is a sardonic term which refers to the reluctance to use words that are considered potentially offensive or

politically incorrect "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

in the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

. For instance words such as , , , , ''kichigai'' ( or , "crazy"), , and are currently not used by the majority of Japanese publishing houses; the publishers often refuse to publish writing which includes these words. Another example is that a school janitor in Japan used to be called a . Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to . Now ''yōmuin'' is considered demeaning, so there is a shift to use or instead. This pattern of change is an example of the linguistic phenomenon known as the "

euphemism treadmill A euphemism ( ) is when an expression that could offend or imply something unpleasant is replaced with one that is agreeable or inoffensive. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the u ...

". Other examples of words which have become unacceptable include the replacement of the word for "farmer" with . Since World War II, the word '' Shina'' () for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

written in

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

has been recognized as derogatory, and has been largely superseded by the Japanese pronunciation of the endonym, , or with ''Shina'' written in

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

(). In the 1960s, the Sino-Japanese word meaning "

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

" was recognized for its connotation of a "stupid, ignorant, or immature" person (compare the English term "

Mongoloid Mongoloid () is an obsolete racial grouping of various peoples indigenous to large parts of Asia, the Americas, and some regions in Europe and Oceania. The term is derived from a now-disproven theory of biological race. In the past, other terms ...

"), and the ethnic group is now referred to by the katakana term .

''Kotobagari'' and ideology

''Kotobagari'' has led to some confusing terminology.

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

, the Japanese Broadcasting Company, runs a

Korean language Korean is the first language, native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Koreans, Korean descent. It is the national language of both South Korea and North Korea. In the south, the language is known as () and in the north, it is kn ...

study program, but the language is referred to as "

Hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

". This is a result of both the North and South Korean governments demanding that the language be called by their respective preferred name of Korea suffixed with "language" ().

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

wanted the show to be called ''Chōsen-go'' or "''Chōsen'' language" (), taken from the Japanese pronunciation of the full name of North Korea, or "Democratic People's Republic of Korea".

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

wanted ''Kankoku-go'' or "''Kankoku'' language" () from or "Republic of Korea". As a compromise, "Hangul" was selected and Korean is referred to as "the language on this program" or "this language", but this has led to the use of the neologism "Hangul language" () to refer to the Korean language, which is technically incorrect since hangul itself is a writing system, not a language.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Gottlieb, Nanett (2006). Linguistic stereotyping and minority groups in Japan. Oxon: Routledge. {{ISBN, 0415338034. Euphemisms Censorship in Japan Society of Japan Japanese vocabulary Japanese words and phrases Political correctness Self-censorship