Japanese Studies Leuven

You know what copyright mark © means, don’t you? It should be common for all cultures that young generation try to differentiate themselves by changing their languages from adult. In this case with Japanese teenager girls, they have been using © for totally different purpose since mid 1990′s.

This does not mean that they claim copyright on their name. On this magazine, this © means “-chan”, casual form of “-san”, which is a title of respect. So some young girls who are reading the magazine use © character after their friends’ name on (usually mobile) web, too. It is totally unbelievable even for Japanese adults.