Misused Term 'Wankyoku Hyougen' Trends on Social Media, Sparking Debate
In recent years, it has become a common phenomenon for certain words to trend on social media despite being misused. This time, the keyword that garnered attention was '湾曲表現' (wankyoku hyougen). While the correct term should be '婉曲表現' (enkyoku hyougen), meaning 'euphemistic expression,' many users mistakenly wrote '湾曲' (wankyoku), and ironically, this very misuse became a major topic of discussion. The trigger was a social media discussion about whether idiomatic expressions and metaphors that indirectly refer to 'death,' such as 'mugon no kitaku' (returning home silently), 'nikaikyu tokushin' (two-rank special promotion), and 'kiseki ni hairu' (entering the register of ghosts), are difficult for today's younger generation to understand. These are classic examples of '婉曲表現' (enkyoku hyougen), which are used to soften expressions, but some posts attempting to explain them incorrectly used '湾曲表現' (wankyok...