The NES was known as the "Famicom" in Japan, short for "Family Computer".
But why was it given an English name in Japan, given (I assume) most people wouldn't know what the words "Family Computer" meant? Why did they not give it a name in Japanese?
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30Don't be so eager to assume they wouldn't know the meaning. Foreign words, English in particular, are relatively common in their language (they even have a syllabary for that, which is Katakana). In particular, "computer" in Japanese is read (in romaji) KONPYUUTA, approximately as the English word.– PiovezanJan 12, 2022 at 0:49
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34English-language branding is quite common in Japan, as the language has some cachet here. One relevant example would be Family Mart, a chain convenience store, which sells "Famichiki," a boneless fried chicken.– Jim NelsonJan 12, 2022 at 1:29
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5@JimNelson Oh yes, prepare for a culture shock when visiting a Japanese 7eleven :)– RaffzahnJan 12, 2022 at 2:55
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8@Piovezan Strictly speaking, katakana has nothing to do with foreign language, it just happens to be used for it (kana in general are used all over the place in Japanese language for all kinds of other things). The bigger factor here is that English language is a mandatory part of Japanese secondary education (though I’m not sure if this would have been the case back when the Famicom came out).– Austin HemmelgarnJan 12, 2022 at 13:13
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9@JimNelson: Many Japanese toys have names which are formed from combinations of English words, such as "Pocket Monster" or "Micro Machines". That's a general cultural phenomenon, and the Nintendo Famicom ("Family Computer") is a very typical example.– supercatJan 12, 2022 at 17:33
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3 Answers
But why was it given an English name in Japan
Foreign Branding is a common marketing strategy to give a product a more distinguished name. Think 'Häagen-Dazs', a fantasy name with some Nordic 'flair' created in the US by a Polish Immigrant), or like French named 'Au Bon Pain' can be found in many US malls, but not anywhere in Europe.
Oh, and then there is that US company called '当たり', although, spelled in latin :))
given (I assume) most people wouldn't know what the words "Family Computer" meant?
Well, no need to do so, as it was repeated in all marketing material:
The sub title 'ファミリーコンピュータ' reads literally 'Family Computer'(*1), so people would be able to pronounce it when using the name even without any knowledge in English.
A name is just a name, there is no need to 'understand' the name. Or do you understand the word 'horse' beyond it naming for a kind of equid?
*1 - Well, transcription is more like 'Fu-a-mi-ri-ko-n-pi-yu-ta', pronounced like 'Famirikonpyuta'
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9Minor nitpick for the transcription. Japanese doesn't have a
fasound, so thefuis followed by a smallyawhich transforms the two characters tofa(or technicallyfya), the same is true forpi + (small) yu = pyu.riandpyuare followed by a "long sound symbol" which elongates the vowels, so the transcription is a little off and should be something likefya-mi-rii-ko-n-pyuu-ta:)– QBruteJan 12, 2022 at 9:21 -
20@QBrute ァ is a small ア (a) rather than ヤ (ya), so it's fa and not fya. (But otherwise I agree.)– N. VirgoJan 12, 2022 at 10:14
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4off topic, but delighted (though not surprised) to spot yet another use of the famous Avant Garde font in the wild! Wish I knew more about the pecularities of latin/japanese font pairings...– kubiJan 12, 2022 at 12:31
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4@kubi There's a nice (German) site about typesetting for Japanese with a Section about mixing fonts. Of course, above is rather dictated by logo design than typesetting guidelines, avoiding many pitfalls.– RaffzahnJan 12, 2022 at 12:48
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6
There are several interviews with Masayuki Uemura (the creator of the familiy computer) online that contain a section about the name “family computer”. Many publications seem to be copied from each other, making it hard to find a definitive source. The following is taken from soranews24 dated April 2013:
The name “Family Computer” was chosen by Uemura himself. At that time Nintendo had its developers choose the name of its products rather than the marketing department. He often would hear the terms “personal computer” or “home computer” but liked the idea of a “family computer” and could envision a family gathered in the living room playing his machine together. Although the shortened “Famicom” came about organically in Japan, Uemura had been ahead of the trend thanks to some sage-like advice from his wife.
“When I told my wife about the name Family Computer she said ‘Why not just call it Famicom? Everyone’s just going to shorten it to Famicom anyway.’ I thought she had a good idea so I took it to my boss. He rejected it saying ‘Famicom? That makes no sense.’ (laughs)”
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5It's worth noting, at least according to Wikipedia, officially it was referred to as the "Family Computer" by Nintendo because the Sharp Corporation had the "Famicon" Family Convection Oven, and their trademark prevented Nintendo from using "Famicom" until at least October 17,1985. Jan 12, 2022 at 19:03
Japanese, as with most other human languages, has a lot of loanwords from foreign languages, such as パン (pan) from the Portugese pão, (in turn from Latin panum) meaning bread, and コンテスト (contesuto) from the English word "contest."
Both ファミリー (famirii) and コンピューター (compyuutaa) were words well known to Japanese people in the '80s, the former from at least 1973 when ファミリーマート (famirii maato, FamilyMart), a ubiquitous chain of convenience stores, was established, and the latter for obvious reasons. These words are no less familiar to Japanese people than "futon" or "sushi" are to you.
So just as you would not consider a shop named "Futon Bazaar" to be named in a foreign language, the Japanese see ファミリーコンピューター (famirii compyuutaa) as a Japanese phrase.
The shortening to ファミコン (famicom) is not something Nintendo did (due to a trademark issue), but it is a natural and organic shortening of the phrase to four mora that is extremely common in Japan, particularly (but far from exclusively) for phrases consisting of two loanwords. (The resulting words are called 短縮形 (tanshukukei, "contracted form") or 略称 (ryakushou, "abbreviation").) So:
- パーソナルコンピュータ (paasonaru conpyuuta, "personal computer") → パソコン (pasocon)
- コンビニエンスストア (conbiniensu stoa, "convenience store") → コンビニ (conbini)
- ワンレングス (wan rengusu, hair cut to a single length) → ワンレン (wanren)
- Dreams Come True (a Japanese band) → ドリカム (durikamu)
- 東京大学 (toukyou daigaku, Tokyo University) → 東大 (toudai)
and many, many others.
Oh, and let's not forget my favourite my favourite user group and Telegram channel here in Japan:
- 東京Retrocomputing (toukyou returoconpyutingu) → 東レ (tourei)
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パン (pan) comes from the Portuguese pão: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/50252/…– ninjaljMay 14 at 15:20
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@user3840170 "Japanese" transliteration. Though Hepburn always uses 'k', in common usage in Japan whether 'c' or 'k' is used as the initial for any of かきくけこ is context-dependent. This is also true for other kana, such as 'm' or 'n' for ん. As an example covering both, the Japanese write "Famicom" in romaji—<ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom>; note that /Famikon does not even redirect to the page—but the same こん uses 'k' and 'n' in "gokon"—<gokon-jpn.org>. (Another example is my VPS provider: ConoHa. Initial
Cinstead ofKis very common.)– cjsMay 15 at 7:35 -
@ninjalj Thanks for the correction! I'd never actually looked up パン in a dictionary, I was just going by what I recall a Japanese friend telling me. Turns out that the Japanese are as subject to folk etymology as us English-speakers!– cjsMay 15 at 7:43
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I would assume ‘Famicom’ is a calque of the Japanese abbreviation back into English, not a transliteration. ‘Pasocon’ does not redirect to ‘パーソナルコンピュータ’ either, so I wouldn’t read too much into it. May 15 at 9:49