Social and political changes in Japan and their reflection in Japanese vocabulary

Abstract

The article is concerned with the foreign origin neologisms that have become part of the social and political vocabulary of Japanese in the last 10 years. Author studied new words and phrases that emerged under the influence of the English language; 100 neologisms were selected for the study. The article analyzes the 20 most frequently encountered words and phrases for significant events in the social and political life of Japan. The analyzed neologisms have been widely used in publications and press in recent years. Among the sources studied, one can single out both neologisms of exclusively foreign origin, which are a combination of kango (words of Chinese origin), and borrowings from foreign languages both in a full form or abbreviations.

The study paid particular attention to neologisms that emerged under the influence of the political processes in Japan and the United States during the presidency of Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States. The study analyzed and identified the relationship between the economic and cultural influences of the United States on Japan and the large-scale processes of Americanization of the Japanese language. The paper presents the results of comparative studies of political processes and, as a consequence, the reforms of the social and working life of Japanese society and the emergence of neologisms due to this influence.