How Not To Print A Japanese T-Shirt

The website Bang Bang T-shirts is selling the following t-shirt for £13.99:

This is what they say about it:

Some people ask if this says something rude in japanese but it honestly says “I Love Japan”!! Maybe we should make a design that does say something rude and you can wear it whilst pretending you don’t realise……………………….. or maybe not!

Unfortunately, it honestly doesn’t say “I Love Japan.” If Japanese was written with English grammar, it would say that, but in Japanese it’s pretty strange. Sure, many Japanese know about “I love NY” t-shirts, but even those who did might be confused if they saw this shirt. So remember folks: the next time you make fun of the wacky Engrish t-shirts here in Japan, don’t forget that there are a few folks in English-speaking countries making similar shirts with Japanese on them.

17 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - July 1, 2007 at 6:55 pm

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags:

kenji

yeah wtf? i mean…someone who didnt know what the “i love ny” shirts were would be so damn confused. “i am japan”…nice…
http://goddesscarlie.com Goddess Carlie

haha. I love it. What would we call this? japalinglish?

DKO

Wapanese.

Phenie

Classic.
Lenners

It doesn’t make sense, and the “ni” kanji looks like a table with those extra legs o_0
the overthinker

It could be read as “I am love, Japan”….
Personally I’d prefer more silly kanji stuff here and less of the “ooh look yet ANOTHER wacky bit of Japanese English ha ha ha”.
http://www.freewebs.com/sasukekh/ Tom

I want one.
Just for the confusion.

“i am love, japan”

“…”
WujouMao

well for real wacky t-shirts, there is j list
http://www.bangbangt-shirts.com James

Hi there,

I am the owner of Bang Bang T-shirts and wasn’t aware of the grammatical error of this t-shirt until recently. I appreciate that it’s incorrect from Japanese point of view but it was indeed the only way to fit this wording in with the design of the t-shirt and get the message across from an English speaking viewpoint and these people are the target market for the shirt.

This design is actually one of our biggest sellers and we’ve actually sold quite a few this week through all of this publicity! In future though I will perform extra checks to ensure that any t-shirt we sell that are based on foreign languages are strictly correct. I know where to come to get lots of sound advice if we do any more Japanese based t-shirt designs!

the overthinker

You could perhaps make it a bit more grammatically correct and more-or-less what you want to say by making it read “watashi no ‘ai,’ nihon” (私の▼日本) which would mean “my love, Japan”….
Jim

Well, they could also wear a T-Shirt saying “I am a complete dork”, maybe written in japanese though. kawaaaaiii

http://japanjin.blogspot.com/ Xylo

ha ha
Translated literally , it’s not much weirder that some Japanese companies’ slogans, in Japanese.
e.g. (for a gas station) “Kokoro mo, mantan ni…” , (My heart too. Fill up the tank.)

I reckon it could be the slogan for the next Tokyo Olympics:
“I am heart. Japan.”
http://www.bangbangt-shirts.com James

overthinker, would your suggestion still have the same design as my t-shirt (with the heart in the same place)?

the overthinker

It’s identical – the triangle in my comment represents the heart. But note the difference between “watashi WA” and “watashi NO” (は and の). A comma would help too, I guess.

You would be better off in Chinese: 我▼日本….

I like Xylo’s reading – very Japanese. But (ironically) only if written in English….

Pingback: vigadiyicn
http://www.cafepress.com/i_heart_japan Ken

If you want an “I love Japan” shirt these are much cheaper, INFINITELY COOLER and written correctly!

http://www.cafepress.com/i_heart_japan

Some people really DO love Japan and KNOW HOW TO SPELL IT.
http://tokyo5.wordpress.com Tokyo Five

I think that

愛♥
日本

would be better. Like a play on words, but the meaning “I love Japan” can be understood.

How Not To Print A Japanese T-Shirt

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