＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・最近の役職名・肩書は英語の略語や長い英語と日本語の混合など意味不明語が多い
As someone who has completely retired from salaried work, this is completely irrelevant to me, but I feel that recently, job titles and positions in companies, research institutions, and universities are often “English abbreviations,” “long English phrases written directly in katakana,” or “Japanese phrases that are difficult to understand.”
In the past, company executives had simple and clear titles such as “President,” “Vice President,” “Senior Managing Director,” “Managing Director,” “Regular Director,” and “Auditor,” while university executives had titles like “Professor,” “Associate Professor,” and “Lecturer.” There were also honorary titles such as “Chairman” and “Professor Emeritus.”
1. “English Abbreviations”
(1) CEO: Chief Executive Officer
(2) COO: Chief Operating Officer
(3) CFO: Chief Financial Officer
(4) CJO: Chief Legal Officer
(5) CMO: Chief Marketing Officer
(6) CIO: Chief Information Officer
(7) CTO: Chief Technology Officer
2. Examples include “long mixes of English and Japanese” and “English words written directly in katakana.”
There’s a rakugo (traditional Japanese comic storytelling) story called “Jugemu.” It’s a humorous tale about a parent who gives their newborn child an incredibly long name, hoping that the child will be healthy and live a long life.
Jugemu, Jugemu, Gokou no Surikire, Kaijarisuigyo no, Suigyoumatsu, Unraimatsu, Fuuraimatsu, Kuuneru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro, Yaburakoji no Yaburakoji, Paipo Paipo Paipo no Shuringan, Shuringan no Gurindai, Gurindai no Ponpokopī no Ponpokonna no Chōkyūmei, Chōkyūmei no Chōsuke
寿限無（じゅげむ）、寿限無、五劫（ごこう）の擦（す）り切れ、海砂利水魚（かいじゃりすいぎょ）の、水行末（すいぎょうまつ）・雲来末（うんらいまつ）・風来末（ふうらいまつ）、喰（く）う寝る処に住む処、藪（やぶ）ら柑子（こうじ）の藪（ぶら）柑子、パイポ・パイポ・パイポのシューリンガン、シューリンガンのグーリンダイ、グーリンダイのポンポコピーのポンポコンナの長久命（ちょうきゅうめい）、長久命の長助（ちょうすけ）
While not as extreme as the legendary Japanese tale “Jugemu,” I’m not particularly impressed by overly long job titles and positions.
(1) “Deputy Section Manager, XX, Corporate Communications & XXXXX Division”
(2) “Executive Officer, Head of Consumer Business Division, Product & Marketing Division, Mobile Business Promotion Division, Head of Consumer Business Division, Product & Marketing Division, Product Division, Deputy Head of New Business Development Office, Consumer Business Division, Product & Marketing Division, and Head of Global Business Development Office, New Business Development Office, Consumer Business Division, Product & Marketing Division”
This title has 159 characters, but at this point, it’s completely meaningless.
This is a “real-life example” from SoftBank, when they changed the duties of one of their executive officers on December 1st, 2017, on November 30th.
Furthermore, this job title exceeds the number of characters in “Jugemu.”
(3) Team Leader: “Leader of a project team, etc.” or “Leader of each team.”
(4) Fellow: “Researcher at a research institute.”
(5) Manager: “Department head” or “Deputy department head.”
(6) Officer: “Manager at the section chief level.”
3. Japanese that is difficult to understand
(1) Executive Officer
“Directors” are members of the company’s highest decision-making body and management team, and they make decisions on important matters and policies. They have a fiduciary relationship with the company and are always subject to dismissal.
In contrast, “executive officers” are employees of the company and work to implement the decisions made by the directors.
(2) Associate Professor/Assistant Professor
In the past, the hierarchy was “Professor” followed by “Assistant Professor” and “Lecturer,” but recently the titles “Associate Professor” and “Assistant Professor” have become more common.
In fact, the “Assistant Professor” position was abolished with the 2007 amendment to the “School Education Act.” The current hierarchy is “Professor,” “Associate Professor,” “Lecturer,” “Assistant Professor,” and “Assistant.” “Associate Professor” corresponds to the former “Assistant Professor.”
(3) Specially Appointed Professor/Specially Appointed Associate Professor
These are appointed in connection with specific fields of expertise, types of activities, or university-wide projects, and are generally not regular university faculty members with continuous employment.
4. The Right Direction for the Future
Beyond job titles and positions, it seems that recently there’s been an increase in “katakana words”—words that are simply English words transliterated into katakana, such as stakeholder, assessment, pandemic, cluster, overshoot, and lockdown.
While this trend has the advantage of familiarizing people with English, I believe it also has the drawback of making it difficult for the general public to understand the meaning.
(1) Efforts to Create New “Japanese-Made Chinese Words” or “New Chinese Words”
During the Meiji era, Japan promoted a “Westernization policy,” actively absorbing and incorporating Western learning, culture, and artifacts from civilized nations. Within this context, many words were created that were “translated into Japanese” from English and German.
The word “philosophy” (哲学) is a neologism coined by Nishi Amane (1829-1897), an Enlightenment thinker from the late Edo period to the early Meiji era, who translated “Philosophy” into Japanese. This is what is called a “Japanese-Made Chinese Word” or “New Chinese Word.”
Besides these, there are many other words that are commonly used today, such as “science,” “postal service,” “freedom,” “idea,” “welfare,” “revolution,” “consciousness,” “right-wing,” “movement,” “class,” “communism,” “republic,” “left-wing,” “unrequited love,” “evolution,” “kiss,” “materialism,” and “people.”
「和製漢語」あるいは「新漢語」は、このほかにも、「科学」「郵便」「自由」「観念」「福祉」「革命」「意識」「右翼」「運動」「階級」「共産主義」「共和」「左翼」「失恋」「進化」「接吻」「唯物論」「人民」など現在普通に使われている言葉がたくさんあります。
I think these are quite well thought out. Thanks to the efforts of many people who painstakingly created such words during the Meiji era, we can immediately understand their meaning today.
I believe we should strive to create “Japanese-made Chinese words and new Chinese words for the Reiwa era.”
(2) Efforts by industry, experts, the media, and the government to standardize and create a common language for new “translations”
Several translations will likely emerge, but I believe it’s necessary to strive to establish and standardize a common term that gains the support of the majority.
(3) Effort to include the Japanese translation in parentheses when using “katakana words”
Furthermore, if you absolutely must use “katakana words,” I believe you should make an effort to include the standardized, common Japanese translation in parentheses.
Specifically, it would look something like this:
Stakeholders, strategy, compliance, harassment, literacy, diversity, sustainability (environmental, social, and economic aspects), legacy, agenda, alliance, assessment, paradigm, momentum (market trends, etc.), volatility (degree of price fluctuation), primary balance, on-demand, pandemic, cluster, overshoot, lockdown
ステークホルダー（利害関係者）、ストラテジー（戦略）、コンプライアンス（法令遵守）、ハラスメント（嫌がらせ）、リテラシー（知識応用力）、ダイバーシティ（人材多様化）、サステナビリティ（環境・社会・経済の三つの観点からの持続可能性）、レガシー（遺産）、アジェンダ（政策課題）、アライアンス（提携）、アセスメント（事前影響評価）、パラダイム（規範。共通の思考パターン）、モメンタム（相場などの勢い）、ボラティリティー（価格変動の度合い）、プライマリーバランス（基礎的財政収支）、オンデマンド（要求・需要に応じて）、パンデミック（感染症の世界的大流行）、クラスター（感染者集団）、オーバーシュート（感染爆発/爆発的患者急増）、ロックダウン（都市封鎖）