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| Jim Markowich | profile | all galleries >> Japan 2003 >> Japanese car names | tree view | thumbnails | slideshow |
| Not sure what's going on here, but I do know that Japanese grocery stores in our neighborhood provide much literary mirth. Maybe this is related. The brevity accorded to these car brand names may make them even more hilarious -- their shortness perhaps meant to express something of the car's qualities. The introduction of apostrophes is especially odd -- these vehicles have moved beyond being simple nouns.
I'm reminded of the extraordinary, self-mocking Japanese television ad for the Isuzu I-Mark that I only saw a few times, maybe in the mid- or late-eighties. It featured a boardroom full of salarymen, all excitedly shouting out potential names for the new Isuzu offering. A young exec suggests "Squid!" at one point, and immediately shakes his own head in disapproval. The chairman holds up a hand, quieting the room, and quietly says "I-Mark." The other men say "Ahhh" in obsequious approval, but in the ad's final second we see the Squid guy turn away with an expression of mixed disbelief and horror. Anyone remember that?
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