1. The Japan Series was not the only thing the Hanshin Tigers won this year, with “A.R.E” — based on the Japanese word “are,” meaning “that” — crowned buzzword of the year, after team manager Akinobu Okada popularized the term as an indirect reference to victory.
2. “Are” began being used to avoid saying “win” out loud in an effort to not jinx the team’s chances of winning the league championship. It later morphed into A.R.E., an acronym that became the team’s slogan for the year, standing for Aim, Respect and Empower. It appeared to work its magic, with the team, the subject of a supposed KFC-related curse, winning its first Japan Series in 38 years.
3. “Baseball is a team sport so you can’t do it alone — by continuing to win games thanks to everyone’s effort, in Kansai, newspapers and media would introduce the term ‘are’ every single day, leading to a way bigger response than I ever imagined,” Okada said. “It really hyped up Kansai and the sports industry as a whole — I’m glad to have been able to contribute even a little to that.”
・Do you believe in Jinx-ing?
・Do you know any English buzzwords this year?
4. The annual buzzword contest, called U-Can Shingo Ryukogo Taisho, is organized by the publishing house Jiyukokuminsha. This year continues a streak of baseball-related terms being named the top buzzword, with “Murakami-sama” winning in 2022 to recognize record-breaking Yakult Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami, and “Shōtaimu” (“Sho-Time”) and “riaru nitōryu” (“real two-way player”) topping the list in 2021 in reference to MLB phenom Shohei Ohtani.
5. One more baseball-inspired term — “peppā-miru pafōmansu” (“pepper-mill performance”) — made the top 10 this year, recognizing Lars Nootbaar’s celebrations as part of the Samurai Japan squad at the World Baseball Classic. The St. Louis Cardinals outfielder became a fan favorite, including for the gesture meant to praise his teammates for “grinding it out” on the field.
6. Another sports-related term that made the top 10 was “yonenburi / koedashiōen” (“first time in four years / cheering out loud”), a nod to how audiences were given the all clear to scream and cheer at sporting events and concerts thanks to COVID-19 restrictions being lifted.
What do you think of the top 10 buzzwords this year?
7. “Up until last year, choosing the buzzword of the year was depressing because (many of the options) were all kind of dark,” said linguist Hideho Kindaichi, who served as a judge for the contest. “But with end of the COVID-19 pandemic, this was no longer the case this year — there were more positive stories.”
8. He noted that this year featured more future-oriented words, including “mirushō” (“watching shogi”), popularized by the excitement surrounding shogi prodigy Sota Fujii, in the top 10. Kindaichi said he believes Fujii will continue to get stronger.
9. On the other hand, another word in the top 10, “kaerukagenshō” (“getting the ick”), poked fun at the awkward dissonance many felt after coming back to in-person, maskless interactions. The term describes the phenomenon of instantly losing feelings for someone after witnessing a certain habit or action.
・How would you describe your experiences of 2023 in one sentence or just one word.
・Do a lot of people in Japan believe in superstition? If you know any superstitious beliefs tell us.
