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'Stress' Most Known Foreign Word in Japan

Posted on: Friday, 20 June 2003, 06:00 CDT

In a country where worn-out commuters fall asleep on their feet in trains and employees demonstrate their loyalty by passing up vacation, the foreign word most recognized by Japanese is "stress," a government survey said.

Of 2,200 people polled nationwide, 97.4 percent said they were familiar with the word, adopted into the Japanese language as "sutoresu," the Cultural Affairs Agency said in a report released Thursday.

Other foreign borrowings that made the top 20 were "document,""leadership,""staff,""performance,""project," and "full-time." A total of 120 words were on the quiz.

Hard work has long been considered a virtue in Japanese culture. But the zeal with which it can be upheld has sparked concern.

Earlier last week, the health ministry said a record number of Japanese died of overwork last year, showing that the country's economic slump hasn't reduced pressures on Japanese to work long hours.

The poll, which also surveyed participants on changes in the usage of Japanese, showed that 80.4 percent believe the language is not being used properly.

It said that only some 20 percent of Japanese correctly understood commonly used idioms, and singled out the inability of many young Japanese to use "keigo" - the polite form of Japanese used to address elders, superiors or customers.

Some 50 percent of those polled said they were bothered by this trend.

The poll was conducted last November and December among Japanese 16 years or older. No margin of error was provided.

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