When referring to the Japanese people, collectively, in conversation, I rapidly tire of using the word “japanese”. One, it’s ambiguous – it could refer to either the language or the people themselves, which often ends in having to suffix the word with one of those nouns. Two, it’s too long – three syllables, one of them double-length and complex – “eeze” – for a total of four “pronunciation units”. It gets old quickly.
So I find myself often just saying “japs”. It’s not meant as any kind of racial epithet – it’s a simple abbreviation. The word has no other connotations for me at all; it’s a linguistic shortcut, an expedient, a nickname, like referring to McDonalds as “M” or Diet Coke as “DC”.
But every now and again I get told that I’m racist for using that word. It’s true that there is a historical wartime association with it; a few seconds on google will unearth any number of WWII-era propaganda posters about the US imperative of fighting the “Dirty Japs” until one’s dying breath. So, I concede – while not “racist” in my eyes, the word does have a taint, and is probably best avoided, at least in public.
But what is the alternative? Don’t say, “just say the full word!” .. let’s take it as a given that I’m not going to do that. So here’s my challenge to all those who might take affront at my jap-slinging – what would YOU like to hear, instead?
An obvious alternative is “Nips”, short for “Nipponese” – a weird bastard word, using both the formal Japanese name for their country, Nippon, and an awkwardly affixed “-ese” to render the word, in English, descriptive of its inhabitants.
But I don’t like that word, for 3 reasons. One, the word “Nipponese” annoys me. It’s a silly word – it claims to be more “correct” than “Japanese”, but it’s not correct. If you wanted to be correct, you’d say Nihonjin. Nipponese is a non-word, at once harder to say, more pretentious, and yet just as incorrect as its more common competitor.
Two, the word “Nipponese” and especially its shortened form “Nips” has far stronger wartime connotation for me. It’s strongly reminiscent of the asian war in the 1940s, and the two words are primarily used by the generally ungrateful recipients of Japanese attention during that period.
Three, the word “Nips” is ambiguous in western conversation as its meaning has been smeared to include all asians, especially those of whom one does not approve. So, “Nips” is right out.
So what’s left? Suggestions are welcome. The word must be at maximum two syllables, easy to pronounce, and suitable for polite conversation. I certainly can’t think of anything.
So in the absence of any established, uncontroversial nickname, and in the spirit of Australian laziness, I think I’ll just make my own. Unfortunately the traditional Aussie way of constructing a nickname – adding “-za!!” to the end of the first syllable of a noun – is unavailing in this instance – I don’t like the sound of “Jazza!” very much. An alternative, adding “-bbo” or “-ppo” provides a more appealing but not yet ideal option – Jappos! But I wonder if even that word could provoke misunderstanding and resentment. To me, it actually sounds faintly european. I don’t like it much.
Perhaps an acronym? Usually, this is my preferred nickname format, possessing all the desirable traits of uniqueness, leetness, indecipherability to unknowing third parties, and conformance to a technical tradition of jargonistic unix-style ultra-pithiness.
So, I’m going with acronymisation. The third-level domain of Japan is .jp, an ideal candidate – unambigously referring to Japan by sound and construction. I like the internet connotation and indeed I often refer to the country of Japan in IM dialect as JP, as in “I’m going to AU for a month then back to JP”. However, I feel it can be repurposed to suit the population in speech dialect.
So from now on I’m going to replace my use of the word “japs” with the acronym JPs. If you like, you can pretend it stands for “Japanese Peoples” but actually that’s just a happy coincidence.
JP: Japan
JPs: Japanese People
For extra points, we can abbreviate the abbreviation to Js. This has the additional benefit of versatility, conforming with the well-established tradtion of prefixing a word with “j-” to mean the japanese version of such-and-such. As in, “Whiteys are often surprised when they see some of the edge cases of J-cuisine, for example raw horse meat .. but the Js seem to love it!”
J-: Japanese version of something, eg. j-pop, j-girls, j-food
Js: Japanese people, eg. “the Js”
If you say Js, you should probably say “the” in front of it, ie “the Js”. If you want to use JPs, you don’t need to say “the”.
JPs. I can’t see how the Js can complain about that. Any JPs want to dispute my proposition, now’s your chance!