Yesterday, I searched for an article to study today and I found this: 相撲協会 貴乃花親方の理事解任を評議員会に提案へ on NHK. This kind of article really makes me want to cry 😭! I don’t understand the title, I don’t understand at all what it is about, I recognize many kanji but I am too lazy to think about what they can mean in this context. I know that it is not only a problem of Japanese, that I also miss the context but still… This is so discouraging! Well, I guess that I still have a lot of work to do before I can read Japanese newspapers.

Today, a related article came out: 日本相撲協会 暴力行為の再発防止へ委員会設置. So it is certainly important…

I won’t study these articles but I will try to understand why I don’t understand the title.

First, I always ask myself if there is a name in the title. That would be several kanji, let’s say 4, that won’t make any sense in the sentence. To me, 貴乃花親方 doesn’t make any sense so I guess that there is a name hidden in it. The question is how many characters? “親方” could make sense together, so let’s say that 貴乃花 is a name.

Then, I try to find words I know or whose meaning I can guess, in both titles.

• 協会・きょうかい means something like “association”.
• 提案・ていあん is a “proposition”.
• 暴力行為・ぼうりょくこうい is a “violent act”.
• 再発防止・さいはつぼうし is a word I learnt for JLPT N2! It means “prevention” (防止) of a “recurrence” (再発).
• 委員会・いいんかい is also a N2 word which means “a committee”.
• 設備・せつび is a word that I have on my Anki deck. It means “equipment”, “accommodation”.

Words I don’t know:

• 理事解任. I don’t know this word but if I had to make a guess I would say that 解任 means “lose one’s responsibility, one’s post”. I know that 責任・せきにん means “responsibility” and that the kanji 解 means “dissolve”. I don’t know what 理事 is.
• 相撲 I am sure I saw this word somewhere but I can’t remember what it means…
• 親方 someone close?
• 評議… The first kanji means “criticize” and the second “discussion” or something like that. Maybe the two together simply means “criticism”?
• 員会 a reunion of members? Maybe another way to say 委員会?

So, what I understand from the first title is that a proposition is being discussed to see if a certain person will lose his or her post. I don’t know whether the association of something is the subject of the sentence (meaning, the members of the association are discussing whether someone should lose his post) or if the person will lose his or her post inside the association of something. Now that I think of it, it could also be both.

… hum, in other words, the meaning of the first title is still very vague for me.

The second title would be about the installation of a committee to prevent the recurrence of violence. Here again, is the Japanese association of something the subject that wants to prevent violence or is violence to be prevented among the members of this association?

If we put the two titles together, we can make a guess: a certain person will probably lose his or her post in an association because he or she was involved in a violent act. Therefore, this association is trying to find ways to prevent the recurrence of violence.

Well, if I spend some time thinking about what I know and what I can guess, I can reach a certain understanding of something that was very obscure at the beginning, even without using the dictionary. I enjoy this kind of exercise, I almost feel like a detective trying to solve a case with very few clues and trying to make sense of something that seems incomprehensible.

Now let’s use the dictionary and internet!

• 相撲: this word pronunciation is: すもう… I knew it!! 😄 I just temporarily forgot…
• As I thought 貴乃花・たかのはな is a name! Takanohana is a former sumo wrestler and a senior member of the Japan Sumo Association.
• 親方・おやかた doesn’t mean “a person close” at all… It means “a master”, “a foreman”, “a supervisor”, “a boss”.
• 理事・りじ means “director”
• 解任・かいにん means “dismissal”, “removal from one’s post”.
  • These two words together mean “dismiss from the post of director”.
• 評議・ひょうぎ doesn’t mean “criticism” but simply “conference”, “discussion”.
  • Together with 員会, “評議員会・ひょうぎいんかい” means “a council”, “a meeting of the board of trustees”, “a conference”.

To understand how all this is linked to violence, I had to check Japanese news in English. It seems that one of Takanohana’s stable junior wrestler was assaulted by another Sumo former grand champion, whose name is Harumafuji. The assault was violent enough to send the younger wrestler to hospital. This assault has apparently been a great scandal in Japan.

Concerning Takanohana, the problem is that he didn’t report this assault quick enough and didn’t collaborate with the association’s investigation, refusing to grant requests for interviews with himself or the assaulted wrestler. The Japan Sumo Association is, therefore, discussing whether to remove Takanohana from his post of director.

This is an interesting case, I don’t have the courage to read an article in Japanese about it, though…

Given the time I needed to understand these two titles, I will maybe need the whole year to read today’s newspaper. 😐

You probably read or heard about it if you follow the news about Japan: the kanji of the year 今年の漢字 is officially 北・きた.

Link to the NHK article on the subject.

The 今年の漢字 is a kanji chosen at the end of each year by the Japanese kanji proficiency society 日本漢字能力検定協会 to represent the year that is about to end. It is revealed on December 12th in Kyomizu temple 清水寺・きよみずでら in Kyoto. During the ceremony, the chief abbot 貫主・かんじゅ of the temple writes the selected kanji on a large piece of Japanese paper 和紙・わし with a big brush.

I think anyone can easily guess why 北 was chosen. It’s true that concerns about North Korea 北朝鮮・きたちょうせん were very present in the news. Let’s read the article and learn some new words!

北？

北朝鮮

The first meaning of 北 in our context is North Korea. The article says that the multiple launches of ballistic missiles from North Korea have created a menace and anxiety.

• A ballistic missile is “弾道ミサイル”. 弾道・だんどう means “trajectory”, “line of fire”, “path of a projectile”.
• A “menace” is 脅威・きょうい which also means “threat” and “danger”. If you want to say that something becomes a menace, that something menaces or threatens something, you can say “脅威となる” or “脅威を与える”.
• The verb 繰り返す・くりかえす means “to repeat”, “to do over again”. I think that this is a very useful word worth remembering. It is often used to say “repeat the same mistake”. The expression “繰り返して” is very useful, too, like in 繰り返して言う” “say over and over again”.

九州

北 also represents the North part of Kyushu that was devasted by heavy rainfalls this year. Even if Kyushu 九州 is in the South of Japan, the two main prefectures that suffered from the flooding were Fukuoka 福岡県 and Oita 大分県, both in the North of Kyushu.

• 豪雨・ごううmeans “heavy rain”.
• The article uses two words that I always mix up. It says that that two cities suffered big 被害・ひがい from the 災害・さいがい caused by the heavy rain. So, 被害 means “damage”, “casualties” and 災害 means “calamity”, “disaster”.

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters

The baseball team from Hokkaido “Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters” 北海道日本ハムファイターズ, has drawn attention this year due to two major events:

• 大谷翔平・おおたにしょうへい is a baseball player from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. This year, however, he signed to enter the Los Angeles Angels and thus plays in Major League next year. (Do Japanese rejoice that one of their top players join the American Major League, or do they feel betrayed?)
  • The Major League Baseball is called メジャーリーグベースボール in Japanese but is also often called simply “メジャーリーグ” or, like in our article “大リーグ”.
  • 移籍・いせき means “transfer” (to another team). I remember having learned that word when I read an article about Neymar’s transfer to PSG.
• 清宮 幸太郎・きよみや こうたろう, another baseball player, joined the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters this year.

I had to ask the help of Wikipedia because I know absolutely nothing about baseball and the article was very concise on the subject.

Other candidates

政

The second kanji on the list was 政 because of the problems involving Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen and other scandals involving politicians. Well, I must admit that  I didn’t follow these scandals at all, so I think it is better to link to this article from the Japan Times that presents the Moritomo Gakuen scandal.

• 不祥事・ふしょうじ means “an inauspicious event” but can be translated simply by “scandal”. A very useful word to know to read the news!

不

The third candidate was 不 because of the instability 不安定・ふあんてい caused by North Korea. Whenever I see this character alone, I can’t help but think of that photography from Chinese artist Qiu Zhijie where the character 不 is painted in red across his body. If they had chosen that character, it would have carried a very negative meaning (what character could be more negative in fact?).

Prime Minister Abe’s choice

The article then goes on, saying that the Prime Minister was asked what would be his kanji for the year. Abe’s answer was 挑 from 挑戦・ちょうせん (challenge). In 2017, there were several challenges to Japan Prime Minister like finding measures to face an ageing population and a low birth rate, the menace of North Korea and of course, the general election.

• 少子高齢化・しょうしこうれいか means “a declining birthrate and ageing population”.
• the general election is 総選挙・そうせんきょ
• and finally, the verb 挑む・いどむ means “challenge sb” or “confront (difficulties)”.

Conclusion

It was a very interesting article I think! The first three selected kanji all carry a negative meaning… Last year, the 今年の漢字 was 金, to wish for a lot of gold medals for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Anyway, I have tried to find what kanji could represent the year 2017 from a French point of view, and it’s a difficult exercise!

On the video in the article, we can see that the Kyomizu temple is still under construction…

おしらせ: Next week is finally the long-awaited Kyoto trip (my second time in Japan). This blog will also take some holiday. There will be no new post next week and I will be back for the Wednesday post on December 27th.

I have found an interesting article this morning. Published on Asahi, the article’s title is 年間ベストセラー発表 １位は「九十歳。何がめでたい」.

Link to the article

The title would not have caught my attention if I hadn’t read recently an article about the “アラハン” (around hundred) phenomenon in Japan. I read about this in the magazine 일본어 저널, which is a Korean monthly magazine to learn Japanese (see my review here).

I find it to be a very interesting topic, so I will first write about アラハン and then move to the Asahi article.

アラハン

Source: 일본어 저널, 2017 November, p.74-75.

The term アラハン comes from “around hundred”. Recently, many women around 100 have published books where they look back on their lives and transmit something to younger generations, especially women who could be their daughters and grand-daughters. Even if they lived at a time when women didn’t work, these women all pursue diverse activities, among which, writing books.

It seems that these books’ main readers are women in their 40’s or 50’s. The article says that they want to learn from their “senpai” how to lead a healthy life, even at a great age.

Here is some vocabulary found in the article:

First, アラハン is not the only term used to describe a group of person around a certain age. We also have:

• アラサー around thirty
• アラフォー around forty
• アラフィフ around fifty
• アラカン around sixty. This word comes from 還暦・かんれき which means “one’s sixtieth birthday”.

All these words are 呼び名・よびな, that is “an alias” or a “popular name”. Giving a name to someone or something is called 名付ける・なづける. I thought that this word was only used to say “giving a name to a baby”, but it is not, obviously.

The books written by アラハン women sell well, which in our article is said: 売り上げも好調のようだ.

• 売り上げ・うりあげ the sales.
• 好調’な・こうちょうな good, favourable, satisfactory.

There is a term that I have always found strange. It is 専業主婦・せんぎょうしゅふ which means a “full-time” housewife. I guess that it refers to housewives who don’t have any other professional activity besides looking after their home and children. The アラハン our article is about have not been 専業主婦 but they had other activities.

Finally, an expression worth remembering is “looking back on one’s life” which in Japanese is “自分の人生を振り返る”

• the verb 振り返る・ふりかえる means “to look back” but it can have a concrete meaning like “look over one’s shoulder” and a figurative one like in our article “think back”, “recall”.

「九十歳。何がめでたい」

The 일본어 저널 article said that books from アラハン women made good sales, but only looking at the Asahi article’s title, we know that it is more than that. The book 「九十歳。何がめでたい」written by 佐藤愛子・さとう あいこ is the best best-selling book of 2017.

This book was published by 小学館 in August of last year and more than 1 million copies  (１０５万部) were published. Since September of last year, that is, one month after it’s publication, the book has been ranked among the 20 first bestsellers for 63 weeks in a row.

Asahi’s article then cites a rather long word from the author 佐藤愛子.

She says that she finds it strange that her book should sell so well, because she started it when she was experiencing melancholy or depression ウツ病・うつびょう, or to write it in kanji 鬱病. This was after the publication of her previous book called 「晩鐘」which she thought at the time would be her very last book, or to be more precise, she meant it to be her last book.

• 晩鐘・ばんしょう  means “the evening bell” or the “curfew bell”.

She also says that she does not understand why reading her book has given courage to her readers. She already has written a lot of books and she says that she has always written her own way, as she pleases. This last book is not different, but she remembers having been frowned at for this before. Now, the same writing style arises courage and vitality among her readers. As she says, the times have changed and Japanese people have changed, too.

She uses interesting expressions like:

• 勇気が湧く・ゆうきがわくwhich can be translated, I think, as “inspire someone with courage” or simply “be filled with courage”.
• 顰蹙を買う・ひんしゅくをかう be frowned at, invite frowns of disapproval.
• 悪し様に・あしざまに is an adverb that means “ill”, “unfavourably” like when you say “speak ill of somebody” (悪し様に言う).
• 好き勝手・すきかって just as one likes, as one pleases, as the fancy takes one. In my dictionary, this expression is linked to another one with the same meaning: 好き放題・すきほうだい.

Conclusion

It is maybe not that surprising that such a book should be ranking among the bestsellers, but I would not have expected it to be the first bestseller of 2017. Even if I am not going to read Mrs Sato’s books, I like to know what books are popular in Japan at the moment. I also liked this CM from the publisher to promote 「九十歳。何がめでたい」: