The New and Trendy Japanese Words of 2010
It's already December!
The year 2010 is only one month left. People start looking back what happened this year including U-can's New and Trendy Words Awards 2010 (ユーキャン・新語・流行語大賞).
Let's see how Japanese experts thought what was trendy in 2010.
The Winner
| Japanese | Roma-ji | Meaning |
| ゲゲゲの〜 | Gegegeno~ | Gegegeno (The part of the name of cartoon by Shigeru Mizuki) |
Shigeru Mizuki is the famous manga artist for "Gegege no Kitaro", the story about the family of Japanese fairy tale monsters.
His wife, Nunoe Mura, wrote the autobiography of their marriage life "Gegege no Nyobo (ゲゲゲの女房 - The wife of Gegege)" in 2008.
Then, NHK aired the morning drama series based on her autobiography earlier this year. Many Japanese people were fascinated by the long-lasting love of the couple.
It drove many people to visit Sakaiminato, Tottori which is the hometown of Shigeru Mizuki, and Chofu, Tokyo, where they currently live.
Top 10
| Japanese | Roma-ji | Meaning |
| いい質問ですねえ！ | Ii Shitsumon Desune | "That was a good question". The phrase by Akira Igegami. He's very known Japanese journalist who explain latest news and topics in a very easy way. |
| イクメン | Iku Men | "Cool, Child Caring Men". More men started raising child by themselves in Japan. |
| AKB48 | AKB48 | Japanese idol group from Akihabara. |
| 女子会 | Joshi-kai | "Girls Only Meeting". It really means that only girls go drinking. 20-30 something female started going to Izakaya, Japanese style bar, more often than before. |
| 脱小沢 | Datsu Ozawa | "Removing Ozawa". DPJ tried to remove the power of Mr. Ozawa, who is the one of the most influential politicians of Japan. |
| 食べるラー油 | Taberu Ra-yu | "Eatable Chili Oil". Many food manufacture came up with new kinds of all-round chili oil that can be used be for rice, ramen, salad and etc. |
| ととのいました | Totonoimashitta | "I got an idea in place." The phrase of the Japanese comedian, Neducchi (ねづっち) of W Colon. He says is when he's ready to say some joke. |
| 〜なう | ... now | "...now". This is the hiragana spelling of "Now." Japanese people use it when tweeting the location to save time to express where you are. (e.g., しぶや なう - [I'm at] Shibuya now). |
| 無縁社会 | Muen shakai | "The society with no relation (or the isolated society)". NHK produced the series of documentary to talk about how Japanese people became less socialized when the Japanese government found out that many eldery over 100 year-old are missing. |
Special Award
| なにか持っていると言われ続けてきました。今日何を持っているのか確信しました・・・それは仲間です | Nanika Motteiru to Iware tsudukete kimashita. Kyo Nani wo Motteirunoka Kakushin shimashita... Sore ha Nakama desu | "Many people kept telling me that I have something special. I now know for sure what it is... It is my teammate and friends." Yuki Saito, The captain of Waseda Univ. Baseball Team, gave this speech during the winning parade of University Baseball Championship. |
U-can New and Trendy Words of 2010 is organized by Jiyu-kokumin sha, which publish the Japanese dictionary of contemporaty words - "Gendai yogo no kiso chishiki (現代用語の基礎知識)"
We will be talking more about this at YokosoNews Weekly this Sunday.
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Katz Ueno
As the Editor-in-chief & Producer of YokosoNews, Katz wants to show Japan to the rest of the world. Read more »
