Using Japanese Slang
Anne Kasschau
and
Susumu Eguchi
TUTTLE PUBLISHING
Boston, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A.
Copyright © 1995 by Anne Kasschau & Susumu Eguchi All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
LCC Card No. 94060682
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1095-3 (ebook)
First edition, 1995
Printed in Singapore
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04 05 06 07 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
PART 1 BAD-MOUTHING AND DIRTY WORDS
Bad Personality, Attitude, and Behavior
PART 2 THE LANGUAGE OF SEX
Sexual Organs and Private Parts
PART 3 UNDERGROUND AND YAKUZA-RELATED LANGUAGE
Punk-and Juvenile Delinquent-Related Language 196
PART 4 YOUNG PEOPLE'S AND VOGUE EXPRESSIONS
Emergence of Gyaru (Girl) and Related Words
Media-and Fashion-Related Words
This is a book born of frustration. As a long-time student of the Japanese language and a long-time resident of Japan, I have been constantly frustrated by the reticence of my Japanese friends and teachers to answer my questions about slang and underground Japanese, especially as they pertain to matters sexual. This is in pointed contrast to the burgeoning number of books on sale in Japan about colloquial and even vulgar English.
Probably most of you reading this book have had the same experience. Questions such as "How do you say fuck in Japanese?" "What's the word for penis?" or "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