Has anyone heard these words?
- From: "Marc Adler" <marc.adler@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Nov 2005 12:19:49 -0800
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1870754,00.html
New words tell sad tale of Japan's Bridget Jones
>>From Leo Lewis in Tokyo
BRIDGET JONESES of the world beware: spend too much time with the
rikonmiminenzo
[離婚 I get. 耳？念増？離婚耳念増？ Looks like mojibake.]
(divorce-promotion generation) and you just may end up as a
moshimo-onna (a "what if?" girl) or even risk spending your
thirties as a tsurumun (a woman who dreads being alone on
[ツルムン？]
national holidays and invents reasons to visit friends).
These are part of a swelling lexicon of Japanese neologisms and the
products of a language that is working flat-out to keep up with the
rapidly changing lifestyles of young Japanese women.
Until the present generation made its mark on Japanese society, single
working life was generally a short-term experience for most women as
they prepared for marriage and motherhood. There has never been much
need, therefore, for words such as nitto-onna, which
[にっと女？日当女？]
describes a woman so dedicated to her career that she has no time to
iron blouses and so resorts to dressing only in knitwear tops.
Equally, there has never before been any serious sense of boinryoku,
the potentially disruptive power of maternal instincts on patriarchal
society.
[ボイン力！？見てみてぇな！]
Many of the new words reflect the miseries of living alone and the
seemingly hopeless quest to bag a worthwhile man. The ultimate fear is
of slipping by default into the life of a sokosokozuma, a woman who
settles for a so-so marriage just to get it out of the way.
[そこそこ妻 - finally something that at least looks plausible.]
For those who do not manage even that, there is the prospect of eating
a Kurisumasu-nabe,
[クリスマス鍋？ Does that exist?]
a cheap stew cooked at the table and designed to inject a feeble sense
of conviviality to a Christmas gathering of single friends.
Several of the phrases reveal how far some women are prepared to take
things when the prospect of marriage seems too distant. Kondoumukeikaku
(literally, "pregnancy now plan")
[コンドーム計画="pregnancy now plan"? I thought it meant
"pregnancy never plan"]
describes the way in which some women over 35 have unprotected sex with
strangers to have children, while nakayoshi ninpu (buddy pregnancy)
describes the act of two women deliberately getting pregnant at the
same time so that they can experience childbirth together.
Other words capture the more positive side of life. The huge social
upheaval that has given Japan its ranks of single women has also
produced a generation of sharp consumers and thick wallets to feed
their shopping appetites.
Ippaiyoku are women whose every garment and accessory is made by the
same designer,
[一杯欲? もう一杯が飲みたいってこと？]
and chokuegambo describes the wish that there were more designer-brand
shops on a given
[なるほど。直営願望、ね。But do people actually say that?]
street. A yubisakibijin is a woman who spends a large portion of her
salary tending to her fingernails.
LONER'S LEXICON
Kakobijin Literally, past beauty. Describes the sort of woman who talks
incessantly about how she would have been thought of as a stunner if
she had lived in a different era, when men's tastes in women were
different
Minekokon Describes a woman who gives up a high-powered career in Tokyo
for a dull life in the country with a quiet husband
Ame-unication The act of offering sweets to another woman in the hope
of striking up a conversation and breaking the loneliness of single
life
[雨ユニケーション？]
Toirebijutsukan Literally, toilet museum. The trend whereby young women
moving into an apartment alone for the first time will go to extreme
lengths to decorate their lavatory, scent it with perfume and stock it
with interesting literature
Rakudaraifu Literally, camel life. Applied to single women who spend
much of their weekends cooking food and deep-freezing it so that it can
be reheated in a hurry when they return from work late
Henkyoryugaku Literally, study abroad in the wild. Describes young
women who in their
偏恐竜学 deviant paleontology?
twenties and thirties rebel against social norms and travel abroad to
devote time to an eccentric art form, such as Balinese dancing.
Marc
.
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