Glossary of IT Terms

Most IT–related terms are taken directly from English and rendered in Japanese syllables. But that doesn’t necessarily make them easy to pronounce for English speakers. Safe to say you’ll need to abide by proper pronunciation of the Japanese syllables rather than improvise or revert to English in order to make yourself understood.

Apple

Appuru (a-pooh-rue)

Battery

Batterii (bah-ter-ree) or denshi (den-she). Both words are used, although batterii tends to be more commonly used for laptops and mobile devices.

Cell phone

Keitai denwa (kay-tie den-wah). Normally contracted to keitai. A fairly rare case in which the entire name of a popular consumer IT device is not borrowed from English. Keitai means “portable” and denwa means phone.

Cell-phone mail

Keitai meeru (kay-tie may-ruh)

(To) charge (a battery)

Juden suru (jew-den sue-rue)

Computer system

Shishutemu (she-shoe-tem). You’ll notice that the word for “computer” is missing from this term. In fact, when Japanese use the loan word for “system,” they are usually referring something dealing with information technology. For political, economic or other of kind of systems, they tend to use other words, with Japanese or Chinese origins.

E-mail

Denshi meeru (den-she may-rue). This literally means “electronic mail.” However, the term is commonly contracted to meeru. If you want to say “mail,” as in postal mail, don’t say may-rue otherwise people will think you mean mail of the electronic kind. Instead say yuubin (you-bin).

File

Fairu (fire-rue)

Internet

Intaanetto (Intah-netoh). You’ll probably have better luck being understood by simply saying the commonly used term netto (the net).

Mac (Macintosh)

Makku (mah-ku). Another contracted loan word. Apple has made big inroads among Japanese consumers, and the short and simple word makku is about as widely understood as “Mac” is in the English-speaking world.

Personal computer (PC)

Pasukon (pah-sue-con). A loan word from English, which nonetheless is contracted by a couple of syllables to make pronunciation easy for native Japanese speakers.

(To) recharge (a battery)

Saijuden suru (sie-jew-den sue-rue)

Smartphone

Sumaho (sue-mah-ho). Another case of a contracted English loan word.

Social network service

SNS (esu-enu-esu). There is a phrase taken directly from English: Sohsharu nettowaku saabiisu, but it’s a bit of a challenge to remember for people unfamiliar with Japanese language. Thankfully, the much more digestible acronym SNS is widely used.

Screen

Gamen (gah-men)

Tablet (device)

Taburetto (tah-boo-rehto)

Web

Uebu (ew-aye-boo)

Wireless

Waiyaresu (why-yeah-less) or musen (moo-sen). Musen is the older word, which is also used for radio communications, etc. The more modern word waiyaresu is associated with IT. Musen is usually used for the written rendition of the term; waiyaresu is usually spoken only.

Server

Saaba (sah-bah)

Wi-Fi

Wai fai (why-fie) or musen LAN (moo-sen LAN)

Wai fai is usually spoken. Musen LAN is normally used in writing.