The Phrase "Hitohira No Yuki" in an Example Sentence

Sachiko, a friend of mine, graduated from a university and joined a Japanese bank about a quarter of a century ago. Based on the bank's rule that every new hire was sent to a branch first so that they could learn the basics of the banking business, she was assigned to a branch in Tokyo with three new graduates, who were all men. At that time, most of the regular workers of not only banks, but also large corporations, e.g., trading companies and manufacturers, were men and female workers were called koshikake, meaning sitting (i.e., working) only for a while until getting what they really want, i.e., finding their permanent employers. Women who were 30 or older and still working were thought to be losers who hadn't been able to find their future husbands.

The branch Sachiko was working for was pretty big. It had more than 50 employees and held a new employee welcome party one month after she started to work. Every employee dined and wined and four new employees for that year but Sachiko danced naked with only underwear to show their gratitude while Sachiko being told to sit next to the branch manager to pour sake and beer for him and laugh at his unlaughable jokes. He suddenly said to Sachiko. "You're hitohira no yuki (a flake of snow). Not only you but also your successors will melt and disappear, but someday some of them may survive and accumulate." He seemed to be satisfied at what he'd said and nodded to himself again and again. It was a quarter of a century ago and just a few years after the implementation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act in Japan. 

Sachiko was young and naive at that time, said she. If she were told like this now, she would punch him in the face and call a sexual harassment hotline.
    

Konbini Goodies - Hard-Baked Ottotto with Oat Bran (JPY148)

I found Hard-baked ottotto with oat bran (product information is available only in Japanese) at an outlet of Lawson, a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. The original ottotto was a junk snack made by Morinaga, a Japanese confectionery, which is now famous for having employed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trouble making wife before the marriage. But this new guilt-free goody is a product of the collaboration between the snack manufacturer and the convenience store chain. Its carb intake is 50% of the original one for being baked instead of deep-fried and for the use of oat bran and okara. Okara is soy pulp or tofu dregs and for this, you may think it taste awful, but you are wrong. It tastes the same as original ottotto and goes well with beer and soda. As you can see in the picture, one bag contains only 9.3 grams of carbs and 148 kilocalories. But you have to be careful about one thing. The total amount of carbs of this new product is 9.3 grams (versus of 19.6 grams for the original product) per bag, its total calories (148 kilocalories) is greater than those of the original one (113 kilocalories) due to a net weight difference (35 grams vs. 26 grams). So, if you eat all of a bag of the new ottotto, you end up having more calories. By the way, okara is often used to make cookies, cakes, hamburger patties, etc., more filling to reduce calorie intake. If you live in Japan and have a tofu store in your neighborhood, you may be able to get it for free (because usually tofu stores just throw it away). 

Tag             ⭐⭐
Taste          ⭐⭐⭐
Portion        ⭐⭐⭐
Kawaii         ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price            ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Word "Kanchigai" in an Example Sentence

This is a fictional story based on real events.

Tom is an American and was a former coworker of mine. He’d been shy and nice (he’d never been to New York or Los Angels) until he started to act as if he'd been the coolest guy in the world, like Daniel Craig or Brad Pitt, dating with several Japanese girlfriends in rotation and boasting about his conquests at bars or clubs. From my objectively subjective perspective, he was neither handsome nor funny and anyone could tell that he'd been a geek at his high school. But now he was a poser. He didn't realize that he was able to go on a date with so many girls only because he is a Caucasian and speaks English and for that, they thought that they would be able to live a gorgeous life if they married him, i.e., an expatriate. Ten years later, I ran into him in a supermarket with his Japanese wife and two kids. He avoided me and I found it okay and was happy for him. He seemed to have found his true self. He was no longer a poser or "kanchigai yaro."

Eri also was one of my coworkers. She is Japanese and speaks English fluently. One day she asked me if Tom was an expatriate. After a small chat with me, she changed the target to Ronny, a British guy newly joining the company.

This kind of incidents occur not because of one person’s behavior or action but because of coinciding supply and demand and in most cases, the "customer (Eri in this case)" and the “supplier (i.e., Tom)” made the same mistake, i.e., kanchigai. Tom is a "kanchigai yaro (a poser)" and Eri "kanchigai onna (a stupid bxxxh)."

Konbini Goodies - Death Mix (JPY 298)

I found this konbini (convenience store) goody at a 7-Eleven outlet in my neighborhood. It was pricy for a snack, but I bought one because of the tag "Death Mix - No Death No Life" and "geki kara nuts & arare (very spicy nuts & Japanese savory rice crackers)." This is made by Kabushiki Gaisha Sanshin (Sanshin Co., Ltd.) in Chiba prefecture. The company has an online store and most of its products are experimental, ranging from Japanese traditional rice crackers to mayonnaise, curry or cheese flavored ones. Unfortunately, however, this one is not on the list (as of May 14). The tag also says "Because it is so hot, please don't eat it if you don't like spicy foods. Death Hot & Spicy." Ummmmm. Of course if I didn't like spicy foods, I wouldn't try them.

Death Mix wasn't deadly spicy, at least in the beginning, but 20 seconds later, OMG, it came! But worth trying because it goes well with beer, soda or even sparkling wine.

I found on the internet two other items named also "Death Mix." One is a heavy metal band and the other a beverage, neither of which I knew of and has nothing to to with this devil snack.

Package      ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Taste          ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Portion        ⭐⭐
Kawaii         ⭐
Price            ⭐

To Do List - My Findings From Loneliness Report

I skimmed through a report about loneliness and listed several things to do:

A Japanese Way of Stopping Husbands from Cheating 旦那の浮気を防止する方法

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is a fiction based on real events.

Ichiro, a Japanese man, was a government official and was transferred every one or two years because of the nature of his business. Because he was so busy, his wife, Noriko, had to pack and unpack things mostly by herself. 

The Word "Koremiyogashi" in an Example Sentence

This is a fiction based on real events. I hope that this will help you understand the meaning of "koremiyogashi." 

Copyright Infringed? - Doraemon and Japanese Sweet

A cute Japanese sweet in the above picture is "Chofu waka ayu (young sweetfish-shaped mochi sweet)" of Eirakuya, a Kyoto confectionery. I bought it because it reminded me of another sweet in the picture below, "Satsuki bare (a fine day in May)" of Tsuruya Yoshinobu, another Kyoto confectionery. They are carp. I bought them late April and wrote about them in one of my previous posts "Carp Streamer Sweets."



I first thought that one of the confectioneries copied the other's product, but I was wrong, because both belong to the same category of sweet, "chofu." Chofu, currently meaning gyuhi (similar to mochi) sweet, used to mean a roll of cloth offered as tax. Gyuhi is, like mochi, made from rice powder, but also includes sugar and water to be made easier to eat in summer. In other words, these two have the same ancestor, but have evolved differently, i.e., one to carp-shaped while the other to sweetfish-shaped. Knowing that no copyright has been infringed, I felt relieved.

In China, a copyright infringement related to Doraemon has been argued for several years and finally a Chinese court has ruled that the Doraemon copyright is infringed by a Chinese company. Since "Robot Cat," the character created by the company, and Doraemon look completely the same to me, I was relieved and glad at this reasonable decision of the Chinese court. 

Is Deciphering a Translator's Job?

(The translations included in this post are intended only for reference purposes and may include mistranslations. The author of this blog is not responsible for any loss or damage arising from them. 
以下の文の訳語には間違いが含まれている可能性があります。本ブログの筆者は、当該間違いによる損害等には一切責任を負いません。) 

Sachiko, who used to work as a translator, has a question. Is word-for-word translation enough? What is the scope of job responsibilities of a translator? Sachiko gave me the following examples to clarify the issue:  

外国子会社合算税制 (gaikoku kogaisha gassan zeisei) -> foreign subsidiary combined tax system
特定外国関係会社 (tokutei gaikoku kankei gaisha) -> a specified foreign affiliated company　 
外国金融子会社等 (gaikoku kinyu kogaisha to) -> a foreign finance subsidiary etc. 
部分対象外国関係会社 (bubun taisho gaikoku kankei gaisha) -> a partial target foreign affiliated company
対象外国関係会社 (taisho gaikoku kankei gaisha) -> an applicable foreign affiliated company

The original Japanese terms are all technical, used in Japanese controlled foreign company ("CFC") rules (i.e., tax related rules) and the English terms were their translation by Google Translate. These are correct on a "word-for-word" basis, i.e., every word of the Japanese terms was translated into English and then, the translated words were put back together to form an English term. The thing is that the English translations don't give us any clue about what they are and translators are often to blame for this. But the real problem is that the original Japanese terms mean nothing either without referring to their definitions or explanations provided in the relevant laws and regulations. The English translations are not understandable not because of poor translation, but the terrible original Japanese terms. So, Sachiko translated not these Japanese words, but their definitions/explanations. The results are as follows:

外国子会社合算税制 -> Japanese controlled foreign company ("CFC") rules

特定外国関係会社 -> a CFC which is a shell company and therefore whose income is fully included in the Japanese parent company's taxable income (hereinafter "a shell CFC")

外国金融子会社等 -> a non-shell CFC which meets the economic activity tests; which is a financial company; and therefore whose income partially included in the Japanese parent company's taxable income (hereinafter "a financial CFC")

部分対象外国関係会社 -> a non-shell CFC which meets the economic activity tests; which is not a financial company; and therefore whose income is partially included in the Japanese parent company's taxable income (hereinafter "a non-financial CFC") 

対象外国関係会社 -> a non-shell CFC which fails to meet any of the economic activity tests and therefore whose income is fully included in the Japanese parent company's taxable income (hereinafter "a test-failed CFC")

As you can see, they no longer are translations. Also, they should be described in the form of table or flow chart and may require more detailed explanations (e.g., the definition of "partial" income). Sachiko said that when translating terms of this kind, translators need to give readers two things; their precise definitions (i.e., the translation of not their original Japanese terms, but their intended meaning) and short and easy-to-understand terms (e.g., abbreviations). She also said that because these terms can't be translated "word-for-word," they may need to be translated differently depending on contexts. Sachiko wishes the day would come when such deciphering work would no longer be necessary.

Choose Your Battles - Tora-san, Kamikaze and Karoshi

I watched a documentary TV program about Kiyoshi Atsumi a few days ago. He was the actor who played "Tora-san," the protagonist of "It's tough to be a man (otoko wa tsurai yo). The Tora-san series is one of the most popular movies and Kiyoshi Atsumi is also one of the most beloved actors. Many still visit Tora-san's hometown, Katsushika Shibamata. In spite of such his popularity, however, watching the series makes me sad and angry.