The Nikkei is one of the biggest, most respected newspapers in Japan. And today, it ran an ad with the words “Fuck It.”
Hey! Not that there’s anything wrong with the words “fuck” or “it.” But this could be somewhat embarrassing for Nikkei, especially considering how last year, the paper bought the Financial Times as part of its effort to expand internationally into the English-speaking world. If you are a regular Kotaku reader, you might be familiar with the Nikkei, because even as a stodgy financial paper, it does break a fair share of game-related news (here, for example).
The real issue that it’s hard to imagine such a straight-laced newspaper using such coarse language in Japanese, let alone English, even if it’s an ad for the popular self-help book F**k It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way.
The English language of the book gets a double asterisk, while the Nikkei ad, or the book’s Japanese edition, do not. So, I guess it’s not really Nikkei’s fault? Right? And maybe it’s more embarrassing that the book’s title had to be censored in English!
The word “Fuck” (ファック or fakku) is infamous in Japanese. It can be a rather dirty word, and many people know what it means, but not everyone. I guess whoever at the Nikkei okayed this might not have. Eh, whatever. Fuck it.
Top image: @melanie_brock
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.