"I heard that the hiragana 'の' is often used in Chinese goods, why?" ”
Recently, The West Japan Shimbun, one of Japan's three major regional newspapers, received the above questions from readers, and its overseas special correspondent conducted an investigation in China. In the end, the reporter of the newspaper concluded that Chinese products or brand names containing Japanese characters will leave consumers with a "sense of high quality" and "good impression"...
Screenshot of the West Japan Shimbun report
On January 13, the West Japan Shimbun published a report titled "Why is "~の~" popular in China?" The trade name in Japanese characters has a sense of high quality and a good impression... It starts with that drink."
According to the report, the newspaper's "On-Demand Investigative Report" column" "Your Special Interview Group" recently received a commissioned investigation from Japanese readers, that is, "I heard that the hiragana name 'の' is often used in Chinese goods, why." In response to this question, the newspaper's overseas correspondent, Nobuhiro Sakamoto, who now lives in Beijing, began an investigation and interview.
Sakamoto said that walking on the streets of Beijing, from the fruit tea chain "Nai xue tea" that has entered Japan, people can see the Japanese-style kana "の" character on the packaging of many Chinese products and on the shop signs. "の" is one of the fifty sounds of the Japanese language, which is a mood auxiliary in Japanese, equivalent to the Chinese "of" and "之".
Chinese goods Yyenna Snow Tea, Nobuhiro Sakamoto in Beijing, Shimodo
Use "character biko store"
Sakamoto also targeted some convenience stores in downtown Beijing and surveyed the number of products with the word "の" in their product names. According to him, including fudge called "優の品撮" and ice cream called "福の丸", each convenience store has about 10 Chinese products with the word "の" in the name section.
The fudge in a Beijing convenience store called "優の品撮"
Beef jerky products with the character の in Beijing convenience stores
During his investigation of convenience stores, Sakamoto interviewed a 39-year-old woman holding one of the items with the word の. The woman said that although she had never studied Japanese, "の" was the Japanese character she was most familiar with. "Somehow, there's a sense of luxury."
A Chinese advertising industry insider told Sakamoto Nobuhiro that this situation occurs because Japanese products usually give the impression of "high quality, safety and health", and the word "の" is mixed on the trade name and signboard, which will make the consumer's impression better. "Some companies use 'の' to mislead consumers into thinking that the product was made in Japan."
In addition to "borrowing light" from Japanese products, the report also said that the word "の" is popular in China. For example, since the second half of the 1980s, due to the appreciation of the yen, Japanese overseas tourism has become a boom, hong Kong, China, uses the word "の" to add Japanese style, the number of shops attracting Japanese tourists has increased rapidly, and the word "の" has gradually become popular. For example, in the 2010s, Japanese anime represented by Attack on Titan (進撃の Giant) became popular among young Chinese people, triggering a boom in the use of the word の.
Even the popularity of the word の in China is related to the knock-on effect of a japanese drink. According to Nobuhiro Sakamoto, when he asked Chinese and Japanese who had long lived in China about the origins of the popularity of the word の, many people immediately thought of a Japanese drink. The one he called "the most powerful igniter" was a black tea drink called "Afternoon Black Tea" sold in Shanghai in 2001 by Japan's Kirin Beverage.
As with the promotion in Japan, the spokesperson for the use of this drink is Also Audrey Hepburn. At the same time, in the Chinese product name, Chinese "afternoon black tea" and Japanese "の" appear together and are written on the packaging. According to the report, "Afternoon の black tea" was very popular after its launch in Shanghai, and the use of the word "の" was also well received. In 2004, the drink also began to be sold in Guangzhou and Beijing, and under its impetus, "it is said that the word 'の' gradually penetrated rapidly around the big cities."
Japan's Kirin Beverage's "Afternoon Tea" drink
After introducing the above statements, Sakamoto Nobuhiro concluded with a conclusion at the end of the report. He believes that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, and "the use of the word 'の' is a testament to the fact that there are many fans of Japanese culture and products in China." He also said that he hopes that in the future, the word "の" will also be used in new Chinese products and signboards.
In fact, the use of Japanese product names or brand names, including the word の, is nothing new in China. For example, on the sparkling water beverage packaging of the beverage brand Genki Forest, Genki Forest used the Japanese word "気" instead of the Chinese "gas" word. Even a yogurt previously produced by Genki Forest also marked the "Hokkaido 3.1" text logo, which made many consumers mistakenly think that the product came from Japan.
Last year, Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei that if Yuanqi Forest relies on its trademark registered in Japan, from the trademark to the packaging is Japanese, and the actual origin and sales market are in China, the industry calls this brand "pseudo-Japanese".
"At present, no matter how high the valuation of pseudo-Japanese brands is, from the perspective of long-term development, no characteristic business can support it in the end. In addition, with the gradual improvement of consumers' health awareness, we pay more attention to the production address and product-related nutritional indicators, if the quality is not up to standard or there is false publicity, then such enterprises with the concept of foreign brands will be abandoned by consumers. Zhu Danpeng said.
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