Japanese Street Slang

Here’s the Japanese you won’t find in any dictionary—but that is essential for anyone who wants to navigate Japanese street culture. Japanese Street Slang paints an uncensored panorama of the rich body of forbidden Japanese, analyzing the more private, guarded secrets of modern Japanese speech to present realistic portraits of men and women from different walks of contemporary Japanese life. Completely updated with current slang and swear words, this book is a fascinating guide to the language you’ll hear in the “real” Japan. Witty mini-essays trace the fascinating origins of many expressions and rollicking example sentences reveal just how and where they may be heard.

Peter Constantine is an award-winning literary translator and a recipient of the PEN Tranlsation Prize. He is also the author of Japan’s Sex Trade and Japanese Slang Uncensored.