思いやり予算

The Japanese language has nothing equal to good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon profanity.

Insults are more often the result of using impolite verb forms, rolling your Rs in a bad imitation of a mobster, or saying to someone that s/he has for example "short legs."

However, Japanese can hold their own when it comes to subtle put-downs. Hyper aware of status and position, Japanese can be casually cutting with the best of them.

One is the infamous "sympathy budget."

Usually, this is rendered in quotation marks or as the "so-called sympathy budget" in the Japanese media.

What it refers to is the portion of the budget that is devoted to supporting US troops stationed at one of the many bases in Japan. According to politicalaffairs.net, "the total amount of Japan’s payment for the stationing of U.S. forces in the FY 2008 will be 620 billion yen (about 6 billion dollars)." (Note the lack of quotation marks.)

The term is said to originate with the late Shin Kanemaru, who in 1978 defended the payments by saying they are done "out of sympathy." He was at the time the Director-General of the Japan Defense Agency.

The money spent is a source of irritation for many Japanese, particularly in base-heavy Okinawa. Thus, the popularity of the put down.

Needless to say, the term is not popular in the US Embassy.


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流行語

For this week’s blog, a few more catchy terms that will probably draw blank or quizzical expressions – but may however endear you to a certain small sliver of the population.

ユニバレ (yunibare)

This combines “yuni”and “bare.” Yuni is the first bit of Uniqlo, the Japanese low-cost apparel company. Bare is from the Japanese very ばれる（bareru）, which means to expose, become known. Thus, “yunibare” is when your friends or people around you realize you are wearing very inexpensive clothing.

おもてなし婚 (omotenashi kon)

“Omotenashi” is what restaurants, inns, and bars do – take care, welcome, please their clients. “Kon” is the second half of 結婚（けっこん、 wedding, marriage）. Thus, “omotenashi kon” is a wedding that has pleasing the guests as its highest priority.

カレセン (karesen) refers to women in their mid- to late-30s who prefer men in their 50s or older. This is a play on words. かれ（kare, which means "he" or "him"）can mean 彼（かれ、he）- which is used in 彼氏（kareshi, boyfriend）- or 枯れ　（かれ、withered）.

The second half is 専（sen）, which means expert or specialist.

Last is slang based in Kanto, particularly in Shibuya: チョリース（chori-su）. This is “hello,” “right, got it,” “I understand.”Allegedly, television talent Yukina Kinoshita was the originator of the term. From these humble beginnings, the term spread.

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難しい

"Japanese is difficult" (日本語は難しいですね、nihongo ha muzukashii desu ne）is something you will hear frequently from Japanese people.

Behind that lurks the assumption that Japanese is more difficult than your language.

In terms of pronunciation, verb conjugation, and set expressions--actually, Japanese is not that difficult. Where it is hard--for those not born and bred in Chinese character-using countries (i.e. China, Korea, Taiwan, and Japan)--is the written language.

With hiragana, katakana, and about 3,000 kanji, it is a bastard, no two ways about it.

However, that is not the topic of today's blog. Rather, we want to look at other uses of the wonderful word "difficult" （難しい、muzukashi）.

In many, many situations this simply means "No." For example, if in reply to your request, someone says:

ちょっと難しいですね（chotto muzukashi desu ne, "that's a bit difficult"）, they usually mean: it can't be done. This a polite way to refuse a request.

Another nuance of the word is "unnecessarily complicated."

As in: 。。。難しい話。。。（むずかしはなし、muzukashi hanashi）, which refers to discussions or a conversation that is quite complicated, often too much so.

Finally, a couple of expressions using the kanji 難.

First is 一難去って又一難（ichinan satte mata ichinan）.

Literally, this translates as "Leave one trouble behind and along comes another." Another way of putting it would be "one thing after another."

Last, 言うは易く行うは難し（iu ha yasuku okonau ha muzukashi）. "Easier said than done."

And so it is, but perserverance and fighting spirit--topics for another day--are equally strong emotions in Japanese life.

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