Japanese News Earthquake Vocabulary
Posted on 13. Mar, 2011 @ 3:41 am by harvey in Language Views: 15,355
Here’s a quick and dirty list of earthquake related Japanese vocabulary and their translations that often appear in the news. This is a work in progress. I will be adding more as I well, read more.
Hopefully this will help those people who want to keep up with what the Japanese media is saying about this incredible disaster.
Also, if you’re looking for a quick place to get some Japanese news stories, give http://allatanys.jp/index.html a try.
You can download a zip file containing MP3 audio for most of the terms here. Thanks to the team at The Japan Shop.com for doing the recording!
Structures
| 木造住宅 | もくぞうじゅうたく | homes built of wood |
| 中層建物 | ちゅうそうたてもの | a mid-sized high rise building |
| 空港 | くうこう | airport |
| 港 | みなと | port |
| 港周辺 | みなとしゅうへん | the area around the port |
| 倒壊した家 | とうかいしたいえ | collapsed houses |
| 倒壊家屋 | とうかいかおく | collapsed houses |
| 建物の屋根 | たてもののやね | the roofs of buildings |
| 瓦礫 | がれき | tiles and pebbles, debris |
Energy
| 高濃度 | こうのうど | kounoudo | High density | |
| 水位 | すいい | suii | water level | |
| 計画停電 | けいかくていでん | planned power outage | ||
| 核燃料 | かくねんりょう | nuclear fuel | Link | |
| 使用済み用燃料 | しようずみねんりょう | shiyouzumi nenryou | spent fuel (rods) | |
| 循環ポンプ | じゅんかんポンプ | jyunkan ponpu | circulating pumps | |
| 循環させる | じゅんかんさせる | jyunkan saseru | to make something circulate | |
| 核分裂 | かくぶんれつ | atomic fission | Link | |
| 冷却機能 | れいきゃくきのう | cooling functionality | ||
| 冷却機能が失われ | れいきゃくきのうがうしなわれ | reikyaku kinou ga ushinaware | lost its cooling functionality | |
| 冷却水 | れいきゃくすい | cooling fluid/liquid | ||
| マイクロシーベルト | micro sievert | Link | ||
| 電力不足 | でんりょくぶそく | lack of power | ||
| 停電 | ていでん | power outage | ||
| 発電所 | はつでんしょ | power plant | ||
| 原発 | げんぱつ | nuclear power plant | ||
| 東京電力福島第１原子力発電所１号機 | とうきょうでんりょくふくしまだいいちげんしりょくはつでんしょいちごうき | TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant No. 1 reactor | ||
| 東電 | とうでん | Abbreviation for TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) | ||
| 燃料棒 | ねんりょうぼう | fuel rod (for a nuclear power plant) | ||
| 燃料棒が全露出 | ねんりょうぼうがぜんろしゅつ | nenryoubou ga zenrosyutsu | the fuel rods have been fully exposed | |
| 揚水発電所 | ようすいはつでんしょ | pumping-up generation | ||
| 電力会社 | でんりょくがいしゃ | power company | ||
| 蒸気 | じょうき | steam | ||
| 節電 | せつでん | energy conservation, to conserve energy | ||
| 供給不足 | きょうきゅうぶそく | insufficient supply | ||
| 原子炉を冷やす機能 | げんしろをひやすきのう | the function to cool a nuclear reactor | ||
| 格納容器 | かくのうようき | storage container (refers to the steel container housing the reactor) | ||
| 容器を海水で冷やす | ようきをかいすいでひやす | cool the container with seawater | ||
| 放射線 | ほうしゃせん | radiation (radioactive rays) | ||
| 放射能 | ほうしゃのう | radioactivity | ||
| 放射性物質 | ほうしゃせいぶっしつ | radioactive materials | ||
| 発電施設 | はつでんしせつ | power plant facilities | ||
| ヨウ化カリウム | ようかかりうむ | Potassium iodide | youka karyu-mu | |
| イソジン | いそじん | povidone iodine (product name) | isojin | Link |
| ヨウ素 | ようそ | iodine | youso | |
| 給水 | きゅうすい | water supply | kyuusui |
Rescue and damage
| 万人単位 | まんにんたんい | numbering in the ten thousands (people) | Link |
| 孤立 | こりつ | to be isolated | Link |
| 安否確認 | あんぴかくにん | confirmation of safety | Link |
| 安否不明 | あんぴふめい | unknown whether (they are) safe or not | |
| 安否確認が進まず | あんぴかくにんがすすまず | making no progress in regards to confirming the safety of… | |
| 炉心溶融 | ろしんようゆう | core meltdown | Link |
| 除染 / 除染する | じょせん / じょせんする | decontamination / decontaminate | |
| 爆発 | ばくはつ | explosion | |
| 爆発音 | ばくはつおん | sound of an explosion | |
| 水素爆発 | すいそばくはつ | hydrogen explosion | |
| 壊滅的な被害 | かいめつてきなひがい | devastating damage | |
| 救助ヘリコプター | きゅうじょヘリコプター | rescue helicopter | |
| 救助を待っている | きゅうじょをまっている | waiting to be rescued | |
| 被災者 | ひさいしゃ | victims/sufferers | |
| 被災地 | ひさいち | hisaichi | disaster area |
| 死者 | ししゃ | casualties | |
| 死者数 | ししゃすう | number of casualties | |
| 被害 | ひがい | damage | |
| 不明 | ふめい | unclear (missing people) 死者・不明1400人超 (more than 1,400 dead or missing) | |
| 行方不明者 | ゆくえふめいしゃ | missing persons | |
| 負傷 | ふしょう | injured | |
| 軽傷者 | けいしょうしゃ | people with light injuries | |
| 遺体 | いたい | dead bodies / corpses | |
| 遺体安置所 | いたいあんちしょ | mortuary | Link |
| 被曝 | ひばく | to be exposed to radiation | |
| 避難範囲 | ひなんはんい | evacuation area | |
| 避難住民 | ひなんじゅうみん | evacuated residents | |
| 救出活動 | きゅうしゅつかつどう | rescue operations | |
| 非常事態 | ひじょうじたい | hijyoujitai | emergency situation |
| 避難所 | ひなんじょ | hinanjyo | evacuation site |
Nature
| 東日本巨大地震 | ひがしにほんきょだいじしん | Literally… East Japan Great Earthquake | Link |
| 震度 | しんど | The strength of an earthquake (shindo, Japanese scale 0 to 7) | |
| 震度６弱 | しんどろくじゃく | Shindo 6 weak (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5弱, 5強, 6弱, 6強, 7.) | |
| 震度5強 | しんどごきょう | Shindo 5 strong (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5弱, 5強, 6弱, 6強, 7.) | |
| 大震災 | だいしんさい | Great earthquake | |
| マグニチュード | マグニチュード | Magnitude | |
| 震源 | しんげん | The hypocenter (of an earthquake) | |
| 揺れ | ゆれ | to shake | |
| 地震 | じしん | earthquake | |
| 余震 | よしん | aftershock | |
| 津波 | つなみ | tsunami | |
| 山崩れ | やまくずれ | landslide | |
| 炎 | ほのお | flames | |
| 白煙 | はくえん | white smoke | |
| 黒煙 | こくえん | black smoke | |
| 海水 | かいすい | seawater | |
| 真水 | まみず | fresh water | |
| 海面 | かいめん | sea surface | |
| 内陸 | ないりく | inland | |
| 沿岸部 | えんがんぶ | coastal area | |
| 水没している | すいぼつしている | to be submerged in water | |
| 水没した車 | すいぼつしたくるま | submerged cars | Link |
| 引き波 | ひきなみ | “Drawback” in tsunami context. Also, backwash, riptide, undertow. |
Transportation and vehicles
| 乗用車 | じょうようしゃ | passenger cars (regular cars, as opposed to fire trucks, ambulances, etc.) |
| 消防車 | しょうぼうしゃ | fire truck |
| 船舶が座礁している | せんぱくがざしょうしている | ships have run aground |
Government and organizations
| 気象庁 | きしょうちょう | Meteorological agency |
| 自衛隊 | じえいたい | Japan Self Defense Force |
| 国際原子力事象評価尺度 | こくさいげんしりょくじしょうひょうかしゃくど | International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) |
| 警察庁 | けいさつちょう | National Police Agency |
Place Names
| 宮城県 | みやぎけん | Miyagi prefecture |
| 南三陸町 | みなみさんりくちょう | minamisanrikuchou (In Miyagi prefecture. Devastate by the tsunami.) |
| 岩手県 | いわてけん | Iwate prefecture |
| 福島 | ふくしま | Fukushima |
Others!
| 〜が相次いでいる | あいついでいる | blah blah is occurring over and over again | ||
| 恐れがある | おそれがある | may occur (something negative) e.g., 停電が続く恐れがある the power outage may continue. | ||
| 半径3キロ | はんけいさんキロ | a radius of 3 kilometers | ||
| 命を落とす | いのちをおとす | to die (to lose life) | ||
| 待機 | たいき | to wait | ||
| 状況の把握が難航しており | じょうきょうのはあくがなんこうしており | difficult to understand the (actual) situation | Link | |
| 市街地 | しがいち | urban areas | ||
| 拡大する見通し | かくだいするみとおし | expected to increase/expand | ||
| 未曽有 | みぞう | unprecedented | ||
| 必至 | ひっし | inevitable | Link | |
| 甚大 | じんだい | serious | jindai | Link |
I hope this is helpful! Let me know of other words that you think should be added in the comments!
- Harvey
Related Links:
This 実用日本語表現辞典 feed has useful vocabulary in Japanese with Japanese explanations. (Thanks @ClaytonianJP)
A translation of some key terms from the feed, by @ClaytonianJP.
If you need help translating the Hiragana into Romaji (English characters) try www.romaji.org. Thanks to @ChrisJValdez for the heads up.
For more romaji help you can also try this method. Go to http://translate.google.com and translate from Japanese to Japanese. Then hit “read phonetically”. Thanks to @koorogi for that tip!
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