If I call a Toyota a jap car or a Kawasaki a jap bike for instance, am I just automatically being racist without knowing it…
I’ve said somewhere I’ve always rode jap bikes and love the reliability of jap cars and I’m being flamed for being racist…
So, japanese people of reddit… what do you think?
EDIT: So it appears that I should stop using the word… sorry for asking. There are some replies where people have straight up called me racist. So sorry to those people… there are still many auto parts suppliers here that use names like ‘jap auto spares’ and I had always just assumed a shortening of the word for ease of use, much like euro parts when talking about auto parts for European vehicles.
So again, sorry and I’ll make the effort to just use Japanese as opposed to the word jap for short.
14 comments
If you’re American, that term is a hard no. My understanding is that other English speaking countries didn’t use that term as horrifically negatively as we did so you get things like Jap Performance Parts in the UK, but it’s probably best to not use it outside of “That’s the actual name of the thing” context regardless
It’s best not to use it. I’m not sure if mainland Japanese ever encountered it as a racial slur so they might not have an opinion of it. However ethnic Japanese people who lived in America during WWII did. It was used as a term for an enemy country and ethnicity.
Here is more info on it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap)
The term Jap for Japanese people comes from World War 2 propaganda slogans of “Slap the Jap” and has been considered derogatory since the late 60s. No one cares what country’s cars you like.
As a Japanese-American, I don’t think “jap” warrants being flamed by people online (especially since there are a lot of people who don’t know the history of the word), but the word is a bit unsettling. Just calling the vehicles by the brand name or as “Japanese” probably works better.
I’m not Japanese, but I’ve been studying the language long enough to know that Japanese people who speak English can actually be quite bothered by the term. It was the go-to slur for the Japanese at the time they were occupied, after all, and that has left an impression.
Australian here. It’s a hard no on using that phrase – it’s been recognised as a derogatory term here for a very long time.
It just sounds weird because I never hear any one refree to anything japanese as japanese.
That term was used as a derogatory term for the last 50+ years. The term jap and nip are very disrespectful. I seen people abbreviate Japanese for like machinery but it’s like idk “Toyota//camery//08//jp//piece or something like that. But I’ve never actually heard anyone besides old people (like my pa) use those terms.
It’s no different then using any other racial slurs. I have noticed as a Japanese person growing up in US, people seem to throw it around more thinking it’s acceptable. It doesn’t really offended me but it’s all dependent on how it’s used.
I grew up in Japan for 15 years and absolutely it’s a no to refer to anything as that. It is so disrespectful. Also, being apart of the car community in Tokyo and in the states it is not okay to refer to any of the cars or car parts as that. You referenced calling European cars “euro parts” which is completely different because “euro” has never been used, to my knowledge, as a derogatory and racist term during WWII or at anytime. Just don’t. It’s a bad look.
You’re an idiot, and racist. Congrats
This word has nothing to do with the Japanese language and you don’t even need to understand a single Japanese word to know this a racial slur. Not sure how you’re an English speaker but don’t know it’s a racist word but it is.
I haven’t heard those terms used by anyone younger than about 65 tbh. And yes it’s derogatory, so steer clear.
I tutored for Japanese families (who worked for Honda and had be relocated to the US) and I can say that those families found that word insulting and uncomfortable. Why not just avoid it because it has such negative connotations?