“Otaku” Number One Japanese Word Overseas?
- Categories: Anime, News
- Date: Jun 5, 2008 04:40 JST
- Tags: Japanese language, Otaku, Statistics
Some interesting results from a survey emerge: the number one Japanese word understood overseas is thought by respondents to be “otaku”. “Anime” comes in at 9, “manga” at 16 and “Nintendo” at 17. See the full list (with English). See below for the vastly superior Sankaku Complex list of Japanese words with international currency.
The first indication that something is amiss with these results is probably the presence of “karoshi” (death from overwork), “mottainai” (wasteful; supposedly a uniquely Japanese concept) and, incredibly, “katori-senkou” (some sort of anti-mosquito device) at ranks 2, 3, and 4, and the complete absence of “sushi” from the list. The survey is obviously too polite to include “hentai”, “futanari” or “bukkake”…
These improbable sounding results deserve a little scrutiny and scepticism (repeating an admittedly appealing headline without due scrutiny is not what this site is about); careful reading of the article in fact soon reveals the proviso “maybe these results would be different if we asked people overseas”, tucked away right at the end of the article, doubtless so as not to impair its skim read impact.
So in fact we have a less charismatic headline of “Our Japanese survey respondents think “otaku” is most likely to be understood overseas”.
Still, I think it somewhat interesting that of a thousand Japanese Internet users, “otaku” was thought to be the number one Japanese word understood internationally.
Not to be outdone, Sankaku Complex has prepared its own dubious investigation of Japanese words with international currency:
| Anime: | 267,000,000 |
| Tokyo: | 182,000,000 |
| Manga: | 153,000,000 |
| Naruto: | 121,000,000 |
| Ninja: | 118,000,000 |
| Hentai: | 79,700,000 |
| Yen: | 57,800,000 |
| Samurai: | 55,600,000 |
| Sushi: | 55,300,000 |
| Karate: | 38,800,000 |
| Tsunami: | 34,700,000 |
| Tycoon: | 31,400,000 |
| Gundam: | 30,100,000 |
| Sumo: | 29,900,000 |
| Judo: | 22,100,000 |
| Ramen: | 18,200,000 |
| Geisha: | 15,400,000 |
| Bukkake: | 15,200,000 |
| Kamikaze: | 14,400,000 |
| Otaku: | 14,200,000 |
| Kimono: | 11,900,000 |
| Dojinshi/Doujinshi: | 6,590,000 |
| Banzai: | 5,520,000 |
| Ecchi: | 3,010,000 |
| Ikebana: | 2,340,000 |
| Futanari: | 418,000 |
| Shibari: | 353,000 |
| Karoshi: | 347,000 |
| Katori-senko: | 2,680 |
There you have it; anime is king, even more widely talked of than Japan’s insignificant capital, and somehow Naruto is more popular than ninja. The Japanese had better resign themselves to the fact that their glorious cultural influence is most strongly felt overseas through anime, manga, games and sex.
Source: Google.
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What is the point of publishing these articles if they aren't actually what they say they are?
I'm sure anime, ramen, bukkake, and sushi would top the list.
The point is most probably that they generate great traffic by way of writers too lazy or irresponsible to check what they write about, and readers who don't see past the headline...
Their dubious results even got some articles written about them in relatively professional sources, so they appear to be correct in thinking they can get away with this sort of thing.
What, no karaoke?
Or bento? You can't go more than 10 metres in central London without encountering a shop selling sushi and bento.
Harakiri. Commonly mangled in English as "harikari", but certainly one of the earliest Japanese words I encountered.
And of course teriyaki and honcho, the latter usually in the set phrase "head honcho".
The word "Naruto", in addition to the obvious uberfranchise by the name, may be helped along by the fact it's also a Japanese food. (It's those spiraly slices of fish cake you see in assorted noodle dishes, not coincidentally showing up in the manga/anime by the name, stuck to the eponymous character's cheek as he sucks down ramen.)
That poll is ridiculous. We have Japanese words in the English language, of which does not include "otaku".......
"Tycoon"? Really? Wow...that's a new one on me. I could've sworn that was a redneck word. Learn something new everyday.
how is tycoon even a japanese word? the spelling isn't even in japanese syllables
Try using a dictionary...
If "tycoon" is a Japanese word, "anime" is an English word.
Maybe they meant "typhoon" (although that's not really a japanese word either, as iirc the Japanese is taifuu, sans "n")
I stand corrected by a post below me. Maybe I should read more :/
seriously... that took me about 6 seconds to look up the etymology of the word "tycoon". Why come here, look like an idiot, and waste everybody's time?
Here's a hint:
"taikun". Now go find yourself a good jisho and look it up ;)
Its either fake, or half of the ppl who answered decided to do it with some humour.
Yen is my name ._.
wait what no kawaii? I'd bet that in reality only anime, tokyo and ninja beats it.
I loved the "“maybe these results would be different if we asked people overseas”" bit, myself.
Seriously, they think Karoshi is more prevalent than Sushi, Ninja and (maybe) even Gundam? REALLY?
And I think Outside of Japan, Nerd/Geek would be used as a cover-all instead of Otaku, no?