Sometimes it can seem that the Japanese use of creative English is totally random. I mean, how can you quantify the giant sign near J-List that says “SPLUSH IS NOT ONLY THE PROBLEM OF AGE”?

But there do seem to be subtle rules for what words get brought in, if you pay attention. Obviously, words for modern technology tend to get imported a lot, and you’d be hard pressed to talk about routers, servers or internet packets without using loan words.

Another use of English is to capture a particular emotion, which you see with words like like skinship (the feeling of a mother or father holding their baby in the bath), love-love (a mushy word for being in love) or my-home (a person fulfilling the dream of building their own home).

One thing I’ve noticed is that “positive” words tend to get borrowed more often than negative ones, which goes hand-in-hand with the idea that English is the language for optimistic people, an opinion I’ve heard expressed here several times over the years. This positive thinking can be seen in product and company names like “Cook-Do,” a line of easy-to-prepare Chinese food for housewives; “I’ll,” a travel company who’s name makes you think of all the wonderful things you’ll do when you reach your destination; “Power Up Coming Life,” the slogan of a computer store chain; and “Try,” a school that sends tutors to your home to teach your children.

Let’s all level up our happiness with English!