UPDATE: Full list now available here.

For the kanji-lacking amongst you, that’ll be what I call Japanese English in Part One and Part Two, Japlish in Part Three, Engrish in Part Four and wasei eigo in Part Five.

pack (pakku) – many kinds of packaging, including cartons

pair look (pea ruku) – when a couple are wearing matching clothes (‘couple look’ in Korean)

pajama – pajamas

panic movie (panikku eiga) – disaster movie??

pants look (pantsu ruku) – a woman wearing trousers, e.g. as part of a business suit

panty (panchi) – panties. According to my wife, a word only used by pervs. The rest of us just say ‘pants’

panty stocking (panchi sutokkingu) – tights/ panty hose

paper company (peipa kampanii) – dummy company/ shell company

paper driver (peipa doraiba) – someone who has a licence but never drives

parasite single (parashaito shinguru) – an older child who continues to leech off their parents, e.g. not paying rent, long after they have their own job. Now leading to less used expressions like “parasite wife”

pato car (pato kaa, short for patrol car) – police car

part (paato) – a casual job. Often wrongly translated as a part-time job. It often is so, but could easily be 40 hours a week and still be called paato

penki (from Dutch) – paint

pension (penshon) – a Western-style minshuku, meaning basically a B&B

pest (pesuto) – bubonic plague (from Portuguese/ Latin??)

PET bottle (petto botteru) – plastic bottle especially one with drinks in, e.g. those from vending machines. PET is the correct word for this kind of plastic in English, but very few ordinary people know and/ or use the word

petit (puchi, from French) – small. Notice the very different pron!

petit bour (puchi buru, from French) – short for petit bourgeois

picke (with the e pronounced) – short for picket line

pierce (piasu) – earrings for pierced ears

pill (piru) – only the contraceptive pill, not pills more generally

piman (from Portuguese) – a green pepper

Pincet (pinsetto, from Dutch) – tweezers

pine juice (pain juusu) – short for pineapple juice

pink (pinku) – pornographic, like “blue” in English

pinto (from Dutch) – focus (mainly used as part of the expression pinboke- out of focus)

pipe cut (paipu katto) – vasectomy (don’t ask your plumber for this!)

pitch (pitchi) – pace, not sports field

platina (purachina, from Spanish) – platinum

play guide (purei gaido) – ticket agency

plus driver (purasu doraiba) – Phillips screwdriver, from the shape of its end. The opposite is ‘minus driver’

pocketable (poketaburu) – portable/ able to fit in your pocket

poly (pori) – from polyethylene, a kind of plastic

pot (pottu) – large domestic thermos flask that boils the water and then keeps it warm, used in place of a kettle in most Japanese homes potato (poteito) fry) – not the uncooked vegetable

premium – additional charge

prin clu (puri kura, short for print club) – photo booths that make decorated photos, often with sticky backs

punc (panku) – flat tyre (from “puncture”)

punch (panchi) – hole punch, as well as a boxing punch and the drink

purin – short for pudding, and having the American meaning of being a kind of crème caramel, rather than a Xmas pudding type hot and heavy dessert

radio case (rajio kase) – short for radio cassette (player)

range (renji, short for oven range) – cooker

ransel (randoseru, from Dutch) – Japanese style leather school satchel, worn on the back

rare (rea) – only used to talk about how a steak is cooked

recall (rikoru) – remove someone from office, apparently

reception (resepushon) – formal dinner, not desk you see when you enter (that’s uketsuke for offices and front for hotels)

recruit suit (rekruuto suutsu) – very plain suit worn when you first start work as a graduate recruit, in order not to stand out at all

recycle shop (risaikuru shoppu) – second hand shop

reform (rifoomu) – alteration or repair, e.g. of building or clothes

regi (reji, short for register) – cash register/ the till

rehabili (rihabiri, short for rehabilitation) – occupational therapy etc

rentogen (from German) – X ray

repo (rupo) – short for reportage. Not sure where the vowel sound comes from, French??

repo writer (rupo raitaa, from “reportage writer”) – a kind of journalist

retorte (retoruto, from French) – preserved food, especially boil in the bag curry

road show (roodo shoo) – first run of movies

roas (roosu, short for roast) – a kind of ham

robot – figurehead, as in figurehead president, as well as the normal meaning

roman (from French) – yearning for adventure, apparently

romance grey (romansu gurei) – hair flecked with grey

ropeway – cable car (in Japanese “cable car” is only used for one that runs on rails)

rosario (from Portuguese) – rosary (only a Catholic one, although Buddhist prayer beads look very similar)

rough (raffu) – casual, e.g. when talking about clothes (and therefore not as negative as the English expression)/ rough

Royal milk tea (royaru miruku tii) – tea made with hot milk, like a café latte and a bit like Indian tea . Very sweet, and often iced.

running (ranningu) – sleeveless undershirt/ singlet