is a sardonic term which refers to the reluctance to use words that are considered potentially offensive or

politically incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

in the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

. For instance words such as , , , , ''kichigai'' ( or "crazy"), , and are currently not used by the majority of Japanese publishing houses; the publishers often refuse to publish writing which includes these words. Another example is that a school janitor in Japan used to be called a . Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to . Now ''yōmuin'' is considered demeaning, so there is a shift to use or instead. This pattern of change is an example of the linguistic phenomenon known as the “

euphemism treadmill A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...

”. Other examples of words which have become unacceptable include the replacement of the word ''hyakushō'' () for "farmer" with ''nōka'' (). Since World War II, the word '' Shina'' () for China written in

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

has been recognized as derogatory, and has been largely superseded by the Japanese pronunciation of the endonym, ''Chūgoku'' () or with ''Shina'' written in

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

(). In the 1960s, the Sino-Japanese word meaning "

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...

" was recognized for its connotation of a "stupid, ignorant, or immature" person (compare the English term “

Mongoloid Mongoloid () is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms ...

”), and the ethnic group is now referred to by the katakana term .

''Kotobagari'' and ideology

''Kotobagari'' has led to some confusing terminology.

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

, the Japanese Broadcasting Company, runs a

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

study program, but the language is referred to as "

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

". This is a result of both the North and South Korean governments demanding that the language be called by their respective preferred name of Korea suffixed with "language" ().

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

wanted the show to be called ''Chōsen-go'' or "''Chōsen'' language" (), taken from the Japanese pronunciation of the full name of North Korea, ''Chōsen Minshu Shugi Jinmin Kyōwakoku'' () or "Democratic People's Republic of Korea".

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

wanted ''Kankoku-go'' or "''Kankoku'' language" () from ''Daikan Minkoku'' () or "Republic of Korea". As a compromise, "Hangul" was selected and Korean is referred to as "the language on this program" or "this language", but this has led to the use of the neologism "Hangul language" () to refer to the Korean language; which is technically incorrect since

hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

itself is a writing system, not a language.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Gottlieb, Nanett (2006). Linguistic stereotyping and minority groups in Japan. Oxon: Routledge. {{ISBN, 0415338034. Euphemisms Censorship in Japan Society of Japan Japanese vocabulary Japanese words and phrases Political correctness Self-censorship