6 Made-in-Japan “English” Expressions You’ll Encounter in Japan

A cursory look at Japanese-made or repurposed English in Japan

Throughout my career, I’ve worked only at Japanese companies. Not surprisingly, I am exposed to a lot of “Japanese English.” After all, as I wrote in a previous article, there’s little need to use “regular English” in Japan.

But in truth, I lied. There is a ton of English in the Japanese workplace… with a catch.

They’re more like Japanese words with English origins.

#1 Renewal

In English, the word renewal is often used within a business context especially in conjunction with contracts, as in “contract renewal.” Not so in Japanese, where it’s used more to mean update or revamp. And yes, the verb is also renewal rather than renew.

Example sentence: 売れ筋ナンバーワンの商品をリニューアします。 We will “renewal” our bestselling product.

Earlier on in my career, I would have winced for saying “renewal” to mean revamp. “Renewal just sounds odd,” I had thought to myself. You renew a contract; you revamp a product. And anyway, renewal is a noun, not a verb!

But the more I heard it, the more normal it started to sound.

Today, after working more than 10 years at Japanese companies, my brain no longer thinks this usage is odd.

I had successfully renewal-ed my brain.

#2 “Risuke”

Need to reschedule a meeting or appointment? Just say “リスケ (risuke),” a contraction of the verb reschedule. You’ll sound like a seasoned business professional. Everyone will look at you and wonder why your Japanese is so good.

Example sentence: 午後の打ち合わせをリスケできますか？/ Can we “risuke” the meeting this afternoon?

#3 The suffix “up” or “down” as verbs

This is an extremely useful way to make Japanese-English verbs in Japanese. Just append them to any noun to express an increase or decrease in that noun. Not grammatically correct English, per se, but it’s also not difficult to understand.

Example sentences:

この商品のリニュアルのパワーアップした点を教えてください。 Please share with us the “powered-up” points for the product revamp.

この部分の材質を変更することによって、全体的にコストダウンできました。 By changing the material of this part, on the whole, we were able to “cost down” (the product).

値段がより高いものを買ってもらって、お客様のランクアップを狙っています。 By introducing a higher price product, we aim to “rank up” our customers.

この商品の評価がよいので、生産数量アップします。 Since the product is well-received, we want to “up” the production quantities.

Up and down are extremely versatile suffixes. Use them liberally. By the way, if you want to ask someone to slow down, “slow down” is not correct. It should be “speed-down.”

#4 “SNS” (social network service)

SNS, short for social network service, is not commonly used in the Anglosphere. Social media is usually the preferred term, but in Japan, the term that has stuck is SNS.

I think the reason is that SNS is easier to say in Japanese than social media. Again, like in “risuke” for rescheduling, we see the tendency for Japanese people to prefer contracting foreign loan words.

#5 “Talent” (or tarento)

No, tarento (or talent) is not your HR department’s favorite word.

Neither does it mean an aptitude in a certain skill like playing the piano with your feet, or being able to juggle 12 oranges at the same time.

Tarento is a rather vague category of TV personalities who tend to appear on Japanese variety programs. They may also be models but are usually not very well-known celebrities.

Speaking of celebrity, there’s also a similar word セレブ(serebu), which comes from the English word “celebrity.” In English, a celebrity traditionally refers to a person made famous through the mass media — including movie stars, musicians, athletes, and so on.

Not so in Japanese, especially in recent usage. Serebu has drifted to refer to describing people who are not necessarily famous but are wealthy, elegant, and live a luxurious lifestyle of expensive taste.

It’s more used as an adjective rather than a noun, and you can describe people as being “serebu.”

Example sentence:

あの人はセレブな生活をしているね。

That person lives a “celeb” lifestyle.

#6 “Kosupa” (from “cost-performance)

“Cost-performance,” meaning cost-to-performance ratio, often shortened (again!) to just “cosupa” is a word you’ll come across very often in Japan.

With the Japanese yen plunging to new lows against other currencies and raising the cost of imported goods, no wonder it’s on the mind of more and more Japanese people

As for me, I’m always on the lookout for a good deal. Good value for money. High-quality products that are reasonably priced. If you’re like me, and you ever want to search for a high-quality product without breaking the bank or paying for unnecessary branding, it’s a word that will come in handy.

Example sentence:

この自転車のコスパが最強。品質高いのに1万円で買えた！/ This bicycle has the most amazing “kosupa” (cost-performance). The quality is great and yet I was able to buy it for 10,000 yen!

Want to discover more “English” words used differently in Japan? Here are five more English words with surprisingly different meanings.

English, re-purposed by Japan

So, what’s going on with all these “English” words in Japan?

It’s a recurring pattern we see happening over and over again in Japanese culture. The Japanese first absorb Chinese characters and use them to read Japanese words.

Later, they also assign entirely new meanings to some, whilst creating completely new characters that don’t exist in China (known as kokuji, or wasei-kanji). Some of these words with new meanings are then later re-absorbed back into Chinese.

As I wrote in a previous article, The Essence of Japanese Culture: An Intense Obsession with Form?

“Japan has traditionally adopted things or concepts — “forms” from abroad and used them or modified them if they fit their needs — be they Chinese characters, Western suits, American denim, or English words.”

Traditionalists often decry the excessive English words that have made their way into the Japanese language. But the fact is, the Japanese language has always been fluid, its boundaries porous. Today, only 33.8% of the Japanese language is considered “native” to Japan.

If you’re studying Japanese, my advice to you is to think of these “English words” as Japanese words with English roots — much like how “temporal” is an English word with Latin roots. If you’re just an etymology geek, you’ve come to the right place. Study Japanese — and you’ll find that the rabbit hole can go very deep.

To learn more about the relationship between Japan and English, please check out the list below.

©Alvin T. 2024

Interested in Japan, Japanese culture, or the Japanese language? Follow me! I write frequently about Japan-related topics on Japonica, where I am also an editor. Discover my most-read stories here.