, or simply is a Japanese internet slang term used to refer to so-called "''

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...

''", and "uncool", "introverted" and "gloomy" people. It is always regarded as a

taunt A taunt is a battle cry, sarcastic remark, gesture, or insult intended to demoralize or antagonize the recipient. Taunting can exist as a form of social competition to gain control of the target's cultural capital (i.e., status). In sociological ...

and term of

abuse Abuse is the act of improper usage or treatment of a person or thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, ...

Character

A ''chigyu'' is described as "a somewhat disgusting ''otaku''" or "a gloomy character with little sense of presence". The slang mainly refers to gloomy males, but is sometimes also used to refer to females with similar personalities. The characteristics of a ''chigyu'' include wearing glasses, having a "childish hairstyle", "not a domineering face", childlike appearance, spiritually childish, "although active online, appears gloomy in reality". Besides, the ''chigyu'' has also been used to refer to the appearance similar to individuals with

developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...

or enlarged adenoids. '' The Paper'' analyzed how the "childishness" of ''chigyu'' "violates the ideal definition of adult male's '

masculinity Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there i ...

' in society", and how the image of ''chigyu'' shows a gloomy person in a lower

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

who lacks socialization. It described ''chigyu'' as a discriminatory term towards

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

body Body may refer to: In science * Physical body, an object in physics that represents a large amount, has mass or takes up space * Body (biology), the physical material of an organism * Body plan, the physical features shared by a group of anim ...

, and

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

History

Origin

Cheese beef bowl with soft boiled egg of Sukiya

In 2008, the ''

doujinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created b ...

'' artist "ibiryo" drew a self portrait as a high school student and uploaded it to his blog, which later became the generic appearance of ''chigyu''. On 9 July 2018, a user on

5channel , also known as 2ch, Channel 2, and sometimes retrospectively as 2ch.net, was an anonymous Japanese textboard founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura. Described in 2007 as "Japan's most popular online community", the site had a level of influe ...

's "''Nandemo Jikkyo J''" board said: Later adding: The user used a negative perspective to describe "''chigyu'' face" and associated it with ''otaku'', so there are also criticisms that he is a lookist.

Popularity

The post has received a lot of responses, with most responders claiming that "there are indeed people around who look like this and say that", and other discussion boards have also shown related discussions. In April 2019, a summary website reprinted a related discussion thread, making the term ''chigyu'' more widely spread. In June 2019, three different styles of ''chigyu'' illustrations (

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

juvenile delinquent Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term ...

, and ''

ikemen The term is a slang term used to describe good-looking men in Japanese pop culture. The word is a portmanteau neologism derived from the Japanese words (いける) or and (メンズ). and mean "cool", "good", and "exciting", while is th ...

'') were shared online. On C97, a male cosplayed as a ''chigyu''. In April 2020, there were an average of 500-1000 tweets per day mentioning the term "''Chiizu Gyudon''", while there were an average of 100 tweets mentioning "''Chigyu''" per day. By June, the average number of tweets mentioning "''Chigyu''" per day had reached 10000.

Reception

''Gyūdon'' chain stores

In June 2020, Japanese news website J-CAST News interviewed

Zensho Holdings is a Japanese holding company which owns several restaurant chains in Japan. The largest is Sukiya (restaurant chain), Sukiya serving gyūdon, rice bowls with beef. Restaurant chains The brands owned or licensed by Zensho include: Gyūdon: * ...

, which runs Sukiya, about this slang. The company's publicity department responded "Of course we know what ''chigyu'' is. That's our top popular product No.1, 'Gyudon with 3 Cheeses'. We hope our customers will continue to enjoy our products in the future. We will launch a new product, 'Cheese Beef Rib Gyudon', and welcome everyone to try it out in person." Disability information collection website shohgaisha.com pointed J-CAST News' report did not mention the relationship between 'chigyu' and individuals with developmental disabilities, instead introducing it as just a

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

that mocks dull men to avoid stirring up controversy. The website also thought Sukiya actually knew the meaning of "''chigyu''", but due to fear of online debates, it shifted the focus to new products.

Buzzword award

The term ''Chiizu Gyudon'' was nominated for the Internet Buzzword Award 2020, and won third place at the

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

Buzzword Award 2020.

Application

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

activist

Joshua Wong Joshua Wong Chi-fung (; born 13 October 1996) is a Hong Kong Pro-democracy camp (Hong Kong), pro-democracy activist and politician. He served as secretary-general of the pro-democracy party Demosisto, Demosistō until it disbanded following i ...

was known by Japanese netizens as the "''chigyu'' around

Agnes Chow Agnes Chow Ting ( zh, 周庭; born 3 December 1996) is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. She is a former member of the Standing Committee of Demosisto and former spokesperson of Scholarism. Her candidacy for the March 2018 Hong Kong ...

" due to his resemblance to the generic appearance of ''chigyu''. Wong responded positively to this, and fellow activist Chow said that Wong was "very happy about it and didn't take it to heart at all". Wong later collaborated with a restaurant selling cheese beef bowls which were named after him. On 28 July 2020, during the live broadcast of the ''

Puyo Puyo , previously known as ''Puyo Pop'' outside Japan, is a series of tile-matching video games created by Compile. Sega has owned the franchise since 1998, with games after 2001 being developed by Sonic Team. ''Puyo Puyo'' was created as a spin-of ...

'' Championships,

Toshihiro Nagoshi is a Japanese video game producer, director and designer. He was the chief creative officer for Sega until 2021 when he became creative director. He went on to be the general director of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, and later became a member of t ...

commented on the entrants, saying that they "look like they like to eat ''chiizu gyudon,''" sparking controversy.

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

deleted the live playback on YouTube and re-uploaded it after removing the "unpleasant parts". Host Ayana Tsubaki apologized on Twitter.

References

{{reflist Otaku 2channel Pejorative terms for people Slurs related to low intelligence Stereotypes Japanese slang Japanese internet slang Internet meme characters Internet memes introduced from Japan