kotobagari

{{short description|Japanese term for euphemistic speech}}

{{italics title}}

{{One source|date=January 2024}}

{{nihongo||言葉狩り|Kotobagari|"word hunting"}} is a sardonic term which refers to the reluctance to use words that are considered potentially offensive or politically incorrect in the Japanese language. For instance words such as {{nihongo||癩|rai|"leper"{{efn|See Leprosy in Japan}}}}, {{nihongo||盲|mekura|"blind"}}, {{nihongo||聾|tsunbo|"deaf"}}, {{nihongo||唖|oshi|"deaf-mute"}}, kichigai ({{lang|ja|気違い}} or {{lang|ja|気狂い}}, "crazy"), {{nihongo||屠殺場|tosatsujō|"slaughterhouse"}}, and {{nihongo||白痴|hakuchi|"moron/retard"}} are currently not used by the majority of Japanese publishing houses; the publishers often refuse to publish writing which includes these words.

Another example is that a school janitor in Japan used to be called a {{nihongo||小使いさん|kozukai-san|"chore person"}}. Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to {{nihongo||用務員|yōmuin|"task person"}}. Now yōmuin is considered demeaning, so there is a shift to use {{nihongo||校務員|kōmuin|"school task member"}} or {{nihongo||管理作業員|kanrisagyōin|"maintenance member"}} instead. This pattern of change is an example of the linguistic phenomenon known as the "euphemism treadmill".

Other examples of words which have become unacceptable include the replacement of the word {{nihongo||百姓|hyakushō}} for "farmer" with {{nihongo||農家|nōka}}.

Since World War II, the word Shina ({{lang|ja|支那}}) for China written in kanji has been recognized as derogatory, and has been largely superseded by the Japanese pronunciation of the endonym, {{nihongo||中国|Chūgoku}}, or with Shina written in katakana ({{lang|ja|シナ}}).

In the 1960s, the Sino-Japanese word {{nihongo||蒙古|Mōko}} meaning "Mongol" was recognized for its connotation of a "stupid, ignorant, or immature" person (compare the English term "Mongoloid"), and the ethnic group is now referred to by the katakana term {{nihongo||モンゴル|Mongoru}}.Bulag, Uradyn E. "Contesting the Words that Wound: Ethnicity and the Politics of Sentiment in China." Inner Asia 10.1 (2008): 87-111.