It’s that time of year again when online education service U-CAN announces its picks for the top buzzwords and neologisms of the year. These selections give us a peek into what events and cultural phenomena in Japan captured people’s attention and imagination.
However, this year’s announcement generated confusion, as many people didn’t catch the reference. Learn why online commenters say U-CAN missed the mark this year.
The winner: ふてほど (Futehodo)
For the first time in over a decade, the top award went to a drama. Extremely Inappropriate! (不適切にもほどがある; futekisetsu ni mo hodo ga aru) – known popularly by its abbreviation Futehodo.
Ogawa Ichiro, a single dad in 1986 raising his daughter Junko, gets on a bus that somehow transports him to 2024. He finds he can return to 1986 through a toilet in his favorite bar. However, one day, the toilet gets renovated from a Japanese-style to a Western-style one, cutting off his return path.
Ogawa tries to make a go of it in 2024. However, he quickly discovers that his crass Showa-era ways – rife with sexual innuendo, corporal punishment, and (gasp!) smoking – run afoul of the Reiwa era’s focus on compliance and workplace reform.
The series serves as a commentary on what’s deemed as “acceptable” by society changes over time. In the end, says U-CAN, “the series teaches us that, no matter the era, what’s inappropriate remains inappropriate.”
“Inappropriate transmission?!”
The last drama to win U-CAN’s top spot was a series heavy on the Showa era workplace vibes. Hanzawa Naoki won in 2013 for 倍返し (baigaeshi), “a thousand times over” – part of Hanzawa’s famous catchphrase in which he promised to return the pain to anyone who tried to sink him in his quest to root out fraud at his bank.
However, Futehodo is apparently less well-known than its august predecessor. When the announcement was made during U-Can’s livestream, some NicoNico commentators expressed confusion.
“First I’ve heard of it,” said one.
“Inappropriate transmission?” said another. (不適切報道, futekisetsu houdou, would also fit the show’s abbreviation)
To be sure, Futehodo didn’t have the same real-time viewership as Hanzawa Naoki. The show only averaged a live viewership of 7.4%. By contrast, 44% of Japanese viewers saw the last episode of the first season of Hanzawa.
Live viewership doesn’t account for the massive growth of online services, which didn’t exist when Hanzawa aired. (And digital media companies like Netflix, which carries Futehodo online, don’t release viewership numbers.) Even so, many people on social media say U-CAN flubbed this year’s award by choosing an “obscure” nominee. In an online poll on Yahoo! News, a full 95% of respondents say they “don’t agree” with the organization’s choice. The corresponding news article has over 4,000 heated comments.
Even people who say they’ve heard of the drama weren’t aware that “futehodo” had become a slang term. Many sports fans were disappointed that the top spot didn’t go to “50-50,” reflecting Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Ohtani Shohei’s record-setting season of 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases.
Other notable top 10 buzzwords of 2024
Fortunately, many of U-CAN’s top 10 picks are a lot more familiar – and newsworthy.
“White case” (ホワイト案件; howaito anken)
“Yami baito,” or “dark part-time work,” has captured the attention of the public – and the police – in Japan. For years, criminal organizations like the Luffy gang have used social media to recruit young people to commit crimes on their behalf. The daylight robbery of a high-end watch store in Ginza last year is one brazen example.
A “white case” is a social media post for a yami baito that, on its surface, promises respondents a “legal” way to earn money easily. Once someone falls into the trap, the criminals make copies of their personal information and use it to blackmail them into committing further crimes until they’re caught. The masterminds remain in the background, protected by anonymity and coercion.
One man who fell in with the Luffy organization was quoted by NHK News as saying: “On social media, there’s no such thing as a ‘white case.'” If only people would heed his advice. Sadly, stagnant wages and rising prices in Japan make yami baito too tempting for some people to pass by.
Kaiwai (界隈)
Originally “neighborhood” or “vicinity,” in recent years this word’s taken on more of a meaning of “circle” or “clique.” It’s another term brought to us by Japan’s Gen Z, who use it in hashtags to self-organize on social media sites. (For example, selfies are often shared under the hashtag 自撮り界隈, jidori kaiwai.) This word – along with words like “yabai” and “egui” – shows how Japanese, like other languages, changes with the passing of each generation.
Slush fund scandal (裏金問題; uragane mondai)
For years, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo kept his Liberal Democratic Party embroiled in financial scandals. Abe’s behavior was so blatant that the scandals continued well after his death.
Last year, voters lambasted the LDP when the Japan Communist Party broke the news that multiple politicians – many from the so-called Abe Faction – had taken kickbacks from the party’s slush fund that they never reported as part of their political income. Anger boiled over when prosecutors announced they wouldn’t charge those who’d been caught with their arms elbows-deep in the cookie jar. The breach of public trust was a major factor in the LDP’s historic loss in October’s Lower House election.
The other words on U-CAN’s list might be more entertaining. But there’s little doubt that, among all the nominees, the slush fund scandal had the largest impact on daily life in Japan.
New currency (新紙幣; shin shihei)
Every 20 years, Japan introduces new bills that incorporate new anti-counterfeiting technology. This year’s rollout of the fresh faces made headlines for several reasons:
- Many small businesses in Japan – particularly ramen shops and other restaurants – use ticketing systems to buy food. Even today, months after the new bills rolled out, some shops haven’t retrofitted their machines to accept the new currency.
- It’s common to give cash as a gift at Japanese weddings. However, some women said they were refusing to accept the new 10,000 yen bills because they bear the face of famous industrialist – and known philanderer – Shibusawa Eiichi.
- The new currency marks the official demise of the 2000 yen bill, which was not included in this new printing.
Bling-Bang-Bang-Born
After years of languishing in the shadow of K-Pop, Japanese pop is having a moment. 2023 and most of 2024 were dominated by Ado (“Ussei Wa”) and YOASOBI (“Idol” from Oshi no Ko and pretty much every other anime theme song you’ve heard recently). These artists and other groups like Atarashii Gakko Leaders are netting international audiences, selling out stadiums in Japan and overseas. Most of these groups are riding the worldwide cultural popularity of anime to success.
Hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts also muscled its way into fame this year. Performing since 2018, the duo consisting of DJ Matsunaga and rapper R-Shitei have written catchy diddies this year for anime phenom Dandadan and (coincidentally) drama Extremely Inappropriate!.
However, it was the fast-paced Bling-Bang-Bang-Born, released at the top of this year, that launched them to fame and fortune. The theme song for the anime Mashle: Magic and Muscles, BBBB became a worldwide hit after the accompanying “BBBB Dance” went viral on TikTok. The song placed number eight on the Billboard Global 200 and topped the Billboard Japan Top 100 for eight straight weeks.
That’s enough (もうええでしょう, mou ee deshou)
This phrase, delivered with a twist of Kansai dialect, belongs to the hit drama Tokyo Swindlers. (We reviewed the original book earlier this year.) The rough-and-tumble story about land swindlers in Japan revolves around a famous case in 2017, where a group defrauded a Japanese company of millions by selling an inn they never owned.
The drama is one of a slate of shows produced recently by Netflix for the Japanese market. That means that, unlike shows such as Extremely Inapproriate!, the production values are closer to American dramas. That might have helped Swindlers – and its iconic phrase – land a spot in this year’s top ten.
View the full 2024 list here (Japanese)
Past winners
2023: Oshi no Ko
2022: Murakami-sama
2021: Double-threat player / Sho-time!
2020: The 3 C’s
2019: One Team
2018: GAFA
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Sources
流行語年間大賞は「ふてほど」！ ドラマ関連ワードは「倍返し」以来11年ぶり TBS快挙. Sponichi Annex
第41回 2024年 授賞語. U-CAN Inc.
｢不適切にもほどがある！｣世代で生じる”温度差”. Toyo Keizai
「ふてほど」流行語大賞は…TBS製作陣の“戦略勝ち” 平均世帯視聴率7・4％も浸透した背景は. Sponichi Annex
闇バイトで運転役 “SNSにホワイト案件はない”と後悔を打ち明け. NHK News Web
