The National Institute for Japanese Language wants to eliminate the use of 32 English words or phrases that have become part of the Japanese language.
"We plan to create a booklet listing all the words we have produced in our three meetings so far and hand this out to municipal governments across the country," a spokesman for the institute said.
The Mainichi Daily News explained Sunday the officials at the institute decide which words to eliminate based on whether Japanese speakers who are 60 years or older understand them.
Each of the purged words was misunderstood by at least one third of the unspecified number of seniors the institute canvassed.
The words or phrases no longer enjoying official status in Japan are: accountability, initiative, counterpart, governance, conference, compliance, supply side, skill, stance, stereotype, safeguard, setback, solution, tool, digital divide, default, doctrine, hazard map, public involvement, public comment, priority, breakthrough, presence, frontier, portfolio, bottleneck manpower, mission, mobility, universal design, literacy and road pricing.
© Copyright 2004 by United Press International
