SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

RocketNews24 Japanese

Featured

Survey finds more than half of Japanese women’s nieces don’t call them “aunt”

os-0

Culture and linguistics make the most obvious form of address an unpopular choice.

As much as I love the Japanese language, even I have to admit, from a design standpoint, its vocabulary is lacking in a couple of ways. For example, the same word, ashi, means both “leg” and “foot.” There’s no distinction between singular nouns and plural nouns, and the selection of profanity is woefully limited.

But Japanese vocabulary does a perfectly fine job when it comes to describing family members. All the bases are covered, such as okaa-san (“mom”), itoko (“cousin”), and oba-san (“aunt”).

Actually, though, even Japanese women who have a niece might not hear that last one very often. In a recent survey conducted by Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido, only about one in ten women with a niece in middle or high school said their niece called them oba-san.

▼ 1,000 women, between the ages of 30 and 59, were polled, and only 11.2 percent said their nieces calls them oba-san.

Why the reluctance to call an aunt an aunt? Well, while the primary definition of oba-san is indeed “aunt,” it also has the secondary meaning of “middle-aged woman.” For many Japanese women, it’s a shocking moment when a stranger refers to them as oba-san for the first time, as opposed to the more youthful-sounding onee-san (literally “big sister,” but also used to mean “young woman”).

So what did the survey participants’ nieces call them? The overwhelming favorite was to add -chan, the more affectionate version of the well-known honorific suffix -san, to the aunt’s first name.

The complete results were:
1. First name plus -chan – 56 percent
2. oba-san – 11.2 percent
3. Nickname – 10.2 percent
4. First name (no suffix) – 6.5 percent
5. -san – 6.4 percent
6. one-san – 5.2 percent
7. Other – 4.5 percent

The survey doesn’t get into whether nieces are shying away from using oba-san by their own volition, at their aunts’ request, or because of their parents’ guidance. In any case, even though Japanese culture preaches respect for one’s elders, linguistically, it looks like nieces are trying to be tactful about not rubbing the age difference in their aunts’ faces.

Source: @Press
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert image: @Press (edited by RocketNews24)
[ Read in Japanese ]

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related Stories

Trackbacks

  1. There are no trackbacks yet.
  2. Trackback URL

Trending Today

  1. Studio Ghibli releases new Kiki’s Delivery Service Jiji music box for anime fans
  2. Japan’s new beer glass is designed to force you to drink…water [Video]
  3. This beautiful rural Japan river is a great alternative to touristy summer retreats [Photos]
  4. Are Japan’s room-temperature curry packets the boxed lunch heroes we’ve been looking for? [Taste test]
  5. Studio Ghibli theme park announces new expansion saluting a previously off-limits anime
  6. New Japanese vending machine at Shinkansen station sells cups of ice on platform
  7. Police ask Kumamoto residents to not get blackout drunk as much during earthquake relief efforts
  8. Kumamoto earthquake may have created Japan’s newest hot spring inside flooded restaurant [Video]
  9. Japanese convenience store food gets turned into hyper-realistic stationery you can peel open
  10. Tokyo is getting a branch of famous Los Angeles hot dog chain Pink’s with Japan-exclusive items

© SoraNews24 —Japan News— / SOCIO CORPORATION

Powered by WordPress VIP

%d