Introduction

           Our team for this project consisted of Elaine Sun, Nobuki Yaso, Myquel Zimmerman, Shiyuan Wang, and Steven Shinmachi. In our project, we analyzed the differences between the use of gendered speech between two characters from the same anime. In order to make things simple, our group decided to choose an anime that we have all watched before so that everyone would have some knowledge of the characters we wanted to cover. While brainstorming together, we ultimately decided upon One Piece as the anime we wanted to analyze. After looking up all the characters that appeared in the anime, we settled on two of the main characters, “Nami” and “Nico Robin”. We settled on these characters because they were both very unique and very distinct from each other. After deciding on the characters, using both the anime and the manga, we researched scenes we thought would be perfect for our analysis.

One Piece is an anime that follows the adventure of Money D. Luffy, a boy who has gained the power of rubber by eating the Devil’s Fruit, a fruit that gives one special abilities and powers. Leaving his hometown, he forms his own pirate crew called the Straw Hat Pirates and travels around the world in search of the ultimate treasure called the One Piece. 

Nami 

Nami, also known as “Cat Burglar” Nami, is the navigator and the third member of the Straw Hat Pirates. As a young child, Nami and her sister were orphaned due to a war and were taken in by a female Marine, Bell-mere. Bell-mere took them back to her home village where she adopted and raised them. It was there that Nami discovered her passion for map making and would spend her free times drawing maps of the island and city. 

Unfortunately, a pirate crew attacked Bell-mere’s hometown and killed her, kidnapping Nami in the process and being forced to become the cartographer. In the process Arlong, the head of the pirate crew that attacked Bell-mere’s town, struck a deal with Nami, where he could eventually free the town if she would be able to pay the price. It was with this pirate crew that Nami was stuck with for many years, trying to pay off her debt, until Luffy encountered her in one of his journeys. Learning about her struggle, Luffy fights Arlong’s pirate crew and wins, freeing the town and gaining Nami as crewmate. Together, they explored the world together in search of the One Piece. 

Analysis – Nami

  As one of the most famous female characters in One Piece, Nami has distinctive characteristics. Her speaking style is one thing that makes her impressive to the audience. In anime and comic books, her speaking style is mixed with both feminine and masculine styles. She usually speaks casually and energetically. When she’s joking with her friends or talking to enemies, she uses masculine style mainly. From her speaking, we can tell that she’s aggressive, brave, and cheerful.

   There are a lot of examples of Nami’s masculine speaking style. The two most frequent masculine words she uses are “おまえ” and “あんた” when she’s calling others, which mean “You” and “You guys”. Compare to “あなた” and “あなたたち” for females to use, these are the two words considered as male language. Also, there are other examples like “この” and ”あいつ”. These words are very casual and sometimes could be considered as rude. Calling friends by “おまえ” and “あんた” shows that she has a strong and good relationship with her friends. When she’s using such words to enemies, it shows that she’s brave and strong. Nowadays, there are many girls in Japan who also use such words to call others. Many people think it’s a way for girls to show their strong relationships with their friends. Using masculine words can make their characteristics brighter and make them seem easy going. Some young girls believe that using feminine language all the time would be too polite and that builds distance and boundaries between them and their close friends.

   Also, let’s look at other uses of language in Nami’s speaking. Nami uses commanding language a lot. For example, she uses “やめろ”, ”起きろ”, and ”いこう” to command people to do or not to do something. Straight commanding language is used by males as a language standard. Females always try to avoid speaking in that style. In feminine language standard, females should say those three words as “やめてください”, ”起きてください”, and ”行きましょう” instead. Using masculine style to command people shows Nami’s aggressive and “bossy” characteristic. Also, through her speaking style, we can know that she wants to be strong and independent. In reality, girls who use masculine commanding languages might be considered as sharp and rude. But it has become better today. In today’s society, depending on the situation, girls who speak with this style would be considered as strong, powerful, and dominant in a positive way.

   Finally, let’s look at sentence enders. Surprisingly, Nami uses feminine enders in her speaking. The enders she always use are “のよ”, ”よね”, and ”わよ”, which are typical enders of feminine enders. From this we can see that though Nami has a very strong male-like characteristic, she still holds a girl part in her soul, and she knows how to be gentle and soft. This makes her character vivid. 

 Nico Robin

Nico Robin was born into a family of archaeologists but was abandoned by her parents as they explored the world in search of its true history. Robin was left in the car of her aunt and uncle, where she was both verbally and physically abused. And with her powers from the Devil’s fruit, she was often neglected and shunned, thus spent much of her time reading books and talking to the scholars at the Tree of Knowledge, which was a hub to archaeologists around the world . 

At the age of 8, she aced the archaeology exam and became a scholar, but was shunned as well when the other scholars discovered her desire to follow in her mother’s footsteps and discover the true history of the world. Robin, upset at the scholar’s harsh reactions, ran away, only to discover that the Tree of Knowledge was going to be attacked and burned by the Marines due to the secrets it held. She returned, trying to warn the scholars but it was too late. The Tree of Knowledge, along with all the scholars in it, were burned to ash. Devastated, she escaped on a raft built by one of the scholars, and was on the run for over 20 years as the Marines blamed Nami for the death of the scholars and the burning of the Tree of Knowledge. 

Over the next 20 years, Robin would meet a variety of people, but because of the bounty placed on her head by the World Government, who was in charge of the Marines, each person she met would try to turn her in. She joined a variety of organizations, such a pirate crew or underground criminal organizations, and used them to help her discover the true history of the world. It was during her adventures that she encountered the Straw Hat Pirates and decided that she wanted to join their crew. She convinced them to allow her to be a crewmate, although it did take a while for her to gain their trust.   

Analysis – Nico Robin 

          In regard to gender-related language use, Nico Robin can most often be characterized as staying within Japanese perceptions of ideal femininity. In the context of the anime, Robin (as she’s most commonly referred) speaks in a calm, casual tone that is accentuated by her identifiably lady-like voice. This, coupled with her choice in descriptive words and sentence enders creates an image of an intelligent and collected woman with a strong sense that she’s in control of the situations she places herself in. 

          Within Japanese entertainment culture, as we also see in American culture, character construction has a certain dependence on the content contained within what the characters say. It is important to note that Robin is most often a quiet character. However, when she does speak, it is usually substantive, a verbal play on the current situation (sarcasm), and contains words that may not otherwise be said by the rest of the cast. “Words” in this sense is reflected well in the manga, as we see a larger presence of kanji-based words as opposed to the other characters. When contrasting the anime with the manga and how the character is visually presented as a personality, we acknowledge the authors attempt to portray her as intelligent. From the perspective of the manga, the perception of a larger vocabulary gives credence to her confidently intelligent personality. In this front, we find words such as: ご苦労様 (ごくろうさま), 物騒 (ぶっそう), and 直径 (ちょっけい). Her word usage sets her aside distinctly from her counterparts.

          We also find character identification factors in Robin’s use of sentence-enders. Within the Japanese language and society, these sentence-enders are often cited as gender identification markers or have the ability to give an idea of the personality of the speaker. In Robin’s case, she most often sticks with the classical presentation of female gender identifiers in sentence-enders. We see her utilizing neutral identifiers, such as ”みたいね”, but rarely any usage of typically male patterns. To further present her femininity, the authors give her lines such as “言ったわよね”. In this example, ”-わよね” acts as a clear marker for Robin’s speech and how she is presented to the world.  Other examples of this type of language use follow: “借りてるわ”, “とってね”, and “あるかしら”. This being her typical language use, we find that Robin’s character is intended to be portrayed as a woman within the cultural bounds of the accepted and predominant Japanese society.

Data

     Throughout One Piece, Nami has used a masculine tone when communicating and interacting with other characters, especially towards men. When talking to her crewmates who are mostly men, she usually is very assertive and somewhat aggressive towards them. Picking scenes throughout the manga, we see Nami refer to other characters, mainly male, as “あんた”. She also ends her sentences in a very masculine tone, as for example she uses ”乗ってりゃいい”and ”知ってんの”; in a feminine tone, it would be “乗ってていい” and ”知ってるの”. These masculine traits throughout her speech however come from her background, as she grew up being forced to be on a pirate crew and went through numerous traumatic events as a young girl. Along with this, her crew also consists of 7 guys and 2 girls, which also can be a reason why she uses masciline tones towards them. Nami also is very good with manipulation and getting certains things out or from people, as she has had to do this numerous times to try and make money when she was younger. Because of this, Nami does not always use a masculine tone, as she may use a feminie tone to act cute in order to get certain things from someone. 

      Robin is the opposite of Nami, as she is very respectful in her speech when interacting with her crewmatres and other characters throughout the story. When talking to her crewmates, she usually refers them with あなた, and ends her sentences using かしら showing the respectful and feminine tone in her speech. Robin also tends to end her sentences with “ね” or “わよ”, which are two feminine traits in a speech. The reason why Robin is so respectful and feminine in her speech also comes from her background in archeology and the people she grew up with, as they were all considered to be very educated and were in somewhat of a “higher class”. Compared to Nami when she is mad, Robin almost never uses any masculine tone, and is always calm but somewhat passive aggressive.

*The following are further examples of language use within the manga for reference: 

Conclusion

      As detailed in the language use of Nico Robin and Nami, we find similarities in the use of designated feminine gender features. However, notable differences arise between the two when conducting an in-depth analysis on language features or observing presented personality traits. As noted, Nami is characterized as using commanding, masculine language in many of her encounters (e.g. あいつ、おまえ、やめろ). In contrast, Robin gives off the essence of command while maintaining general feminine language features (e.g. わ、かしら). Nami exemplifies similar characteristics but has frequent moments enough for her characterization to come off as masculine, abrupt, and outside of the societal standard of femininity. She does utilize feminine sentence-enders at times, but within multiple scenes throughout the series is scripted for use with masculine abruptness and brash language. This gives her a certain personality appeal that we don’t see with Robin. Robin largely differs in the combination of her language use, demeanor and consistent operation within the bounds of feminine sentence-enders. Her appeal is toward an intelligent and composed personality type, something the authors clearly tried to portray in the use of her language. Plainly, though Nami and Robin have common ground in language use, we find drastic differences in vocabulary, inflection, and sentence-ending particles. These characteristics solidify their clear personality differences by reinforcing their demeanors with choice language that is often stereotyped with said demeanors. In this regard, we find that the authors effectively utilize demeanor in combination with gender specific language to give the audience nuance, context and the aforementioned features as tools of classifying these women in their intended but disparate gender roles, or lack thereof. 

Introduction

The group members for this project are Madi Collins, Kathryn Tucker, Kieran Hanks, and Seiji Furukawa.

We chose to analyze two distinctly different characters from the anime Little Witch Academia (リトルウィッチアカデミア). This project examines the usage of gendered features by these two: Amanda (アマンダ; pictured below, left) and Akko (アッコ; pictured below, right).

Methodology

We focused on and transcribed in their entirety Episodes 5 and 12, which center on both those characters respectively. We analyzed Episode 5 for gender usage by Amanda, and we analyzed Episode 12 for gender usage by Akko. We divided the work evenly, so each group member transcribed one half of an episode. Potential gendered features were identified and highlighted, and then compiled into a spreadsheet. The distribution of features were visualized in pie charts, to show what parts of speech gendered features seem to be primarily realized.

Initially, we suspected that Amanda would use many masculine language features, as she comes off as more of a tomboy. We decided that Akko would provide a good baseline of comparison, as she is the anime’s main character, and would give us a lot of data to work with. She also seemed to be more neutral of a character. Both of these assumptions were correct, and the data that we collected allowed us to analyze the characters and their language more deeply.

In Episode 5, Akko and Amanda get detention for misbehaving in class. The episode follows the development of an emergency at the academy when the source of magic is removed by an angry dragon. Akko and her friends depart on a quest to get it back, while also abandoning their detention cleaning duties.

In the other episode we transcribed, Episode 12, the students are preparing for the Samhain Festival, and Akko describes how badly she wants to win the title of “Moonlight Witch” at the festival. As preparations are being made, Akko accidentally changes her appearance into that of her rival, Diana, and has to go about parts of her day masquerading as Diana. As the requests for the talented Diana pile up, Akko finds herself unable to handle them, and is eventually found out by Diana herself.

Analysis and Discussion – AMANDA アマンダ

In both episodes, we saw heavy usage of masculine language from Amanda, also evidenced in the above  pie chart. Among her group of friends she used extremely masculine language features, such as changing endings from 「ない」to 「ねえ」. These features demonstrate that she portrays herself as an assertive, confrontational person, and we can start to see these portrayed language traits as being part of her personality in the beginning of episode 5. In the episode, Amanda and Akko have a fight, where they quickly alternate saying much of the same thing. However, the nouns and particles used differ drastically, with Akko sticking to 「あんたーよ」 (notice the lack of だ) and Amanda using the hyper-degrading おまえ, but realizing it as 「おめえーだよ」. Amanda’s use of command form (ex: 「隠れろ」、「みろ」) is also very striking as no other character in this episode uses command form quite the same way; it comes off as excessively direct. From this context and the language that Amanda uses throughout each of these episodes, it becomes clear that Amanda asserts herself both linguistically and personality-wise through the usage of masculine language features. It is interesting to note how Amanda’s usage of hyper-casual male speech expresses a degree of psychological distance between her and her peers, as casual speech usually expresses less psychological distance when used within the peer group. This psychological distance effect  is usually achieved through using more polite language, and Amanda employing hyper-casual male speech results in an additional level of abrasiveness. From this, one can see that Amanda both asserts and creates a distanced and masculine construction of herself through the usage of more aggressive language. In doing this, she sets herself apart from all of the other girls at the academy and creates a more individualized, masculine personality.

Below are the spreadsheets of all times that gendered language was used by Amanda in Episode 5:

Analysis and Discussion – AKKO アッコ

The above pie chart shows that Akko used mostly gendered nouns, and expressions. She mainly used nouns such as 「あたし」and 「あんた」when referring to herself and others. These types of expressions show how Akko feminizes herself and her friends. As Akko goes to an all-girls school, this feminization makes sense as she is constantly among female peers, and it also may help Akko to fit in among the other witches. We also saw a large amount of gendered expressions, as Akko used 「でしょ」or 「でしょう」quite frequently. While these may be considered neutral expressions in some contexts, Akko uses them quite frequently, and to express uncertainty that is similar to the unassertiveness of Japanese feminine language. These expressions further displayed Akko’s usage of feminine speech and her characterization of a more feminine girl. Akko’s gender expression is explored more deeply below, and we are able to see how relationships and context impact Akko’s gender expression. 

Within both of these episodes, one can see that Akko uses more feminine or gender-neutral language. We see Akko using more feminine language among her peers, and she tends to use more neutral language (sometimes masculine) with her professors. This may be due to the fact that her relationship with her friends is more casual, and doesn’t mind as coming across as unassertive or more feminine to her friends. However, she may want her teachers to view her as stronger, or more capable so she tends to use more direct and assertive language with them. In episode 12, we saw Akko using the masculine sentence ender 「な」in the presence of one of her teachers, and this may have been done to appear more confident in her abilities. Akko has large goals for herself, and she may want to be taken more seriously in their eyes so she might use more neutral language to convey this message to them. 

During the second half of episode 12 of Little Witch Academia, Akko spends a good portion of it appearing as her classmate, Diana, caused by an enchantment cast on her by a magic mirror. As such, many of Akko’s classmates mistake her for Diana, and so Akko must pretend to be Diana to prevent suspicion. Akko adopts what she believes to be Diana’s speech habits, and speaks in a formal (but highly-feminine) manner, utilizing the 「わ」 and 「わね」 particles at the ends of her sentences and using a mix of casual and formal speech (for example, using 「でしょう」 instead of 「だろう」). In the previous episode our group analyzed (episode 5), it was also interesting to discover that Akko uses 「でしょう」 multiple times in that episode, but in episode 12, she mostly used it when she was under the appearance of Diana. In fact, there was a scene towards the end of the episode where, after Akko had returned to her normal self, she actually used the informal, more masculine-sounding 「だろう」 a couple of times. However she did not use it in the presence of her peers, but when she was speaking with a professor. This is further evidence of our theory that Akko tends to use less formal, more neutral/masculine speech in order to create a more confident/direct persona around her professors, but uses more relaxed, feminine language around her peers. It was also interesting to note that there was a particular scene in this episode where it seemed that Akko forgot that she had the Diana spell cast on her. In this scene, Akko accidentally says 「あたくし」, rather than the proper 「わたくし」, which is a formal gender-neutral pronoun. As we all know, 「あたし」 is a highly-feminine pronoun used mostly by Japanese females in casual situations, achieved by dropping the “w” sound in 「わ」.  Throughout the anime, Akko uses this pronoun most often when referring to herself. But what Akko did in this scene, under the illusion of Diana, is accidentally combine the formal speech pattern that Diana uses with the feminine speech habits that Akko herself uses to create 「あたくし」, a pronoun that you would never use because it combines both formal and informal elements. We thought that this was an interesting, yet odd, mashup. Akko messing up her speech is evidence of her struggle to convincingly act like Diana so that her classmates do not suspect her.

Below are the spreadsheets of all times that gendered language was used by Akko in Episode 12:

Conclusion

Overall, both Akko and Amanda used gendered language more when with their peers than anywhere else. In many of Amanda’s utterances, she used extremely masculine language around her peers to set herself apart from the other girls at the academy, while Akko tended to use more feminine language to seemingly fit in with the other witches. In this context, they are on opposite ends of the spectrum, as one is trying to fit in while the other is trying to stand out. Akko is a character who has big goals and dreams for herself as a witch, and in this way, she tries to fit in with the other witches to excel. She also uses more neutral language around her professors, in order to seem more serious, confident, and professional. Appearing this way to professors would also help her to excel as a witch, as they are more likely to take her seriously and provide her with new challenges. Unfortunately, we do not get to see many interactions with Amanda and her professors, and can only analyze her language based off of peer interactions. In short, Akko used mostly feminine and neutral language to characterize herself, while Amanda used masculine language to do so; this in turn created personalities that allowed Akko to fit in and be perceived as more teachable, while Amanda’s allowed her to stand out as different from the other witches.

Introduction & Context

For this project, I(Julian Nassar) decided to focus on a topic that has always been a personal interest to me, meditation! I know how important spirituality and thoughtfulness are tied to Japanese history and culture and I wanted to take this opportunity to examine how meditation is viewed through a more critical and comfortable means. To that end, one article I chose is a self-meditation guide and is a much softer, friendly approach as it goes through meditation exercises for you to follow along with. The second article however is a more critical analysis of the benefits and usefulness of meditation for a business-minded individual and how that can be incorporated into a daily work-life schedule and the scientific benefits meditation can provide for the salaryman/woman and what overall benefits the exercises can do for better mindfulness and mentality. I thought this contrast of beginner’s introductory class to meditation and a more analytical article would be good for a language comparison in the vocabulary and diction used throughout. Let’s find out if I was correct!

The first is from Satori Reader, a website catering to many forms of media, stories, articles, and other things, but ultimately serves as a language shadowing website. With it, those looking to brush up on their Japanese skills can array a wide variety of media resources to practice pronunciation, dialect, vocabulary, and other speaking skills with live native audio. The article I specifically chose was an introductory lesson to begin understanding how to practice basic mediation skills. As a result, this article focuses much more on the repetition of more words that are verbs or actions and has a very serene and airy quality to the language used. The second article is from a website called dime.jp, which is also a multi-media article website that caters to all sorts of genres of media from technology to lifestyle, business, money, or just general news information, dime.jp caters to all. The website down to its basic color themes is much more serious in it’s application to Satori Reader, the main colors of the website being dark greys, black and white. However, what I do find interesting is that even though the level of text is much more varied in its content and skill level for clarity and understanding.

Materials and Analysis

This meditation lesson is clearly catered towards Japanese readers/listeners as it is almost exclusively hiragana and Kanji, and the complexity is kept to a minimum in order to be more inviting to a wider audience as an introductory class. As such most of the language is native Japanese words and most of the Sino-Japanese words are commonplace enough that most learning the language would be able to distinguish them easily enough. The article itself has a high concentration of verbs, almost all exclusively Native Japanese. I believe this is intentional to promote a relaxed comfortable atmosphere that can be enjoyed by as many as possible. SJ words have a tendency to denote a state of seriousness and intensity that can be intimidating to find yourself in the middle of and given that this article is an introductory lesson into actually practicing meditation, I believe the simplified language plays to the strength of the audience the lesson is trying to reach. There was an absence of English words and seldom any Foreign Loan words as to indicate that this meditation was solely Japanese focused and not necessarily intended for an international audience, but given the nature of SatoriReader, it is accessible to almost anyone with a basic understanding of HIragana thanks to the accessible translation and definition software built into understanding the kanji throughout the lesson. It was surprising to observe as many kanji as there were in the article but many of them were immediately identifiable by the て form, as most of the verbs were directions to follow along with the lesson like with 吸って, 集中してみて, and so on.

The article from dime.jp had much more variation in the type of words displayed, including more loan words and even minimal use of English words in reference to major internet websites. Seeing as this website caters to a much larger and broader audience than Satori Reader, it makes sense that the end result is a wider net of language and words captured throughout the article. Sino-Japanese words are much more dominant in this article due to the fact that it is trying to convey scientific research about the long-term benefits of meditation as well as what it can do for those in the workplace. As discussed earlier, SJ words have an impartial, serious tonal shift in them that cues the reader into the facts and information being given out throughout the article. Words like 研究結果, 解放され, and 提唱 denote the academic background that is appropriate for the business-like conversation of which SJ vocabulary is both preferred and somewhat expected. However this article does use some words in hiragana instead of kanji such as さまざまな and ところ, and also even uses the English words for major companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, and Google. I believe this usage of English was intentional in order to really get readers to hone in on the fact that these major companies who are successful are proponents of the idea of mindfulness that is the root of why the expert argues meditation is recommended for a better emotional state and performance in the workplace.

Summary

Comparing and contrasting these two articles regarding the topic of meditation has illustrated to me just how wide a difference they can make it target audiences and overall mood and atmosphere that aligns with the website branding. Satori reader encourages simplistic vocabulary that aligns with their teaching and learning focus and the meditative lesson there imposes succinct, easy to understand exercises and questions using predominantly NJ words in order to be accessible and promote a light and airy feeling that is conducive to the meditation environment. In contrast, the dime.jp article focuses on SJ vocabulary to conform with its more serious color palette, and the fact that the article in question is appealing to those of the salaryman/salary woman industry is reflected in the vocabulary used that that audience would respond to with. Cleverly using foreign loan words and even English words to key readers into important points and reinforcing their advice with the serious SJ vocabulary to denote the scientifically researched benefits meditation has to offer was an amazing experience to research. Japanese advertisers and website creators pay careful attention to detail, diction, and syntax in the creation of everything they do and the words chosen will reflect the audience they are trying to receive!

Introduction

Our team for this project was Nobuki Yaso, Ying, Sharon Sherpa, and Gabrielle Sarao

Methodology

The goal of this project was to compare and contrast two different Japanese websites and see the different types of vocabulary each utilized to effectively convey information to their intended audience. In analyzing the websites differences, we hoped to better understand each portrayed a different imagine to their intended audience

To pick out websites that we wanted to analyze, we first chose a category that seemed to interest everyone in the group. For our group, after much debate, we chose museums in Japan as our main category. To find different museum websites, we searched up a list of museums in Japan, looked at their websites, and picked the two we felt had very different writing styles and vocabulary choices. The two amusement parks we chose were the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo and the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama.

Ghibli Museum: http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/exhibition/

Cup Noodle Museum: https://www.cupnoodles-museum.jp/ja/yokohama/about/

The Ghibili Museum webpage we chose describes one of the exhibitions that opened at the museum and details the heart behind why this exhibit was chosen. In it, we see that this exhibition is all about the work behind the museum’s creation along with Miyazaki’s pictures and text that helped shape the museum to what it is today. At first glance, we can see a lot of kanji being used, with much 和語 and 漢語 being used. We will go further in our analysis in the next few paragraphs.

The Cup Noodle Museum webpage we chose also goes into the background of the museum’s creation, as we see why this museum was created, as well as the intent for this museum. In this web page, we learn about Momofuku Ando, the founder of instant ramen, and also see how the cup noodle and cup ramen creation came to be. At first glance, we see a lot of 和語 and 外来語 being used, and in the next few paragraphs, we will focus on how both web pages utilize the three different types of words (漢語、和語、外来語）to create a certain image to target their audience.

Materials

漢語　　green.     和語.   Yellow.          外来語.   red

三鷹の森ジブリ美術館企画展示

『手描き、ひらめき、おもいつき』展 ～ジブリの森のスケッチブックから～

Ghibli

11月16日から、新しい企画展示「手描き、ひらめき、おもいつき」展を開催いたします。

2001年10月に開館した三鷹の森ジブリ美術館は、準備期間を含めると既に20年以上の歳月を経たことになります。

その間一貫して、”お客様に面白いものを提供し、楽しんでいただく”という考えのもと、建物を建て、展示物をコツコツと作り続けてきました。

本展示ではその作業の内容を、宮崎駿監督自身の描いた絵や文章でご紹介いたします。

企画展示室・第一室では、第一回目の企画展示『千と千尋の神隠し』を皮切りにして、宮崎監督が携わった企画展示について紹介します。アニメーション作品の制作の合間を縫うようにして生み出し心血を注いだ企画が、何を考え、どの様な想いで修正し、より伝えたいものにどのように近づけていったのか。その創作の過程と、込められた想いを当時描いたスケッチや集めた資料などを展示しご紹介します。

諦めずに粘りながら試行錯誤を続ける作業もあれば、あっけらかんと、意表を突く “ひらめき”や”おもいつき”で苦難を切り抜けていたことがみてとれる資料もあります。創作は苦しいだけのものではなく、面白おかしく作られていることも感じ取っていただけることでしょう。

第二室では、スタジオジブリが美術館を作ろうと思い立った経緯や、生まれた数々のアイデアが描きとめられたイメージボードを展示します。加えて、設計図面までにも修正を入れる宮崎監督の建物への思い入れが見て取れる図面も初公開いたします。更に、完成したジブリ美術館の各階層が一目瞭然で分かる立体模型も設置し、構想段階のイメージボードと現在の完成した姿が見比べられるようになっています。

2階ギャラリーでは、オリジナル短編映画作品の展示ために描いた数々の絵を展示します。さらに、子どもたちに人気の”こねこバス”に乗った気分になれる展示物も置かれます。

アニメーション映画の制作だけでなく、漫画も描き、建物や空間のデザインも行い、さらに展示物の提案も行う宮崎監督。

本展示からそのさまざまな仕事の根底にある考え方や作業手順が、映画制作の過程と全く変わらないことを発見できるのではないでしょうか。ぜひ、お楽しみください。

Cup of Noodle

ミュージアムについて

〜創造的思考〜

ここは、子どもたちひとりひとりの中にある創造力や探究心の芽を吹かせ、

豊かに育てるための体験型ミュージアム。

世界初のインスタントラーメン「チキンラーメン」を発明し、

地球の食文化を革新した日清食品創業者・安藤百福の「クリエイティブシンキング＝創造的思考」を

数々の展示を通じて体感することが出来ます。

見て、さわって、遊んで、食べて、楽しみながら発明・発見のヒントを学び取り、

自分だけのクリエイティブシンキングを見つけてください。

安藤百福

〜インスタントラーメンの父〜

食を創り世のためにつくす

人生すべてを新しい“食”の創造に捧げた安藤百福。

96年間の生涯を通じて持ち続けたのは、

「クリエイティブな発想」と「最後まであきらめない執念」でした。

第1の発明 「チキンラーメン」(1958年)

大阪・池田市の自宅裏庭に建てた小屋で、“お湯があれば、家庭ですぐ食べられるラーメン”の開発を始めた安藤百福。1日平均4時間という短い睡眠時間で丸1年間、1日の休みもなく、たった1人で研究を続けました。さまざまな試行錯誤の末に誕生した「チキンラーメン」は《魔法のラーメン》と評判になり、またたく間に爆発的な人気を集めました。

第2の発明 「カップヌードル」(1971年)

アメリカへ視察に出かけた時のこと。スーパーの担当者たちは、「チキンラーメン」を小さく割ってカップに入れ、お湯を注いでフォークで食べ始めました。インスタントラーメンを世界に広めるためのカギは、食習慣の壁を超えることにあると気づいた安藤百福。様々な知恵と革新的な発想を結集した「カップヌードル」が誕生したことにより、日本で生まれたインスタントラーメンが「世界食」に生まれ変わりました。

第3の発明 「スペース・ラム」(2005年)

「宇宙食を開発したい」…安藤百福が抱いていた夢の実現にむけて、開発が始まった宇宙食ラーメン「スペース・ラム」。無重力状態で食べるための様々な工夫が加えられた一方で、その基礎となったのは、1958年に自らが発明した技術「瞬間油熱乾燥法」でした。安藤の創造的思考は、時を超えて宇宙空間でも人類の“食”を支えることになったのです。

安藤 百福 (あんどう ももふく) [1910 〜 2007]

1910年3月5日生まれ。日清食品創業者。安藤スポーツ・食文化振興財団創設者。

1958年、世界初のインスタントラーメン“チキンラーメン”を発明し、インスタントラーメン産業を創出。1971年、世界初のカップ麺“カップヌードル”を発明。日清食品(株)の代表取締役社長、会長を務めるとともに、(社)日本即席食品工業協会会長、世界ラーメン協会会長として業界の発展に努めました。1983年、私財を投じて(財)安藤スポーツ・食文化振興財団を設立し、青少年の健全な育成にも力を注ぎました。

人類と食の関係に、大きな進化をもたらした

安藤百福氏の卓越した「発想力」や「ベンチャーマインド」とは、

まさにこれからの時代に求められる創造的思考。

新たに「カップヌードルミュージアム」を設立するにあたり、

「創造的思考＝クリエイティブシンキング」をコンセプトに据えました。

日本はもちろんアジア各国からも大勢のお子さんが来場されるこのミュージアムでの体験を通して、

ぜひ百福氏の生涯を貫くクリエイティブシンキングマインドに触れ、

その芽を刺激するきっかけとなればという思いで施設全体の設計を考えています。

ミュージアムのロゴはカップヌードルのパッケージデザインから

インスピレーションを得て「！」マークを3つ重ねました。

発明や発見の楽しさ、食の大切さ、夢をもって自分で考えることの楽しさなど、

様々な「！」との出会いが、このミュージアムでありますようにとの願いを込めています。

佐藤 可士和 (さとう かしわ)

総合プロデュース

クリエイティブディレクター / 慶応義塾大学特別招聘教授

博報堂を経て「SAMURAI」設立。主な仕事に国立新美術館のシンボルマークデザイン、ユニクロ、楽天グループ、セブン-イレブンジャパン、今治タオルのブランドクリエイティブディレクション、「ふじようちえん」「千里リハビリテーション病院」のトータルプロデュースなど。近年は文化庁・文化交流使として日本の優れた商品、文化、技術、コンテンツなどを海外に広く発信していくことにも注力している。毎日デザイン賞、東京ADCグランプリほか多数受賞。著書「佐藤可士和の超整理術」(日本経済新聞出版社) ほか。

Analysis and Discussion

Cup of Noodle Museum Website Analysis:

Found on the Cup of Noodle Museum’s website, the combination of native Japanese, Sino Japanese, and foriegn loanwords seem to be pretty evenly distributed throughout the section we chose to analyze. Since Cup of Noodles is a brand of instant noodles manufactured by Nissin (a large corporation that manufactures instant ramen noodles in cups) that are distributed internationally around the world, the「ミュージアムについて」webpage utilizes loanwords to potentially appear as more modern and to appeal to a younger demographic.

In this section above, the amount there are some foreign loan words such as ミュージアム,　クリエイティブシンキング、コンセプト、インスピレーション that could have been written in Wago but are written as Gairaigo for the purpose of appealing to younger demographics. By utilizing words written in Gairaigo the museum’s website conveys a modern image and is inviting. This section also provides Kango words with the translated Gairaigo words, which allows readers from different age groups to understand the main idea.

The sections above display the biographies of Momofuku Ando, who was the inventor of instant noodles and the creator of Top Ramen and Cup of Noodles and Kashiwa Sato who was the graphic designer that designed the Cup of Noodles packages. There is a fair amount of sino-Japanese words located in these sections because the biographies include very refined information about their education and occupational backgrounds, which allows readers to comprehend how successful and crucial the roles of these men were in the process of creating Cup of Noodles.

Overall, the website for the Cup of Noodles Museum had a mix of Wago,Kango,and Gairaigo words that were utilized to appeal to multiple demographics by providing Gairaigo translations for Kango that was used which allows younger demographics to understand the main points. When using Gairaigo for the purpose of creating a modern and forgien image, they are targeting younger audiences who are more likely to be family with these foriegn loanwords and utilize them in their daily life more than older audiences.

Ghibli Museum Website Analysis:

This particular website for the Ghibli museum depicts and explains current and past exhibitions of the museum. The current exhibit showcases past special exhibitions that Miyazaki was involved in. In addition, it tells the story of how the animation production company Studio Ghibli decided to create a museum through illustrations of imageboards depicting the various ideas of how it should look.

[The multi-talented Miyazaki not only dedicates himself to feature animation productions, he is also a graphic novel artist, a designer of buildings and space, and a creator of exhibitions. Through this exhibition, visitors can discover that his fundamental mindset and approach to various projects are identical to those applied to film production. We sincerely hope that our visitors will enjoy this exhibition.]

I find the phrase of Miyazki’s fundamental mindset interesting, as it implies why most of the characters are wago, the native Japanese script.

Another reason why this is interesting is because websites relating to pop culture typically have more garaigo due to foreign influence. However, Ghibli movies are made in Japan. Furthermore, the subject matter of Ghibli movies tend to focus on traditional Japanese themes, including, nature, Shintoism, Buddhism, friends, and family. Therefore, the strong presence of wago makes sense, and allows the museum to appeal to both older generations, and younger generations that likely start off with learning wago writing. This is in comparison to the Cup of Noodle’s aim to appeal to younger audiences.

Overall, the website is mostly composed of wago, which is much different than Cup of Noodle’s mix of wago, kango, and garaigo. The use of wago is used to appeal to both older Japanese, generations as well as younger generations, as mainly using one type of writing to make it simpler to read for those generations. The us of wago likely also emphasizes the presence of traditional Japanese themes in ghibli movies, which is a stark contrast to Cup of Noodle’s focus on modernity.

Introduction

The group members for this project are Matthew Terry, Kathryn Tucker, Allegra Wesson, Jared Krzysko, and Liam Sherry.

Our project was built around exploring how the various strains of language, employed within Japanese, are utilized in major clothing outlets. Since most business is globalized and American businesses have cut into the market in Japan, we were curious to see how foreign conglomerates and local businesses would employ these various words. Thus, we decided to use GAP’s (American) Japanese website and SOU・SOU’s (Japanese) website. Based on our earlier discussions with Matthias Kramer, we hypothesized that both websites would rely heavily on loan words to offer customers a “cool and fashionable” impression when purchasing clothes. However, since GAP needs to convert English words that might not exist in Japanese we expected their website to consist mostly of loan words.

SOU・SOU: https://www.sousou.co.jp/?mode=cate&cbid=482404&csid=0&no=0

GAP: https://www.gap.co.jp/

(^Above images were taken from SOU・SOU)

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(^An incident of Japanized-English from the GAP Japan website)

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Methodology

After taking paragraphs that we thought useful to our work, Sino-Japanese, Native-Japanese and loan words were color-coded and sorted to compare types and level of usage between both websites. This was a group effort that, once finished, was compiled into charts and catalogued so that we could provide a clear provision of results.

With this completed we started building our blog by distributing roles so that we could spread the workload in a fair manner.

The pie charts below outline our results after analyzing both websites:

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The images that we got the GAP data from (+ a product description):

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Some of the various images that we got the SOU・SOU data from:

^This image in particular was interesting to us, because it shows Japanese written in the traditional right-to-left style, rather than being written left-to-right like how it is on the majority of the website.

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Analysis – GAP

In our analysis, the Japanese GAP website had an abundance of western loan words, which accounted for nearly 35 percent of the words we analyzed. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as GAP is an American-founded company, trying to appeal to a Japanese audience. This would account for the large percentage of loan words, as GAP is actively using their American roots to build their brand in order to appeal to a younger, more western, target audience. Loan words are often interpreted as “new” and even “cool” by younger demographics who embrace western styles and ideas, while they are met with distaste from an older, more traditional, and nationalistic audience. 

One thing that originally surprised us about the use of these loan words is that they were being used for headers as simple as Men’s (メンズ) and Women’s (ウィメンズ). This seemed almost uncharacteristic of any Japanese website as you would assume they would use Native Japanese words for the headers but they stylistically chose not to. This is a strong example of the marketing choices made by GAP and the younger demographics they are trying hard to appeal to. 

And, while the western sentiment on the GAP website is almost overwhelming, it’s also important to recognize the choices the gap team made in terms of including Native- and Sino-Japanese vocabulary as well. Both forms were used around the same amount of times with Native-Japanese having a small edge over its Sino counterpart. What’s more important than usage frequency is the manner in which they were used, in contrast to the way GAP employed “メンズ and “ウィメンズ, for example. Loan words were most frequently used for nouns to give products a more distinct American style but in contrast Native- and Sino-Japanese words were more frequently verbs, adverbs, or adjectives rather than nouns. These vocabulary types were more frequent in descriptions of products and helping the customer understand the values and benefits of GAP products in a deeper sense. Loan words were used as a flashy appeal to draw in younger demographics while the use of the two more traditional vocabulary forms ensures that these demographics still understand the values and benefits of GAP and their products. Words like “ 滑らかな” (smooth) and “軽量” (lightweight) help with distinct imagery that isn’t as easily reproduced in English or loan words. Overall, GAP’s usage of loan words in conjunction with Sino- and Native-Japanese verbs and adjectives creates a great balance between stylization and comprehension for their target demographic.

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Analysis – SOU・SOU

The SOU・SOU website is a stark contrast from the GAP website, as it only features loan words 13 percent of the time, compared to GAP’s 35 percent. SOU・SOU is very different from GAP branding wise as it sells traditional Japanese clothing like kimonos and split-toe tabi shoes. Because of this more traditional branding SOU・SOU sports 46% Native-Japanese words and 35% Sino-Japanese words. This is immediately apparent by the organization of the page as well as the vocabulary throughout the page. Nouns like “洋服” (clothes) are used frequently which denote a more traditional connotation because of Sino Japanese vocabulary choice. This choice is intentional and strays away from the newly popular loan word style to give a more authentic Japanese feeling to the site. This choice matches the branding and values of SOU・SOU and points to SOU・SOU’s demographic being older Japanese people and families shopping for a more orthodox look.

And when you analyze the loan words used throughout it is apparent that the curators of SOU・SOU’s page only use them when absolutely necessary. Words like “サイクリング and “フランス” can only be conveyed through a loan word. These nouns and proper nouns that were communicated through loan words don’t represent any stylistic trend by SOU・SOU but rather an adherence to modern Japanese. SOU・SOU’s page is simple yet effective at communicating exactly what they sell and giving precise imagery to accompany their traditional Japanese style. 

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Summary & Conclusion

For our project, we wanted to compare the amount of Native, Sino-Japanese and foreign loan words found on two clothing websites: GAP Japan and SOU・SOU, a seller of traditional Japanese clothing. Off the bat, we initially assumed that the GAP website would contain more loan words because of its roots in originally being an American company. Likewise, we initially assumed that SOU・SOU would contain little to no loan words on its site because it is a Japanese company and its target audience are Japanese people. Based on the data we procured from both websites and our analyses, we were able to successfully conclude that the Japanese GAP website contains far more foreign loan words than the traditional Japanese clothing website SOU・SOU. In addition, SOU・SOU far outnumbered the GAP website in terms of the amount of Native-Japanese and Sino-Japanese words that it contained. However, from our analyzed sections, SOU・SOU actually used more English than GAP (not to be confused with western loan words, but actual English), but this could be attributed to the fact that SOU・SOU has built-in language selection/automatic translation options on their site, so their use of English is to be informal and reach a broader audience, rather than to be used for stylistic purposes like GAP. Both sites do make it obvious who their intended audiences are though, and the stark difference in the use of foreign loan words is what made that obvious to us.

Thank you for reading!

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単語リスト：

SOU・SOU

Native: 日本, 入って, くるま, 着物, 着る, ある, 又, 着付け,遠, 楽しい, 履物, 言える, 浴びて, モノ, 江戸, 年, 続くる, 布, 撚り, 弱い糸, する, 洗っていくうち, 糸, わた, 戻ろう, 成っていく, 持って, 作れない, 湯, 昔, 今, 認める, 日本人, 少し遠, 難しい、こと, 変わる, 合わせた, 楽しみ, 最も, 古く, 楽しく, 作る, おすすめ, お気に入り, 選び, 繰り返し, できる, 優れた, 高島縮

Sino: 洋服, 意味, 明治以降, 登場, 日常, 着衣, 自由, 新, 和装, 提案, 最高傑作, 地下足袋, 今世界中, 賞賛, 世界, 国産地下足袋, 足袋, ご覧, 時代, 以上, 伝統, 伊勢木綿, 使用, 生地, 特徴, 現在, 臼井織布一軒, 貴重, 千, 利休, 大成, 茶, 代表, 伝統文化, 戦国武将, 熱狂, 文化, 美意識, 真骨頂, 現代人, 日常, 事実, 在釜, 一切, 茶席, 毎月, 和菓子, 一緒, 一服, 抹茶, 世界最古, 新作, 第, 弾, 仕様紹介,一枚, 吸湿性, 速乾性

Loan: ジャンル, クリエーター, ブランド, カラフル, ポップ, テキスタイル, オリジナル, ロードレース, ツール・ド・フランス, サポート, ルコックスポルティフ, コラボレーション, サイクリング, カジュアル, サイクリングウェア, レビュー, モスリン, コーディネート, テキスタイル, マスク

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GAP

Native: する、これ、誰、受け入れる、できる、こと、縁取り, これら, すべて、目指す, 寒い, 日, 着心, 良さ, 保つ, 織り, 施され, 見た目, 着心, 暖かさ, 代わる, 滑らかな, 長袖, 付き, 襟, やわらか, 胸, お手入れ, 洗う, いつ, 場合, 先, かかわらず, 他, 首元, 楽しめる, 遊び, 柄, あり

Sino: 軽量, 1本, 以上, 上手, 再利用, 中、表地, 裏地, 素材, 今後, 地, 高性能, 断熱, 素材, 使用, 耐水, 加工, 素材, 全要素, 実現, 綿, 混紡, 中央, 素材, 洗濯機, 輸入品, 円, 以上, 注文, 送料無料, 合計金額, 未満, 国内, 発送, 送料, 発生, 商品, 返品, 交換, ご覧, 上部, 総柄, 毎日, 人気, 特別, 気分, 開閉, 半袖

Loan: アップ, サイクル, パファー, ジャケット, プラスチック, ボトル、アプローチ, ポリエステル, ボタン, ファスナー, リサイクル, サスティナブル, ナイロン, ダウン, プリマ, ロフト, バンド, フード, フロント, スラント, ポケット, レビュー, ベストセラー, メンバーシップ, ウィメン,メンズ, ガールズ, ボーイズ, ベビーガールズ, ベビーボーイズ, セール, ミックス, マッチ, サステナビリティ, プライバシーポリシー, ニット, クルーネック, ウエスト, ドローコード, パッチポケット, コットン, オンライン, カスタマー, サービス, ストレッチ, フェイクファー, バッファロー, プラッド, ドレスアップ,  ワンピース, ハロウィーン, コスチューム, キャラクター, アッパー, バック, キーホール, バンド, カフス, スカート, チュール, バリエーション

Welcome to our group project! Our group members are Myquel Zimmerman, Maggie Wallace, “L”, Lee Craig, and Jialiang Hu. We are really excited to bring you this project!

Our group figured out even in the same type of website there would be plenty of difference between two webpages. The reason for that is the website is targeting a different audience. Let’s see in this case. Our group chose to analyze the JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) website of space discovery and rockets and the World Horizon website that covers studying abroad in Japan.

JAXAのH３ロケット ||  

http://www.rocket.jaxa.jp/rocket/h3/

。

NJ: (52) SJ: (69) FL: (12) English: (2)

NJ: (34) SJ: (93) FL: (17) Hybrid: (2)

http://www.rocket.jaxa.jp/rocket/h3/

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JAXA Summary: JAXA or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is Japan’s national space agency. Their current project is focused on their new H3 rocket which is designed to have lower expenses and increased ease of use for worldwide implementation. The first launch is slated to occur in fiscal year 2021. The primary goals of these rockets are to provide high flexibility in its price and production time for the various needs of customers, as well as higher reliability compared to competitors. These rockets will primarily be utilized for transporting satellites into orbit. Jaxa has a priority of the H3 rocket being used not just in Japan but globally as well for various commercial purposes.

First Website^^

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Second Website vv

海外学生向け日本留学エージェント

World Horizon

https://www.worldhorizon.co.jp/

NJ: (30) SJ: (43) FL: (2) English: (2)

NJ(77) SJ(77) FL(21) hy(2）

World Horizon Summary: World Horizon is a Japanese study abroad agency focused on exposing international students to Japanese culture. This page gives an introduction to their program and answers questions such as applying for Visas, homestay options, travel, and schooling. This program provides a wide arrange and freeform options for living conditions, employment options and location. The agency will act as a middle agent for all of your needs and provide most of your amenities and schooling, making the process much easier for foreigners. The page ends with explaining their 10 step enrollment process into the program and a short FAQ for general first questions.

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1. Examine the proportion of words in the vocabulary types for each text. Consider whether there is a connection between the vocabulary usage and the webpage’s general characteristics, such as its purposes and target audience.

The JAXA website contains a majority of Sino-Japanese words with a good amount of instances of loan words as well. The World Horizon website has a similar spread, however has about 15% more Native-Japanese words compared to the JAXA site. JAXA is communicating the uses and pros of the H3 rocket so it makes sense that their site is using very descriptive Sino-Japanese words that give an air of “official-ness” and a well informed feeling. Whereas the World Horizon site is trying to get international students into the Japanese culture so while there still is the air of “official-ness” just like JAXA, there’s a lower level of entry so to speak.

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1. What sort of words are included in each vocabulary type?  Do they convey particular types of meaning, nuance, or imagery? 

A lot of the Sino-Japanese words used on the World Horizon website are related to education (入学試験, 日本語学校, and 入学手続) or immigration/travelling abroad (訪日, 入国管理局, and 留学). The foreign loanwords are almost all nouns, save for a few verbs such as サポートする and カバーする, of which the latter is being used in the same way it is used in English (using “to cover” to mean “go over/describe the subjects”). The foreign loanword nouns, on the other hand, are more interesting because it appears a lot of them are used specifically to evoke a certain nuance or imagery behind them. Particularly, the use of セカンドオピニオン and サードプレイス  rather than Japanese equivalents seems to be for the purpose of making a memorable, concise slogan that seems trendy. This makes a lot of sense for a website focused on appealing to non-Japanese students as it may make it appear more relatable and understandable. The large amount of native-Japanese words that are relatively simple, for the most part, like simple verbs and conjunctions, both works to make the website look more Japanese while also being more accessible to international students.

JAXA, not surprisingly, has a lot of Sino-Japanese words that are related to science or carry a very mechanical or technological nuance. Words like 試験機, 後継機, 射場整備期間 are far from common words and are certainly aimed towards an audience with a higher education, and definitely somewhat alienating and intimidating to novice-intermediate level Japanese learners. The foreign loanwords count is mostly made up of the work ロケット, sometimes connected to words like in ロケットブースタ or ロケットエンジン, which is extremely salient to the webpage, while others like アイデア and オンタイム give a specifically foreign or modern image. Overall, the website appears very advanced, sleek, and modern through its use of higher-level Sino-Japanese words and foreign loanwords.

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3) F.  

It should be helpful to think about how Seaton (2010) discusses his analysis.  He thinks

about the imagery (hermeneutic meaning) that the choice of words generates.  What

sort of imagery do you think the general choice of vocabulary types in your texts (or

balance of vocabulary types) generates?  (マイケル)

JAXA Page: 

The JAXA page utilizes each type of written Japanese. Being a space company, which more often than not operate on the international stage, they present the image of foreignness by the use of katakana based Foreign Loan words (10%)(such as ロケット), while also catering to a younger audience by its use of Native Japanese (30%) (such as いかなるもの). There still remains a solid portion of Sino-Japanese (58%) which conveys specific meanings and the seriousness of the business conducted, which reaches an older and possibly more educated audience. JAXA does a great job of trying to extend its reach to its audience via language choice, catering to children, foreigners, and the working population all at once. Additionally, though a small portion, English is also present within the webpage through its use of naming the rocket (H3ロケット) and its clarification of certain aspects (such as High Cost Performance). My assumption is that this is also used to spark business interests from foreigners as the space industry is highly competitive and rapidly evolving. 

World Horizon Page:

The World Horizon page is dedicated to learning about and participating in studying abroad. Immediately, you notice that the page is inviting and friendly but the text itself clearly is geared to a young but educated student population. This is presented through its use of mostly Sino-Japanese words (48%) but with the right amount of influence of Native Japanese words (45%) to capture the intrigue of the younger populace. However, the page interestingly lacks a large portion of Foreign Loan words (5%), which would’ve been expected given the industry and the target audience. I speculate that this is due to the expansive list of countries available for studying abroad and their lack of loan words within the language. Additionally, since World Horizon caters to the whole of Japan, there could be a substantial portion of that population that is unfamiliar with certain loan words or harbor certain perceptions about their use in the language. Further, Japanese parents often have a large hand in their children’s study abroad experience. Though the page is inviting for students, parents are clearly a large factor in the design of the page and the use of language in context. Given the language demographics (NJ, SJ, FL, etc.) used, the larger influence of Sino-Japanese can be attributed to the student population but also more importantly to the parents of those students who want a more specific description of what they’re getting into.

JAXA: 

Native Japanese (30%): いかなる, もの, 行けない, なくして, 使った, 生まれている, すべての, 握っている, 打ち上げ, だけでは, これから, 担えない, した, やすさ, する, させれば, 作れる, はず, から, している, ように, として, されています, して, 打ち上げる, こと, という, その, ために, だけでなく, してもらう, あります

Sino-Japanese (58%): 輸送手段, 宇宙, 次々, 時代, 鍵, 輸送, 成功, 輸送, 日本, 利用者, 視点, 徹底, 追求, 技術, 集結, 世界, 年度, 種子島, 試験機, 号機, 予定, 次世代, 大型, 現在, 運用中, 後継機, 開発, 以降, 年間, 毎年, 機, 程度, 安定, 産業, 基盤, 維持, 運用, 目指, 政府, 衛星, 市場, 民間, 商業, 衛星, 受注, 不可欠, 世界中, 開発, 中, 衛星, 利用, 国内, 利用者, 注目, 必要

Foreign Loan (10%): アイデア、ロケット、リード、センター、サービス

English (1%): H-IIA, H3

World Horizon: 

Native Japanese (45%): 私たち, そのため, ある, 変わる

Sino-Japanese (48%): 豊富, 情報量, 日本, 留学, 情報, 進学, 就職

Foreign Loan (5%): エージェント, マッチ, エリア

Authors:  Kieran Hanks, Gwyneth Hardy, Destiny Harrell, Ezequiel Roberts

The genre that we chose for our texts was video games, and more specifically we chose Skyrim and Pokemon. Since Skyrim was made by an American company, and Pokemon was made by a Japanese company, we suspected that there would be differences between the two as one was most likely originally written in Japanese while the other may have even been translated, or adapted from an English text.  The games are also very stylistically different, with Skyrim being a high fantasy role-playing game and Pokemon still being a role-playing game, but one directed towards younger children. This could also lead to differences in word choices. For analyzing this, we collected passages of text from each webpage, then marked the word choice within the text as either wago, kango, or gairaigo. In counting words, some things to keep in mind are that we put both katakana loan words and English text in the gairaigo category (as there were very few), and omitted all auxiliary verbs and particles in counting wago.

Skyrim Website

In the Skyrim text, we noticed a considerably lower ratio of gairaigo to wago and kango before we got a proper count. One interesting point to note is that this text’s grammatical words are written in kanji, such as 為 for ため and 事 and こと. This decision is likely to contribute to the aesthetic of the passage rather than for a semantic meaning. As Skyrim’s setting takes place in an era taking inspiration for medieval era Europe and earlier, using more kanji contributes to the image of ancient texts.  This further contributes to the game’s high fantasy aesthetic while simultaneously trying to draw in an older or more serious audience. Another important thing to note is that although almost half of the unique words used in the passage are wago, the kango used are rather complicated, sometimes resulting in even 3 or 4 character compounds. In addition, kango terms for things that are more likely to be referred to with gairaigo at this point are used such as 吸血鬼 for vampire over the now more common ヴァンパイア. Finally, the only loan words that are used refer to in-game terminology and locations (ex. スカイリム for Skyrim and クエスト for quest) most likely to maintain the text of the original instead of coming up with new words or using already existing Japanese ones. Overall, choices like these contribute to the overall more adult aesthetic and implicitly show that the intended audience for this game is adult through using more kanji and complex words, while still showing the foreignness of the game through usage of loan words.

Pokemon Website

In the Pokemon text, compared to the Skyrim text, there seemed to be a lot more gairaigo.  After counting, though, the graph ended up being almost evenly split between wago, kango, and gairaigo.  The decision to use gairaigo for words that already exist in Japanese, such as the word  ゲットする rather than the NJ 受ける, is most likely due to a desire to have a hip aesthetic appearance to the game, similar to why Skyrim may have chosen to use kanji for a high fantasy and more mature appearance. Though the text uses a fair amount of kango, they are all relatively simple words with every compound being only 2 kanji at most. This text also uses a lot of exclamation marks, a form of punctuation borrowed from western languages, most likely for the same reason. The use of gairaigo and simple wago and kango could also be to make the game appeal more to children, who are the target audience of the game. The exclamation marks make the tone of the writing more excited and energetic as well.

In summary, compared to what we expected to see differ between these texts, what we actually found was a bit surprising. Our expectations that the Skyrim text, one likely adapted from English, would have a higher ratio of gairaigo to wago and kango, but it was the native Japanese text, the Pokemon text, that actually had a larger proportion of gairaigo. We suspect that this is the case as even though the Skyrim text is for a foreign game, the aesthetic clashes with a large usage of gairaigo, and thus elects to use more kanji and NJ and SJ vocabulary, while despite the Pokemon texts status as a native Japanese text, the audience is younger and thus more “hip” resulting in the usage of more gairaigo and wasei-eigo. We can conclude from this that in certain cases, aesthetic may contribute more to the word choice than whether or not the product itself is foreign or not.

Our group (group 3), consisting of Donovan Grahame, Maya Lorton and Jia Suwatanapornchai analyzed two different restaurant websites. We analyzed a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant and an authentic Italian pizza restaurant. We believe that the difference in cuisine will provide useful information to see how the different types of words in the Japanese language are used. 

Both pages are from the “about section” of the website, but there is a difference in the types of words used on each page. For this project, our group decided to focus on the three types of words in Japanese: NJ-Words, SJ-Words and loan words (Gairaigo). The first page that was analyzed was the “about section” from the Sukiyabashi Jiro website.

Example 1: Sushi restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro

NJ (67.1%): 鮨, 握った, 煮切り醤油, 煮詰め, 引いて, 客の前, 置いていました, 手で素早く, 茶を飲み, のれん, 拭いて, 後, おしゃべりしたり, お酒, すきやばし次郎, 江戸前, 守って, 出来たて, にぎり, 美味しく召し上がって, 訪れる, 遅れない, 時間, ご飯, 炊き上げ, 酢めし, 楽しん, お店, 合う, 仕入れて, おつまみ, 食べる, おまかせ, お品書き, 仕入れ, 決められた, 目, なるべく早く, 特別, 設けて, ほとんど, 客様, 来店く, 襟なし, 断りする, 方, 控えめ, 願いし, 預け, 背

SJ (22.7%): 気軽, 発達, 鮨職人, 屋台, 具合, 雰囲気, 用意, 時間, 存分, 築地, 魚介, 当日, 順番, 黒板, 一番, 着用, 入店, 場合, 香水

Gairaigo (8.0%): カウンター, ドレスコード, ジャケット, シャツ, ズボン, サンダル, バッグ

Hybrid (2.3%): は江戸時代, 予約時間

Sukiyabashi Jiro is a sushi restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. The upper class restaurant gives customers an amazing experience with dinners that can cost hundreds of dollars. The website’s text has been color coded to show Native Japanese words in green, Sino Japanese words in blue, loan words in yellow, and the two examples of hybrids in dark pink. Analyzing the Japanese restaurant’s page was interesting, since the majority of the words used were Native Japanese words. Most of the Native Japanese words that were used had 漢字 in it, but there were some cases where they only used ひらがな. For example, in the section 「おまかせ」を食べる, お任せ has 漢字 in it but in the case of this website, it was only written in ひらがな. There are two interesting cases of hybrid words in this text. One example is under the section 店を訪れる, the word for reservation time, 予約時間 is a hybrid word. 予約 is a Native Japanese word but 時間 is a Sino Japanese word. 

Another interesting find on this website was the usage of Gairaigo throughout the page. The Gairaigo on this page only made up 8% of the words used and was written in カタカナ. All of the loan words used on this page were for foreign ideas or items. The ドレスコード section contained a lot of Gairaigo like ジャケット,サンダル, and シャツ which are all from western languages. One thing that stood out on this page was the word バッグ to mean somebody’s bag instead of the Japanese word for it, かばん (鞄). 

The choice of words and phrases throughout this text represents traditional Japanese. The writing style is very polite. For example, いただいています and しておりません are used in a polite way which represents the restaurant for it being a traditional Japanese restaurant. The usage of hiragana and Native Japanese words fit the style of the restaurant. 　

Example 2: Il Tamburello Pizzeria 

NJ (53%):働きました, 売っていた, 言葉, 自分, 店, 貧しい南, 幸せな, 美味しい, 安くお腹いっぱい, 食べる, 組んだ, 生地, 焼く, 変わらない, 日本, 幸せ, 感じています, 匂い, 笑い声, 揚げ, 屋台, 香り, 朝, 食材, 出来る限り, 物, 使って, 質も良く安い, たくさん手, 入る世, 中, 街, 人

Gairaigo (25%): ミレニアム, イタリア, カンパーニ, ナポリ, ピッツァ, アドルフォ, マルレッタ, ピッツェリア, スパゲッタータ, コンセプト, レンガ, ポンペイ, プリミティブ, グルメ, ガス, ナポレターニ, バジリコ, メルカート, 、コルネット, エスプレッソ, ソウルフード

SJ (22%): 職人, 7歳, 街中, 駅, 師, 薪, 酵母, 長時間発酵, 時代, 行為, 現代, 提供, 為, 窯, 市場, 喧噪, 排気, 怒声, 国産, 道端

Il Tamburello is an Italian pizza restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. This cozy restaurant provides customers with authentic Italian cuisine, while also staying affordable with meals only costing around $10/person. The second page analyzed was also an “about section” from the Italian restaurant, Il Tamburello Pizzeria’s website. The color coding for this section was Native Japanese in blue, Gairaigo in yellow and Sino Japanese words in green. This website had a more even distribution of the three types of words than Sukiyabashi Jiro. Even though the majority of the page used Native Japanese words, there were much more Gairaigo than there was on Sukiyabashi Jiro’s website. Gairaigo was the second most used word type at 25% of the text while Sino Japanese had the least at 22% of the text. 

The Gairaigo used in this text are mostly used for foreign locations. カタカナ is used to represent these words as well as the names of people with foreign names. Other appearances of Gairaigo are words that came from other languages. Instead of using the Japanese word for concept（概念）they wrote it as コンセプト. An interesting find in this text was the change in the spelling of the word ピザ. In Japanese, pizza is usually spelled as ピザ but this text changes the spelling of the word to be ピッツァ. When it is spelled like this, the word sounds closer to the Italian pronunciation, rather than the American pronunciation of the word. Most of the words for foods in the text were Gairaigo words and were written in カタカナ. However, there was one instance where the word for yeast was written as 酵母 which is Sino Japanese. 

There was an increase in Gairaigo used in this text compared to Sukiyabashi Jiro. The cuisine of this restaurant differed from the other, since it was a foreign cuisine, which led to an increase in the usage of Gairaigo. However, the different uses of text were fairly evenly distributed. The audience of this restaurant are looking for a more authentic Italian cuisine which is why there were usage of Gairaigo, but still kept it good for all audiences since the majority of words were Native Japanese. 

Summary

The majority of words from both of these texts are Native Japanese, but they differ in the amount of Sino Japanese and Gairaigo they use. The difference in cuisine from each restaurant shows a difference in word choice, but the main difference was the audience of each restaurant. Il Tamburello Pizzeria has an audience of people who want to enjoy authentic Italian cuisine while Sukiyabashi Jiro is for special occasions and overall an upper class restaurant. One of the most shocking things we found in our analysis was how Native Japanese was used as the majority of the words and how little Sino Japanese was used. In both pieces of text, Native Japanese was over half the words used, and Sino Japanese was under 25%. With their difference in audience, it is understandable to see their reasoning in word choice.  

Group Members: Max Aguirre, Ashley Crittenden, “Max”

For this project, we decided to compare two different recipes for omurice from different websites. One website was more casual and geared towards beginners, and the other was more professional and geared towards seasoned cooks. Because the information each website wanted to convey was more or less the same (a recipe for omurice), but the tone and style should be different because of the different audiences, we thought it would be an interesting subtle contrast to investigate.

To further break down the stylistic differences between these websites, we have also taken note of the use of mimetic words and special, non-Japanese characters like ☆.

Website #1: “Yummy Omurice with ☆Chicken Rice☆♪” – Cookpad

URL: https://cookpad.com/recipe/935617

Cookpad is a general-use recipe website geared towards casual users where anyone can submit a recipe. This particular recipe was written very casually. As you can see, there was a high percentage of wago, followed by gairaigo and kango: (The light blue section shows English words.)

Some examples of vocabulary found in this website include:

Wago: ｺﾚ、美味しい、大きさ、切る、作り方、懐かしい、お好み、あんまり、味
Kango: 完成、少々、4個、ｺｼｮｳ、牛乳、話題、2杯
Gairaigo: ﾐｯｸｽﾍﾞｼﾞﾀﾌﾞﾙ、ﾎﾟｲﾝﾄ 、ﾁｷﾝﾗｲｽ、サラダ、ｲﾒｰｼﾞ
Mimetic: ベチャっと、しっかり、ふわふわと、ゆっくり、ぐるぐる
Hybrid: 楽チン、鶏肉、中火
English: 100cc, 50g
Symbols: ☆, ♪ , (^o^) (17 uses of symbols overall)

The high percentage of wago we found in both websites was not surprising, as wago is often used in everyday life, and words related to food and eating are part of that. However, especially compared to Nadia, the Cookpad recipe had a very liberal use of gairaigo and barely any kango at all. The gairaigo used in this recipe was not limited to gairaigo-only food names (such as ｵﾑﾗｲｽ) but included things like ﾐｯｸｽﾍﾞｼﾞﾀﾌﾞﾙ and ﾎﾟｲﾝﾄ which certainly have Japanese alternatives.

Of particular interest was the frequent use of half-width katakana and non-Japanese and non-alphabetic symbols. Why would this recipe use cute symbols like ☆, ♪ , and (^o^)? Well, one instance of these symbols we found to actually be a practical use. In the ingredients list, several ingredients are marked with a ☆, and in the second step of the recipe, you are instructed to “add ☆”. In this way, the ☆ symbol is used once to denote a group of ingredients. Overall, though, we believe this recipe’s use of symbols to be a way of expressing an approachable friendliness. The half-width katakana seems to serve a similar purpose, and also possibly to simply make words take up less space. Especially in the how-to steps section, words are grouped into very short lines, and using half-width words when possible may make the recipe appear shorter and less overwhelming.

Overall, our analysis of this website has led us to draw the conclusion that it was deliberately written to appear friendly and approachable.

Website #2: “Gentle On Your Stomach But Still Delicious♪ Japanese-Style Ankake Omurice” – Nadia

URL: https://oceans-nadia.com/user/111095/recipe/376045

Nadia is a website that collects recipes written by pro chefs. Because of this, the website has an overall tone that seems a lot more structured and professional. This recipe in particular had significantly less text than the one on Cookpad. Our analysis found that this recipe’s text consisted almost entirely of wago and kango, as you can see here:

There was about a third as much gairaigo in this recipe, barely any at all. (The purple and light blue sections show English and mimetic words, respectively. There was only one mimetic word in the entire recipe.)

Some examples of vocabulary found in this website include:

Wago: あんかけ、卵、かつお節、えのき、入れる、切る、馴染んだ、できあがり
Kango: 体調不良、みりん、しょうゆ、大丈夫、重宝する、材料
Gairaigo: オムライス、コメント、フライパン、レシピ
Mimetic: さっと
Hybrid: n/a
English: 100ml, 1cm
Symbols: ♪ (4 uses of symbols overall)

The increase of use in kango and decrease in loanwords on this site geared towards pros seems to show a focus more on technical terminology than style. The users of this website are looking for excellent recipes made by real chefs; it would seem out of place if the recipe was overly friendly and casual. That said, there is still a generally friendly tone in the sections before and after the actual recipe that give the author’s thoughts and recommendations. Some words like しょうゆ are written using hiragana rather than kanji. In addition, the special character ♪ is used four times to denote a cheerful tone.

One point of interest to note is the near-absence of mimetic words in this text. Unlike the Cookpad recipe, which used mimetic words very frequently to describe the textures of food or the way that you should perform steps in the recipe, the only mimetic word the Nadia recipe uses is さっと, and just the one time. This seems to go along with the usage of more kango to focus on technical terms like 半熟になるまで rather than subjective, descriptive ones like ふわふわ. One could infer that Nadia appears to assume that the reader will know what something like 半熟 (half-cooked, soft-boiled) looks like, while the Cookpad recipe takes the effort to describe what various stages in the recipe should look like for its less experienced readers.

Overall, although these two websites had very similar content, the analysis of their word content showed a clear difference in the way language was used to target separate audiences with differing preferences. We found this to be an interesting study of how the use of Japanese vocabulary can be subtly applied to achieve different communication goals.