in weak tea or
