Top 60 Japanese buzzwords of 2007
Pink Tentacle has descriptions of the top 60 buzzwords coined this year in Japan.
Link33. Akachan post [赤ちゃんポスト]: Akachan post (”baby post”) refers to the controversial drop box for unwanted babies set up at a hospital in Kumamoto this year, which is designed to provide parents a safe and anonymous way to abandon their babies. Similar baby hatches have been set up in the past, including one at a foster home in Japan’s Gunma prefecture that was used from 1986 to 1991.
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I see the purpose for this, but that is the saddest thing I've seen in...uh, the last hour I guess. (Read the Amber story yesterday, so I can't say this is the saddest thing I've seen in a long time.)
I remember reading about a large barrel set in the side of a hospital in Paris or maybe Bordeaux, used thru the 19th c, for exactly the same purpose.
@escaliers
everything old is new again.
This has been used for centuries
wikipedia link
So I guess the Japanese (or whomever our translator here, is) mean something different by the word "buzzword" than we do, or at least I do. To me, a buzzword is something like synergize or multimedia...a word that might have once had a functional meaning, but has been exaggerated through popularity and overuse into a general purpose word used to enhance the "buzz-factor" (itself a buzzword) of something.
These might better be called catch phrases or even cultural keywords...
The saddest thing about the baby hatch in Japan is that one of the first babies abandoned their was a three year old kid. Really, a "father" left his three year old son in a baby hatch.
There are several baby hatches in Germany. Most of them not only offer the baby hatch but also therapy and counseling for the mothers, anonymous births and they really care for the mothers and the babies. The mothers can decide afterwards whether they want to keep the baby or not, if they don't, the children will be adopted and the mother will always have the possibility to stay in contact with her child, if she wants to.
It's not a perfect solution, but it is so much better than another baby dying somewhere hidden under the garbage.
The Onion once ran a story in which Mayor Guliani proudly announces the distribution of "Infant Only Dumpsters." The picture shows the bins have a decal of a mother teddy bear tossing a baby teddy into the trash.
#4 posted by Skwid:
That's like how hypocrite has the broad definition of someone who pretends to be something else, and the narrow definition of someone who criticizes others for a fault they themselves have. Buzzwords mean hot new vougisms that you hear all the time all of a sudden, but the word can also be used to mean popular fluff words that don't mean anything at all.
These "drop boxes for unwanted babies" exist in the US as well. (The alternative is dead babies in trash cans.)
There was a show about it on 'This American Life': Who Can You Save? and a website: Children of Hope Foundation.
Not for publication, but are the admins aware that the recaptcha does not work to post a comment for anonymous users? It does not have a box to enter text. I openend a new window and went to the recaptcha site where it does work. Also to create an account, the recaptcha works. It just does not work for anonymous users.
Justanotherusername, thanks for the heads-up. I've reported it to our tech guys.