Japanese Political Correctness
I was asked to be the speaker at an ICIEA (Imabari City International Exchange Association) event this month, and recently decided upon my topic. I’ll be speaking about political correctness in American English. The announcement is up on the official page here: English / 日本語. It should be kind of interesting. The official title of the talk is “Political Correctness in American English: Changing Times and Shifting Diction.” It will cover, or at least deal with the following themes: why words change, meaning what you say (and saying what you mean), politics and politeness, using euphemisms, distancing language, social acceptance, and describing others. Of course, the scope may broaden or shrink as I approach the actual talk, but it’s a good starting point.
Anyway, while I was fooling around on the internet looking for ideas, I came across an interesting term I’d not heard of before. 「言葉狩り」 or ことばがり (kotobagari). It means “word hunting” literally, but refers to diction choices made in Japanese based on politeness and social acceptance guidelines strikingly similar to the American concept of political correctness. I’ve gathered a few cool examples of the euphemism treadmill at work in Japanese from the Wikipedia post on this topic (English / 日本語) that I hope I can use alongside some American English equivalents.
For example, a school janitor in Japan used to be called a kozukai-san (小使いさん “chore person”). Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to yōmuin (用務員 “task person”). Now yōmuin is considered demeaning, so there is [sic] shift to use kōmuin (校務員 “school task member”) or kanrisagyōin (管理作業員 “maintenance member”) instead.
This is a situation roughly equivalent to the odd titles we are now giving to jobs in America. For instance, janitors are not janitors. Now they’re called custodians. (Or in joking hyperbole, sanitation technicians.) Secretaries are administrative assistants. You see how the pattern works.
Anyway, this is a bit of a “bleg” (blog-based beg) for some help. If you’re proficient in Japanese and you’re aware of some words that have taken a trip down the euphemism treadmill or other word choices that may be related to “word hunting,” please please please post them in the comments section!
on September 9th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I know that you can no longer say one word for blind in polite Japanese society and so must substitute another. I forget both of them. I are best word custodian ever.
claytonians last blog post was: Super JLPT site
on September 9th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Stewardness —-> Flight Attendant might be a good example too
on September 10th, 2008 at 1:58 am
I believe the word we can’t use for blind anymore is めくら.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9B%B2%E7%9B%AE#.E8.84.9A.E6.B3.A8
You might want to go through the 差別 wiki article for more examples.
lostinubes last blog post was: Six Things September 10, 2008
on September 10th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Clay - thanks for the tip, let me know of any other possibilities you can think of.
James - good one. Maybe Cabin Attendant is more common here, though. (Due to the many dramas that used the abbreviation CA.)
Lost in Ube - long time no comment! Ha ha. I will check the 差別 article, as well as the 放送禁止語 list. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be offensive - that’s part of the whole political correctness thing. Sometimes words are just politened (I made that word up) for arbitrary or trivial reasons. You know?
on September 12th, 2008 at 2:08 am
家内 was the first one I was warned not to use.
And the 外人 horse is always available for some flogging.
on September 12th, 2008 at 7:43 am
What about different words for husband and wife? the switch from words that refer to the husband as a master to something more neutral, etc…
on September 30th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
When I worked at a deaf school, I was told that writing ろう学校 was superior to 聾学校, since the kanji for “deaf” was considered demeaning.
on September 30th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
The word 看護士 (kangoshi) is now prefered to the word
看護婦 (kangofu) for “nurse”, since the latter one implies, that
only women can or should do this job.
on October 1st, 2008 at 6:48 am
informative post, thanks for sharing
Jamaipaneses last blog post was: My List of Must See Television Shows of 2008″
on October 24th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Hey Deas, apropos to nothing very much, but just because I happened to come across it the other day and knew you had prior dealings in this topic (!), I thought I’d pass along this link to you.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=1IYx4Bc6_eE
Just for the record, this guy is a very clever and very funny comedian, who isn’t normally this forthright about this sort of thing. I think he makes a good point, but he does go a bit over the top at the end!
Toms last blog post was: “Come, old broomstick, you are needed”
on October 24th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Tom - thanks for the link! I take his point rather well, but I disagree with him in the current American climate. I’m really out of my realm of knowledge talking about the same set of circumstances that he is discussing, though. His worst case scenario where someone in office or public life says something about which others are unsure is a little too soft, in my opinion. In America, political correctness is routinely used by political opponents to force others to shut up - and much of the time this is an egregious abuse of political correctness, because anything can be interpreted as offensive.
If you take a look at newsprint stories surrounding this year’s presidential campaign, for instance, you have loads of people claiming that X is a code word (or code language) for “black.” These words include: socialist, community organizer, arrogant, elitist, risky, that one (admittedly poor choice of words), fall backward, etc. It’s amazing how apt at finding racism when no obvious, nor camouflaged, racism is to be found. We’re having meanings loaded into words, in effect putting words into other people’s mouths.
Senator Obama himself has preemptively played the race card on his Republican opponent, though the McCain campaign has tried as hard as possible to avoid any sort of message that could be conflated as racism. That’s messed up, and shameful, in my opinion. So that would be the negative side to political correctness - its abuse in a hyper-aware culture. Racists should always be called out, and bigots too - but only if they ARE racists or bigots. That’s all I’m saying.
on October 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I’d agree that it can be abused in an attempt to shut people up, but that this would still only be an unfortunate side-effect of what is still a policy with numerous benefits.
Also, I wouldn’t agree that the McCain campaign has been entirely innocent when it comes to issues of race. Palin especially has been whipping up rhetoric, and while it’s never blatant, it is obviously designed in large part to appeal to prospective voters who still have qualms about electing a black president. “He’s not one of us”, “not a man who sees America as you and I see America”. It’s an us and them mentality, painting Obama as the ‘other’, which, unfortunately, plays to issues of race.
The reactions from people at some of her rallies clearly shows the effect it’s having.
Toms last blog post was: “Come, old broomstick, you are needed”
on October 26th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Tom - both of those comments are about Senator Obama’s liberalism, socialist leanings, and the level of his discontent with America. Not his race. Palin’s base is conservative, quite capitalist, and rather upbeat about America despite its many, many flaws. That includes conservative Democrats, which is a group the campaign would really want to shore up by differentiation. It’s a glass half empty vs. glass half full thing. But it’s definitely not about race.
And for the record, the secret service at her rallies had no idea what that reporter from Pennsylvania was talking about when he said people were yelling “kill him,” etc. Nobody present supported the reporter’s claims except for the reporter. That is precisely the mechanic that I described above. I assume that’s the case you’re referring to. And if not, don’t let the one or two yahoos out there freak you out. There was some McCain supporter who carved a B onto her face and made up this lametastic story about being accosted by a mugger-cum-Obama supporter. That is absolutely despicable. But you shouldn’t believe that there are many out there like her. You know me. What I am like? Lots of Palin’s supporters are like me. Don’t hand my identity over to weirdos! Ha ha.
Senator Obama has, from the microphone said, “I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.” If I were deeply snarky and cynical, I’d have no trouble making out Senator Obama’s preemptive race carding, combined with his quotes like this, would argue that he sees it as very much an us-vs-them mentality himself, with racist, bigot, capitalist, evil conservatives on the other side. But I’m not. I give him the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word that he simply wants people to try and convince their neighbors to vote for the man they are so inspired by.
Identity politics are weak cheese, aren’t they? Sigh. Thanks for the comment, in any event. Ha ha. Always a pleasure.
on October 29th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
So, to swing this back around to Japanese…
@Robert, I think the preferred version is 看護師, not 看護士. The former literally being “nursing specialist” while the latter is a word for a male nurse. Same reading though, so whatever.