{"id":31405,"date":"2013-08-13T14:19:20","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T18:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=31405"},"modified":"2013-08-13T17:15:51","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T21:15:51","slug":"wit-life-244-japans-%e6%b4%bb-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2013\/08\/13\/wit-life-244-japans-%e6%b4%bb-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"WIT Life #244: Japan’s \u6d3b boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

WIT Life <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>is a periodic series written by professional Writer\/Interpreter\/Translator <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>Stacy Smith<\/strong><\/a> <\/em>(Kumamo<\/a><\/strong><\/em>to-ken<\/a> CIR, 2000-<\/strong><\/em>03).\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>She starts<\/strong><\/em> her day by watching Fujisankei\u2019s newscast in Japanese, and here she sha<\/strong><\/em>r<\/strong><\/em>es some of the interesting tidbits and <\/strong><\/em>t<\/strong><\/em>r<\/strong><\/em>ends along with her own observations.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em>\"\"<\/p>\n

Recently on the Japanese morning news there was an interesting “Saki Tsubu” segment which highlighted the Japanese phenomenon of using the character \u6d3b (katsu<\/em>) to describe various activities.\u00a0 Many of you are probably familiar with the original combination of\u00a0 \u5c31\u6d3b (shuukatsu<\/em><\/strong>), introduced in 2000.\u00a0 This phrase, comprised of the characters for work and activity, is an abbreviation for \u5c31\u8077\u6d3b\u52d5 (shuushoku katsudou<\/em>) and refers to being engaged in job searching.<\/p>\n

This coinage was followe\"\"d in 2007 by \u5a5a\u6d3b (konkatsu<\/strong>), which puts together the characters for marriage and activity to describe young men and women trying to meet each other with the goal of getting married (and is an abbreviation for \u7d50\u5a5a\u6d3b\u52d5 (kekkon katsudou<\/em>)).\u00a0 Little did the world know that over the next couple of years there would be an explosion in\u00a0katsu<\/em> expressions, covering things ranging from the mundane to the morbid.\u00a0 The following is an outline of several katsu\u00a0<\/em>expressions that can be commonly heard in Japan these days.<\/p>\n