Sometimes Japanese words and messages spread abroad with slightly different meanings.
And sometimes foreign words and events reach Japan in slightly distorted ways.
Those small gaps can quietly create misunderstanding.
I’d like to write about Japanese language, culture, history, and memory in English — hoping to make those gaps a little smaller.
A famous Japanese wordplay: 忙 means “busy.”
It looks like 心, “heart,” plus 亡, “to lose” or “to disappear.”
So people often say: “To be busy is to lose your heart.” It is not the exact etymology. But as wordplay, it feels painfully true.
The busier we become, the more carefully we should protect our heart.
From the outside, it may look strange. I understand that reaction.
Japan has not forgotten Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Some Japanese people will never be able to forgive the atomic bombings.
But as a country, Japan chose not to make hatred the foundation of its postwar relationship with America.
That choice can also be read as one of the most difficult forms of postwar reconciliation❕
“Write ‘for someone’s sake,’ and you get ‘false’?”
There is a famous Japanese wordplay:
人 means “person.”
為 can mean “for the sake of,” “to do,” or “to act.”
Put them together, and you get 偽 — meaning “false,” “fake,” or “deception.”
It almost sounds as if the person who made this kanji had a very cynical sense of humor.
But that is not really how it was formed.
The character 為 originally carried the idea of human action or intentional alteration — something done deliberately, not left in its natural state.
So 偽 was closer to:
“something made by human action,”
“something artificial,”
or “something fabricated.”
Over time, that meaning seems to have shifted toward “false” or “deceptive.”
Maybe the real cynic was time itself.
Do you have the courage to annex a population of 120 million that is (virtually) ethnically homogeneous😂?
For starters, the Liberal Democratic Party would become the largest faction, a former Japanese national would be elected president, and Japanese would become the official language❗️
Japanese has the saying:“郷に入っては郷に従え”
When you enter a village, follow its ways.
English has a close equivalent:“When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”I think the English phrase often sounds like practical travel wisdom:adapt to local customs.
The Japanese phrase can sound more social:once you enter a community, you are expected to respect its unwritten rules.
It’s a subtle nuance, but I feel it captures the essence of Japan❗️
This meme is not completely wrong, but it needs context.🌀
「姦しい」does mean “noisy” or “clamorous” in Japanese.However, it sounds very old-fashioned today, and most Japanese people would not use it in daily conversation.
Also, the kanji 「姦」 has much heavier associations in modern Japanese, because it appears in words related to adultery and sexual assault.
So it is less “women = noisy in Japanese,” and more “an old kanji-based word with uncomfortable modern associations.”
In this World Cup, Zion Suzuki has been one of the pillars of Japan’s national team⚽
When people overseas hear “Zion Suzuki,” it may simply sound like one name.
But in Japanese, his name is written as 鈴木彩艶.
The kanji 彩艶 gives the name another layer of meaning and imagery.
彩 can suggest color and vividness.
艶 can suggest luster, beauty, and elegance.
The sound “Zion” is said to come from Mount Zion, a biblical place name.
A name with multiple backgrounds.
It feels very fitting for him!
I believe climate responsibility lies not only with the United States, but also with people in developed countries. Of course, that includes myself.
However, this does not mean that any one country directly caused a specific heatwave. It is a responsibility that comes from historical emissions, high levels of consumption, and the capacity to change more quickly.
The irony is real. But that alone does not make the question of responsibility disappear.
That said, there is still something ironic about using an American-born device, on an American social media platform, to talk about America’s responsibility.
This is a meme a Chinese friend sent me when Japan safely made it through the group stage at the 2022 World Cup.
(Left: the original, right: AI-made English version.)
Because Chinese and Japanese share Chinese characters, we can understand at least some of what is written, even across different languages.
…And it turns out that Japan and China were laughing at the same thing❕
After the next match against #Brazil , what will Moriyasu be called this time🤔
This is a meme a Chinese friend sent me when Japan safely made it through the group stage at the 2022 World Cup.
(Left: the original, right: AI-made English version.)
Because Chinese and Japanese share Chinese characters, we can understand at least some of what is written, even across different languages.
…And it turns out that Japan and China were laughing at the same thing❕
After the next match against #Brazil , what will Moriyasu be called this time🤔
【Queen】 Who is “Geisha Minah”?
(I love Queen and listen to them often.)
In Queen’s “Killer Queen,” “Geisha Minah” probably was not meant to be a realistic Japanese name.
“Mina” would sound natural in Japanese, but “Minah,” pronounced like “my-nuh,” does not.
The point was likely not accuracy, but sound: a Japan-like, exotic image created for the song’s theatrical world🤔