Just a silly little question that’s been on my mind for a while. All this fancy high-tech Japanese consumer electronics is always labelled in English, eg
HIROHITO QJX-26400i STEREO QUANTUM MICRODISK PLAYER
as are all the buttons (Play, Record, Stop, Volume, etc.)
This seems to be true even of devices that are intended for the domestic market. Why? I don’t know about you, but it would greatly bug me to have all my home hardware labelled up in a foreign language.
And a similar, related question, prompted by watching Lost In Translation: Why do so many of the billboards in Japan have the company name/logo in Latin letters, even when the rest of the ad is all in Japanese script?
'Cause English is considered “cool” in Japan. Seriously, check out Engrish for all the mangled English phrases the Japanese put on everything. The romaji (the writing of Jpanese with Roman letters) is used for emphsis on billboards and in adverts. Plus, most Japanese can read a little English since they are required ototake it in school.
But, probably a lot of the electronics are intended to be marketed outside the country as well. I have a Canon Wordtank (an electronic Japanese dictionary - a really nifty little tool) that is intended for native Japanese speakers and it’s keys are labeled in Japanese. (I would guess since there is almost no market for these outside of Japan)
I’ve noticed this in Japanese video games as well - while the dialogue and title screens are in Japanese, the in-game labels (“Health” “ammo” “level 3”) are almost ALWAYS in English.
But that just makes it cooooool…
BTW, I’d like to point out that I am fully aware of the difference between “its” possessive and “it’s” the contraction of “it is” and am terribly, terribly shamed by my obvious typo…
