Home > Focus on Japan 2006, The Lighter Side > Somebody Noticed

Somebody Noticed

September 28th, 2006

About a year and a half ago, I blogged on a new Sapporo Beer product called “Slims,” which bore the motto, “The new type of tasty draft brew. More flavor, with fewer less calories.”

Well, somebody noticed the error, apparently. The new can now reads:

It is true, the brew is no longer new. Also, it seems, with not as much flavor.

You see this kind of thing all over Japan, of course. Sometimes it’s really good (like the “off sale” signs, or the misspelled “in” sign I saw), but more often it takes the form of very mildly off-kilter English, like with these items:

Noped

Dream-In

Not especially funny, but certainly strange enough to remind you that you’re in a country where English is not the native language.

And then there are some errors that you have to look at carefully to see, like with this bite-sized cheese snack:

Desertcheese

From camels, perhaps?

And then, there’s the just plain goofy names they think up, like for this chocolate snack:

Feelenvy

And yes, I know that on this package of Hello Kitty Macaroni, that Kitty is supposed to be giving the thumbs-up. However, from the first time I saw it, it really, really looked to me like she was giving everyone the finger.

Kittybird

Food for thought.

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  1. Paul
    September 29th, 2006 at 21:37 | #1

    I saw SO many examples of Engrish while I was in China… now I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures of it. But you’re right, it’s rampant.

    One of the funniest examples was a lady that went walking by with a tight tank-top style shirt that said in big letters, among other things (it had little phrases on it), “SEX IS MY BUSINESS”.

    I think it was shooting for something along the lines of “I’m sexy” but kind of missed. Unless sex really was her business!

    Paul
    Seattle, WA

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