Hello everyone, as a native Chinese speaker, I want to discuss a potentially controversial topic that has perplexed me for a long time. Personally, I find the use of Katakana in Japanese particularly baffling. During the Meiji era, the Japanese translation of foreign words was often adopted by China. For example, democracy (民主), Renaissance (文藝復興), congress (議會), physics (物理), and philosophy (哲學) are all brilliantly translated, and I greatly admire the Japanese translators who rendered these foreign terms into Kanji. However, it seems that in modern times, the translation of foreign words in Japanese has increasingly shifted to Katakana transcriptions. This might be justifiable, given the growing influx of foreign words, potentially enhancing translation efficiency. Yet, this leads to my increasing difficulty in understanding Japanese, as the more Katakana there is, the less Kanji is used.
What puzzles me is that it seems many native Japanese terms are also transcribed in Katakana. Take the finance industry, for example:
Account: 口座 (Kanji), アカウント (Katakana)
Refund: 返金 (Kanji), リファンド (Katakana)
Index: 指数 (Kanji), インデックス (Katakana)
Capital gain: 資産益 (Kanji), キャピタルゲイン (Katakana)
Overproduction: 生産過剰 (Kanji), オーバープロダクション (Katakana)
Cash dispenser: 現金自動支払機 (Kanji), キャッシュディスペンサ
ー (Katakana)
This phenomenon isn’t limited to sectors like finance that use many technical terms. For example, there’s a subway station in Japan called “Tennozu Isle” (天王洲アイル), where “アイル” is used instead of Kanji “島” (isle).
Similarly, I once changed my iPhone’s language setting to Japanese, I found that “dark mode” was translated as “ダークモード,” which was a culture shock for me. In a Chinese-speaking country, if “dark mode” were translated phonetically as “達克墨德 (da ke mo de),” I believe 100% of people wouldn’t understand its meaning.
This is also evident in the cultural entertainment industry. For example, the Japanese game “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is translated as “ゼルダの伝説 ティアーズ オブ ザ キングダム” instead of “王国の淚” , which is almost entirely in Katakana transcription.
In contrast, the Chinese translation is “王國之淚”, which is very clear and understandable. Another example is the movie “No Time to Die,” translated in Japanese as “ノー・タイム・トゥ・ダイ” and in Chinese as “無暇赴死” (literally, “No Time to Die”).
Lastly, The movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is translated in Japanese as “エブリシング・エブリウェア・オール・アット・ワンス” and in Chinese as “瞬息全宇宙” (“Instant Whole Universe”).
Therefore, I’m curious to ask native Japanese speakers or those learning Japanese: if you had never heard of these things before, would you understand their meanings? And what are your opinions on this kind of Katakana transcription? Thank you.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/19ffebh/how_do_you_view_the_preference_for_katakana_over/