Kotobagari

2005-08-23T11:33:10Z

FirstPrinciples: Fix category, hyphenation

'''''Kotobagari''''' (言葉狩り, lit. "word hunting") refers to the censorship of words considered [[political correctness|politically incorrect]] in the [[Japanese language]]. It often conveys negative connotations that sarcastically criticize the excess persistence in [[political correctness]]. Words such as ''[[gaijin]]'' ("foreigner/outsider"), ''rai'' ("[[leper]]") , ''mekura'' ("blind") , ''tsunbo'' ("deaf") , ''kichigai'' ("crazy"), ''tosatsujō'' ("slaughter house"), and ''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.

Critics of ''kotobagari'' point out that the activity often does not serve the purpose of correcting the underlying cause of discrimination. For example, a school janitor in [[Japan]] used to be called a ''kozukai-san'' ("chore person"). Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to ''yōmuin'' ("task person"). Now ''yōmuin'' is considered demeaning, so there is shift to use ''kōmuin'' ("school task person") or ''kanrisagyōin'' ("maintenance person") instead, an example of what [[Steven Pinker]] calls the "[[euphemism]] treadmill".

==Kotobagari and Ideology==
Kotobagari has lead to a bizarre collection of words that can be highly confusing.

[[NHK]] runs a [[Korean language]] study program, but the language is called ''[[Hangul|Hangulgo]]'' "Hangul language" to avoid being politically incorrect. This is like calling an [[English language]] course an ''[[Alphabet]]'' study course. This is a result of both the North and South Korean governments demanding that the program be called by the name of one country. North Korea wanted the show to be called ''Chosen language''(朝鮮語) taken from its full name, ''朝鮮民主主義人民共和国'' or Democratic People's Republic of Korea. South Korea wanted ''Kankoku language''(韓国語) from ''大韓民国'' or Republic of Korea. As a compromise, ''Hangul'' was selected, but this has led to an amusing usage of non-existent ''Hangul language'' to refer to Korean language.

[[Category:Censorship]]
[[Category:Japanese language]]
[[Category:Japanese terms]]

[[ko:고토바가리]]
[[ja:言葉狩り]]

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Kotobagari