"Kenchana": How a Korean Word Got Into Japanese Teen Slang

Korean is turning up in everyday Japanese youth slang. Korea JoongAng Daily, writing from Tokyo for Hangul Day, singled out "kenchana," the Japanese way of saying the Korean gwaenchana, or "it's okay."

The word tied for third place in a slang survey of Japanese high school students last year by Shibuya Trend Research. The research firm traced it to TikTok audio clips that K-pop idols danced to. Brands followed. In May, Suntory built a commercial for its new Bishoku Kancha drink around the word, with Asa, the Japanese member of girl group BABYMONSTER, shouting "Kenchana! Kancha!"

Young speakers go further and mix the two languages. A blend sometimes called "Hanbon-eo," roughly "Japorean," puts Korean words into Japanese sentences: "shikiru" joins the Korean verb sikida, "to order," with a Japanese verb ending, and "joa," Korean for "I like it," replaces the Japanese. Seoul Economic Daily has collected examples such as "jinjja sorena," which pairs the Korean jinjja ("really") with the Japanese sorena ("right?").

The same paper notes that this is mostly the language of young fans who already follow K-pop and Korean culture, and that it is hard to call it everyday speech for Japanese young people as a whole. Interest is broader than slang, though. JoongAng Daily reports that the Korean Cultural Center in Japan received a record 4,504 entries for its Korea-Japan exchange writing contest this year.