Is there a japanese word for '"Japanophile'' or just some kind of term of a foreigner who loves Japan /obsessed with it ?
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2012-06-02, 10:25 pm
There's also 日本贔屓（にほんびいき）, which is a little more colloquial.
2012-06-03, 12:55 am
The word I've always heard is 日本愛好家, though I don't think it's quite the same nuance as "Japanophile".
2012-06-03, 1:51 am
日本かぶれ is a good approximate of Japanophile in that it also often carries a negative connotation and tends to refer to people who are obsessed with Japan and its culture to an unhealthy degree. It's a little bit like an equivalent of "weeaboo" and the like, but it doesn't have a strong connotation to the anime subculture. I don't hear this word used by younger Japanese very often, so maybe it's getting slightly obsolete.
noun+かぶれ can be used for pretty much any kind of noun to mean an unhealthy obsession to the extent that the person's life style is obviously influenced. It's not quite the same as the suffix -philia because かぶれ doesn't have a sexual sense like pedophilia and ephebophilia. It has intransitive verb form かぶれる, e.g., 日本にかぶれる.
noun+オタク may be used in a similar way. But it's more like "geek" or "nerd," and you can use it as a neutral word, though usually it's negative. If you want to use it with a neutral or positive context, you might want to specifically say that you mean it in a good way, e.g., あの人良い意味で日本オタクだよね. The intended sense here is that the person is certainly a geek about Japan, but it's not necessarily the bad kind of obsessed guy like your average weeaboo. He may speak Japanese very well, know Japanese history better than your average Japanese, and have read all the great Japanese literature. So, he's like a professor but shows a certain degree of unusual obsession or addiction. If you don't specifically say you used it in a nonnegative way, it's often taken as a negative word, of course. It's a colloquial word to a large degree, but is getting less and less informal.
親日 is Japanophile in a more strict or formal sense, i.e., it doesn't carry any negative connotation. If anything, it's taken as a positive word. It can be used for inanimate things like countries too. This word implies that the reason the person/country/whatever likes Japan for a reasonable reason. It's not an obsession or anything like that. The person may have relatives living in Japan and often visits the country, or he had been working as a diplomat in Japan before. A country that has been in a good relationship with Japan for historical or economical reasons would be 親日 as well.
noun+かぶれ can be used for pretty much any kind of noun to mean an unhealthy obsession to the extent that the person's life style is obviously influenced. It's not quite the same as the suffix -philia because かぶれ doesn't have a sexual sense like pedophilia and ephebophilia. It has intransitive verb form かぶれる, e.g., 日本にかぶれる.
noun+オタク may be used in a similar way. But it's more like "geek" or "nerd," and you can use it as a neutral word, though usually it's negative. If you want to use it with a neutral or positive context, you might want to specifically say that you mean it in a good way, e.g., あの人良い意味で日本オタクだよね. The intended sense here is that the person is certainly a geek about Japan, but it's not necessarily the bad kind of obsessed guy like your average weeaboo. He may speak Japanese very well, know Japanese history better than your average Japanese, and have read all the great Japanese literature. So, he's like a professor but shows a certain degree of unusual obsession or addiction. If you don't specifically say you used it in a nonnegative way, it's often taken as a negative word, of course. It's a colloquial word to a large degree, but is getting less and less informal.
親日 is Japanophile in a more strict or formal sense, i.e., it doesn't carry any negative connotation. If anything, it's taken as a positive word. It can be used for inanimate things like countries too. This word implies that the reason the person/country/whatever likes Japan for a reasonable reason. It's not an obsession or anything like that. The person may have relatives living in Japan and often visits the country, or he had been working as a diplomat in Japan before. A country that has been in a good relationship with Japan for historical or economical reasons would be 親日 as well.
