Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Banned Japanese words to be aired.

I don't understand why some of the words below are banned and there are some words I just don't know.
放送禁止用語一覧
What do you think?


Roughly I think there are neutral words which if put in some context would mean insulting, offensive, etc. And there are words that could promote prejudice from a specific point of view. And there are words that are inherently insulting in almost all the contexts; Those words can rarely if ever used in a value-free way.
(But I am not sure yet this is correct classification.)

baka/stupid is not a banned word;though, it is always insulting. On the other hand, Kijirusi/crazy is a banned word.

Tokoya(Barber) and sakanaya(Fishmonger) are banned. I have no idea why, though I would put -san after the word.


"Kokujin/ Black people"is banned word while "hakujin"/white people and Ousyokujin/yellow people are not banned. Why? Isn't it discrimination to ban just the word "kokujin"? To be fair, it says the word should not be used unnecessarily. for instance, instead of a Black soldier, it should be, say, an American soldier.

Some people maintain "gaijin" is insulting whereas "gaikokujin" is not. As a native Japanese I find it hard to tell the difference. If somebody explained it to me, I would be glad.

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