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The buzzwords of the year (Shingo/Ryūkōgo Taishō 新語・流行語大賞) have been announced. As Nathan Hopson, who called the results to my attention, puts it:
With the caveat that this is a contest run by a private company that publishes an annual collection of new and important words, and that there's a lot of peripheral annoyance around the biases this seems to create, there are always a few interesting terms.
This year's winner was "sodane〜 そだね〜" ("that's right〜" ), the kawaii (the culture of cuteness) shortened form of sōdesune そうですね ("I agree; that's right; that's so, isn't it; hmm"), one of my favorite Japanese expressions, popularized during the Pyeongchang Olympics broadcasts of the Japanese women's curling team.
The women's curlers became very popular for being more like a joshikai 女子会 ("women's club", or maybe a "girl's night out" in the vernacular) than like a sports team. They made cute bento, took snack breaks, had little girl talk sessions on camera, and generally performed their gender at least as well as their sport. The "sodane〜 そだね〜" ("that's right〜" ) was representative of this in the sense that it's very casual, very upbeat, and a bit girly. It was also a sign of their excellent and open communication, since it was used to affirm each other's judgment, strategy, shot selection, etc. They even earned the nickname "Sodane 〜 Japan そだね〜ジャパン" ("That's right 〜 Japan"). Men's soccer is "Samurai Japan サムライジャパン" ("Samurai Japan"), women's soccer is "Nadeshiko* Japan なでしこジャパン" ("Pink Japan"), etc., so a team nickname in itself is nothing new.
*pink (any flower of genus Dianthus, esp. the fringed pink, Dianthus superbus; lovable, caressable girl)
There are mashups of "sodane〜 そだね〜" ("that's right〜" ) in action on YouTube (ripped from TV), for example, this one:
Nathan opines:
But for my money, the most interesting buzzword this year was "gohan ronpō ご飯論法" ("meal / cooked rice argumenta[tion]"), which is used to describe the way politicians selectively misinterpret questions in order to obfuscate or mislead. To a question about whether he had gohan with an associate, a politician might answer "no" even if they had enjoyed a meal together because he hadn't eaten rice, since gohan means both "rice" and "meal".
That's a lot more colorful than to say that he prevaricated.
Readings
- "Aufheben: candidate for Japanese buzzword of the year" (11/13/17)
- "Bakugai ('explosive buying'): Japanese word of the year nominee" (11/14/15)
December 6, 2018 @ 6:58 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Contests, Words words words
