Japanese words that entered the OED

23 new words in Oxford English Dictionary.

More on OED's Japanese entries:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 552 Japanese words have entered the English language so far—some loanwords date back to the 16th century!

It can be observed that the oldest Japanese borrowings recorded by the OED are bonze, a word for a Buddhist priest or religious teacher, and Kuge, the name of the nobility attached to the Imperial Court at Kyoto during feudal Japan. Both words are first attested in Richard Willes' (Wylles) Of the Ilande Giapan, and other litle Iſles in the Eaſt Ocean, a section of The History of Trauayle in the West and East Indies, a collection of travel writings co-edited by Willes with Richard Eden, published in London in 1577. This account of Japan is considered one of the earliest in English.

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Japanese words continued to trickle slowly into English until the early 19th century. The now familiar words bento, katana, miso, mochi, sake, shogun, and tatami were all first used in English in the 1600s, and the still common words hiragana, koi, samurai, and tofu entered the language in the 1700s and early 1800s. Beyond direct borrowings, Japanese influence on English is evident in words that, while primarily composed of English elements, reflect Japanese structures or concepts.

The word hand roll, for instance, is constructed after the Japanese word temaki, short for temakizushi 'hand-rolled sushi', which itself combines the word te 'hand' with –maki, the combining stem of maku 'to roll up', and –zushi, the combining form of sushi. Breakfall is a term in judo for a movement that diminishes the impact of a fall. And just as the Betamax, Walkman, camcorder, Game Boy, and Pac-Man are made in Japan, so are their names. To date, the OED includes over 900 entries connected to Japan in some way, including the over 500 borrowings indicated in the Timeline.

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The influx of Japanese words into English has continued unabated well into the 21st century. The latest Japanese loanword in the OED, amigurumi, a Japanese craft involving crocheting or knitting small, stuffed figures resembling animals or other creatures, was first recorded in 2006. Japanese words have become an integral part of English vocabulary, and we encounter them daily in activities like playing Sudoku, singing karaoke, adjusting bokeh on our cameras, admiring kawaii things, and expressing emotions through emojis.

I was a teenager before a realized the English phrase "just a skosh" borrowed from the Japanese word "sukoshi" (little).
Also, I was similarly aged when I found out the word "honcho" (as in, head honcho), was borrowed from the Japanese word "hanchō" (leader).

Tsunami seems to have entered the English lexicon without any resistance.

Shiitake, a kind of mushroom

Sudoku, a numbers game

Haiku poetry

Kimono and geisha

Sumo wrestling (although the English and Japanese pronunciation of sumo are very different)

Anime

Pokemon (abbreviation for "pocket monster")

Godzilla

Emoji

Most people don't know that the word rickshaw comes from Japanese, derived from the word jinrikisha

The use of the word yen to refer to Japanese money, which is not the word used in Japanese. 100 yen is pronounced 100 en in Japanese.

Hibachi, a small BBQ grill

Karaoke, another widely used word

Harakiri ("hairy kerry"), ritual suicide by sword. (Most English speakers don't know that Japanese people don't usually say harakiri, they prefer a different word.)

Sayonara is known by a surprisingly large number of English speakers

Kamikaze pilots (but most English speakers are shocked to learn that the actual word used by Japanese speakers is not kamikaze. More than once I have heard English speakers use the word kamikaze while speaking to a Japanese person and the Japanese person has no idea what the English speaker is talking about.) I don't think a Japanese person would understand the phrase kamikaze taxi driver as it is used in English.

Banzai charge is another phrase not used the same way by English and Japanese speakers. The same is true of the word banzai,

Sushi and sukiyaki (and maybe ramen too)

Sake rice wine

Shamisen three-string 'guitar'

Shinto religion

The musical instrument koto

The name of the Japanese board game go comes from the Japanese name for the game, igo (not from the Chinese name for the game, which is completely different)

Ninja and samurai are perhaps the best known Japanese to English words. Shogun too.

The word Japan is actually a verb in English, to Japan something, meaning to coat something with a heavy coat of black lacquer, as in to Japan a wooden box

Buntaro said:

Sayonara is known by a surprisingly large number of English speakers

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It's been in the culture for a long time now. For example, this movie won several Academy Awards.


Ironically, for Spanish audiences the phrase hasta la vista baby was changed to sayonara baby

I love the way the baseball term "sayonara home run" went from Japanese to English, then back to Japanese. Now, when a sayonara home run happens in a Japanese baseball game on tv, they flash the word sayonara on the screen , but in katakana, meaning it's a word borrowed from English.

The usage of katakana in Japanese is much more complex and not restricted to loanwords from other languages:

There's certainly no rule that if you can write a word in kanji, you must. In fact, there are lots of situations where using kana can feel more natural. In a nutshell, it comes down to the type of writing (for example, business letter versus friendly email), the particular context, and the preference of the writer. Sometimes a writer might feel that the kanji representation is too stiff or formal. For example, the word ありがとう can be written 有難う, and you might see it this way in very formal writing, but in most contexts, the kana version feels softer and friendlier, which is usually the feeling the writer wants for a word that, after all, means "thank you." [...] The author may choose katakana in order to draw attention to a word, similarly to how we use italics in English, or to indicate that they know the word has kanji but are deliberately choosing not to use it because they think it's too rare. For example, the word かぎ has the kanji 鍵, but it's often jotted down as カギ as a sort of shorthand for "You know the kanji that I mean." Scientific terms, such as classifications of animals and plants, are usually written in katakana. Again, this is a way of making the word stand out as distinctly important, much as we write names such as Homo sapiens or E. coli in italics.

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Source:

I was surprised to learn that the word hunky-dory comes to English from Japanese. If you have a chance, look it up on Wikipedia.

Buntaro said:

I was surprised to learn that the word hunky-dory comes to English from Japanese. If you have a chance, look it up on Wikipedia.

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It is often claimed that hunky-dory has its origins in Western sailors visiting Yokohama, Japan. One of the streets in Yokohama is named Honchodori, and in the mid nineteenth centuries it was lined with bars and brothels, just the place for sailors arriving in port after a long sea voyage. The chronology of this explanation works—Japan opened up to foreign trade in the 1850s. If this explanation is correct, the American adoption of the term would likely have been a combination of sailors bringing tales of the place home and the older slang term hunky. Unfortunately for this explanation, however, it is just conjecture. There is no evidence linking American use of hunky-dory to Japan. None of the early uses are by sailors or in nautical contexts. So, while the explanation is chronologically plausible, the lack of evidence makes it unlikely.

One thing we must consider is that some of these words have not truly 'entered' the English language. Recently I was speaking with an American woman (in America, in English) and I was surprised to hear she didn't know what a bonsai tree was. I guess we have to realize that people (like us members of this forum) may think a Japanese-to-English word is common in English because we are familiar with it, but this may not be the case with people who are totally unfamiliar with Japan and the Japanese language.

The OED added 11 Japanese-derived words in its December 2025 update, ranging from ekiden and mottainai to yokai.

Though ekiden is a long-distance relay race unique to Japan, similar races have sometimes been staged outside the country under the name "road relay." In recent years, events labeled "ekiden" have been held not only in the U.K. but also across Europe, including in France and Belgium, and are gradually gaining recognition.

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Among the 11 new entries added to the Oxford English Dictionary are mottainai and yokai, two words closely tied to Japanese culture. Oxford University Press, which publishes the dictionary, explains mottainai as an expression of regret or disapproval toward wasteful or disrespectful behaviour, noting its growing relevance in discussions around environmental issues. Yokai is a broad category of spirits and supernatural beings in Japanese mythology and folklore. This term has become more widely recognised through translations of Japanese fiction, particularly anime and manga.

Another addition is the Washlet, Toto Ltd.'s warm-water toilet seat. The company has been expanding overseas and now markets the product in more than 100 countries. International sales accounted for about 27 per cent of Toto's toilet business in 2019, rising to over 30 per cent by 2024.

Other Japan-related terms newly included are senbei, a Japanese rice cracker that can be savoury or sweet and comes in a wide range of shapes and flavours, and White Day, observed on 14 March. On that day, men traditionally return the gifts they received on Valentine's Day, often by giving chocolate or other presents, mainly white ones.
Paywall alert:

Ironically, White Day is dying out in Japan.

Lothor said:

Ironically, White Day is dying out in Japan.

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Another sign of the sōshoku kei trend?

Time to push Black Day in Japan.

thomas said:

Time to push Black Day in Japan.

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Maybe if they spent Black Day ripping some curls/squats rather than eating, they might've received some gifts on Valentine's Day……although I'm still waiting for last year's