Various communities pop up as ‘kaiwai’ coined terms go viral among Japan youths

TOKYO — Terms like “bath-canceling,” Japanese cartographer “Ino Tadataka,” and “nature” may seem unrelated at first glance. Yet such words are increasingly being combined with the word “kaiwai,” which is gaining traction as a way to refer to communities that share values among Japanese youths on social media.

The word “kaiwai” means “the entire surrounding area,” according to Japanese-language dictionary Kojien. However, it is recently being used as a suffix to point out groups related to specific industries, hobbies or activities.

LY Corp. announced on Oct. 29 that based on big data from Yahoo! Search, the number of probes for words containing “kaiwai” has doubled in the four years from 2019 to 2023, and reached an all-time high as of October 2024. The number of searches especially spiked after May 2024, with “bath-canceling kaiwai” being the most searched term.

“Bath-canceling kaiwai” applies to people who call off taking a bath after finding it too tiresome. The term quickly went viral on social media after posts about it trended on X (formerly Twitter) around late April, giving rise to the coining of various related expressions. It even ranked at the top of a survey on the “most trending words this autumn” targeting high school students.

According to LY, the usage of “kaiwai” has evolved significantly over the past few years, expanding in meaning to cover a wider range of contexts. The company analyzes that it is becoming a more common term used in daily conversations.

Other terms ending in “kaiwai” that have seen an increase in the number of online searches include “Ino Tadataka kaiwai.” This refers to people who walk long distances either for work or as a hobby, likely inspired by the achievements of Ino Tadataka, who walked around Japan in the Edo period (1603-1867) to make the first surveyed map of the country.

Additionally, “nature kaiwai” refers to people who enjoy outdoor activities in places like the mountains, rivers and the sea. Another popular term is “one-eye kaiwai,” which describes individuals who post selfies on social media showing only half of their face or an eye. A wide variety of related coined terms have been searched on the internet.

LY predicts that such new communities will continue to emerge, suggesting that paying attention to the community of “kaiwai” itself might be an interesting experience.

(Japanese original by Taiki Asakawa, Business News Department)