While all languages change over time, the massive shifts the Japanese language has been through over the past century and a half have been incredible. When Japan began modernization during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), it had to come to terms with the many foreign loan words that were being imported into the language, something that hasn’t always been a smooth process. One thing I’ve noticed is that a person can often tell when a foreign word entered use here based on how “messed up” it is compared the original. I was reading about the legendary talent agency Johnny & Associates, who created pretty much every successful boy band in the past four decades. In Japanese the company’s name is “Johnny’s” but the katakana is mistranslated so that it seems to be “journey’s” or “jannies” (ジャニーズ instead of ジョニーズ). From this I guessed that the company had been around since the 1960s, and I was right — they were founded in 1962. Some other examples of English words that were imported incorrectly decades ago are donmai which means “never mind,” said by baseballl players consoling a teammate who has just struck out (from “don’t mind”); hatsu which is the word for chicken hearts; and good old ramune, which started as “lemonade.”
Arashi is one of the red-hot boy bands managed by Jahnnies, er, Johnny’s.
