As a part of my professional services at Tomoko Parry Consulting, I provide linguistic evaluations a.k.a. “disaster checks” for product names. There are some とても愉快な (fabulous) “disaster” stories surrounding product names in the past, including Chevy  “Nova” (“doesn’t go” in Spanish) and Coca-Cola’s “Bite the Wax Tadpole (蝌蚪啃蜡).”

Today, many corporations are taking measures to avoid such a 失態 (faux pas) by doing their デューデリジェンス (due diligence) before launching their new products.  That’s where I come in.  I will comb through proposed brand/product names as well as associated logos and キャッチフレーズ (taglines) looking for potential cultural misinterpretation and misappropriation which can lead to major marketing disasters.

This doesn’t mean there are no longer some unintended funny names.  For example, “Siri” is pronounced “Shiri” in Japanese which means “buttocks” or “bottom.”  By the way, I tried on my phone talking to both Siri and Shiri, and it answered to both.  It seems they’ve anticipated this contingency.  And then there is Citibank, whose name is pronounced in Japan シティバンク (shitty bank).  Unfortunately, there is nothing they can do about that – to us Japanese, Citibank is “shitty bank.”  But fortunately, most Japanese don’t think twice about that or find it funny at all.

Every morning in the shower, I find it awkward to look at my shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel.  On those bottles printed in large letters is the name ShiKai.  Okay, “ShiKai” could mean various things in Japanese depending on what 漢字 (kanji characters) are used.  It could mean “field of vision” or “visibility” when spelled 視界 (shikai).  It means “emcee” if it’s spelled 司会 (shikai).  But it can also mean “death world” when spelled 死界 (shikai).  I’m sure they didn’t intend to invoke “death” with their hygiene product, but I cannot stop wondering if they did their due diligence.

We Japanese are also very picky about certain numbers.  “Shi” or 4 is avoided since it could remind us 死 (shi, or death).  People try to avoid the 4th floor, or room #4, or things that come in a set of 4 for the same reason.  Cups and plates are often sold in a set of 5 instead of 4.  Similarly, “ku” or 9 is avoided since the 同音異義語 (homonym) is 苦 (ku, or agony).

However, as they say, maybe there’s no such thing as bad publicity.  Both Chevrolet and Coca-Cola seem to be doing fine.  No one really talks about how Siri and Citibank are pronounced in Japan.  And I keep using my ShiKai products every morning.  I must say, when life gives us lemons, we are conditioned to make レモン大福 (lemon daifuku, or mochi filled with sweetened lemons)!