Comments on: Dead words from the 70s and 80s in Japan

By: akane

akane — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:21:17 +0000

Funny, interesting!:D
LOL @ ベルサッサ

By: Sandra

Sandra — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:06:24 +0000

Interesting list! The only one I learned in the course of normal conversation was パンピー, though I’d heard a few of the others – imai, hanakin, and of course, Christmas cake. I wonder if they have a little more staying power in rural areas?

By: wintersweet

wintersweet — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:03:09 +0000

I’m glad you translated this and that “Christmas cake” is on there–I get the feeling that it’s a real eye-roller among current Japanese, but it is still commonly promoted in English-language literature about sexism in Japan and/or about wasei eigo (Japan-made English phrases). Many lists and books of “Japanese slang” are horribly outdated.

By: bingobangoboy

bingobangoboy — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:41:09 +0000

Ha! ベルサッサ… Someone told me about that term about 6 years ago, when I was new to Japan. Since it was possibly the first slang I knew, I wrote it down and of course I tried to be “cool” by using it whenever I could. Of course, nobody knew what I was talking about. I’d forgotten all about it, but at least now I know I wasn’t crazy.
Yeah, クリスマスカーキ is one of those staple Japanese cultural factoids constantly recycled in amateur rhetoric about Japan. I think it sounds as weird to contemporary Japanese as it does to bright-eyed foreigners. File under “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”
(FWIW, the average age of marriage for women in Japan has been over 25 since the 70s)

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:12:47 +0000

I’m surprised, you didn’t know クリスマスケーキ? That was the only one on this list that I had heard of, I thought it was still a semi-common word.