Hōkō onchi : Wayfinding and the Emergence of “Directional Tone‐Deafness” in Japan

Take a wrong turn and show up late to an appointment in Japan and it is quite likely that someone will label you “hōkō onchi” (directionally tone‐deaf). The term was coined in the late 1960s, and now hundreds of thousands of Japanese identify themselves as “hōkō onchi.” The term is much more widely used than any equivalent in English, and there is reason to believe that some people who have embraced the label do not necessarily have more difficulty in wayfinding than those who reject it. What, then, does the label mean? What explains its initial emergence and its current transformations? While directional orientation concerns cognitive ability, the way it has been used as a label and later adopted as an identity suggests it may also be a symptom of shifts in the wider social context. 日本で道を間違え約束に遅れて現れたなら、誰かに「方向音痴」というレッテルを貼られるだろう。この言葉は1960年代後半に新造され、今日では何万もの日本人が自らを「方向音痴」と自認している。この言葉は、同様の意味を持つ英語と比べ格段に広く用いられ、また、方向音痴だと自認する人が、そうでない人よりも道を見つけるのに苦労するとも必ずしも言い切れない。それでは、この言葉はいったい何を意味するのだろうか。その当初の出現と、現在の変化はどうすれば説明がつくだろうか。方向を見極める力というのは認知能力に関係するにもかかわらず、方向音痴というカテゴリーの出現と変化はより大きな社会変化の症状であるかもしれない事を示唆している。