失恋

Kotobagari (言葉狩り?, “word hunting”) refers to the reluctance to use words that are considered politically incorrect in the Japanese language. For instance words such as rai (癩?, “leper”), mekura (盲?, “blind”), tsunbo (聾 “deaf”), oshi (唖 “deaf-mute”), kichigai (気違い or 気狂い “crazy”), tosatsujō (屠殺場 “slaughter house”), and hakuchi (白痴 “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 a school janitor in Japan was used to be called a kozukai-san (小使いさん “chore person”). Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to yōmuin (用務員 “task person”). Now yōmuin is considered demeaning, so there is shift to use kōmuin (校務員 “school task member”) or kanrisagyōin (管理作業員 “maintenance member”) instead. Linguist Stephen Pinker calls this shift the euphemism treadmill.

Other examples of words which have become unacceptable include the replacement of the word hyakushō (百姓) for farmer with nōka (農家), or the replacement of the word shina (支那) for China written in kanji with the version written in katakana (シナ) or with the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese name for China, Chūgoku (中国).