I work in Japan, and this is so hard for non-native speakers. An example, an HR staffer meant to say "female empowerment" but said "woman-power" instead. There is an implicit assumption of bad faith or "not of our tribe" if one doesn't get the euphemistic language exactly correct, it really is a bunch of shibboleths.
> I work in Japan, and this is so hard for non-native speakers. An example, an HR staffer meant to say "female empowerment" but said "woman-power" instead.
Were they thinking of "joshiryoku"? That's a Japanese word that literally means "woman-power", but it's not feminist - it doesn't refer to "girl power", it means you're good at looking pretty.
Hmmm... excellent point. I think there is a clear cultural difference where "female empowerment" in the West includes things like women being equal to men and filling roles traditionally filled by men, where in Japan the ideal (among women to a greater degree) tends to be for women to be better at women's traditional roles, which goes beyond just looking pretty. So in this context the whole discussion around "female empowerment" may have been misguided, it's not clear this Japanese HR person had the same thing in mind as a Western HR person would.
(To the extent that "female empowerment" can imply "smashing the patriarchy"/tearing down the existing order, this usually not fully achievable in a corporate context.)
