30 Hilarious Cases Of Getting Lost In Translation In Japan

We got in touch with the creator of the group and they were kind enough to tell us more about it.

"Over 13 some-odd years, and with Facebook's introduction of auto-moderation tools, it's not too heavy of a moderation burden," they explained to Bored Panda.

However, "We have three standard questions that users must answer to become a member, and they're supposed to read and agree to the guidelines. Only about a quarter of people who want to join the group actually do this, and of them, less than half actually answer them correctly. They're all declined quickly."

Therefore, "the most common issues are simply rejecting or blocking users who don't answer the questions or are spammers," the group's creator said.

"Similarly, with posts, if they don't follow the guidelines, they are rejected," the creator of 'Engrish in Japan' added.

"If their intentions are good and they clearly read the guidelines, we try to give them a short explanation of what they need to fix."

With all of that being said, moderation still remains a constant work in progress. "I've probably revised the guidelines and questions over 100 times ... I relaxed certain rules or added more if there was a recurring issue."

Every now and then, the group also receives a guest appearance, and they're not just sad trolls. "We get non-Japanese who just want to be jerks or are spammers but, amazingly, we get many Japanese who think it's an English study group!"

However, while you're scrolling through the pictures, it's important to understand that the content isn't meant to insult the locals. In fact, "another common issue is making it clear that we're not making fun of anyone and we appreciate the intent," the creator of 'Engrish in Japan' said. "Most Japanese understand this just fine; it's white knight foreigners who sometimes have trouble grasping this."

"We make it a rock solid policy to not post any photos of people unless people want to post photos of themselves. We also make sure any personal information is blurred or cropped."

When it comes to the posts themselves, the group's creator said they’re mostly different takes on a set of recurring themes, like common misspellings, things you wouldn’t think twice about if you’ve been in Japan for any extended time, and some that aren’t particularly funny or interesting but just fit the theme.

The popularity of the group reflects a 2024 report in which Japan ranked 92nd in global English proficiency—last in the "low proficiency" category, escaping the "very low" category by less than one percent. The nation ended up near the bottom of Asian and developed countries alike. (For context, in 2019, Japan ranked 53rd.)

Experts suggest there can be many possible reasons for this, and the sheer difference between two languages certainly plays a role—whereas German and English are closely related, Japanese and English have extremely distinct vocabulary, writing systems, and sentence structure.

Teachers in Japan have pointed to English classes’ strict correspondence to university entrance examinations as a major cause of their students’ poor proficiency. They argue that the focus on exams leads to over-emphasizing grammar as well as boring, memorization-oriented classes.

Studies also suggest that Japanese culture's aversion to risk-taking leads many students to be reluctant to push their limits, especially in speaking, which is essential for language learning.

Heather Rucker, an associate language teacher with the government’s Japan Exchange and Teaching Program in Nagoya, said that when she initially followed the official lesson plans, a lot of her students tuned out and avoided participating.

“There are definitely kids who want to learn English and do things abroad in the future. But the others try to avoid taking part in class as much as possible,” she explained. “I try to make activities as fun as possible, so it won’t drag for them at least.”

Also, while the numbers might be different now, Ryuko Kubota, a professor of language literacy and education at the University of British Columbia, conducted a study in 2011 that showed English-language skills do not contribute to upward career mobility in Japan.

"The most continually active [members of the group]," the creator or 'Engrish in Japan' said, "are, understandably, long-term residents of Japan."

Of those, they assume, about 85% are non-Japanese and 15% are Japanese.

"There are also lots of people who just visit Japan once or twice and like to see and comment on the photos," they added. "And there are some Japanese members who get the joke and enjoy interacting with the others in the group."

"Most (like 95% of) members are great," the group's creator said. "But the common and unwelcome personas are the 'it's not Engrish!' types — the foreigners who want to show off their big brains and explain why it's not funny, and the Japanese who, despite [the group approaching the 180K member count], seem to think it's their job to explain what the sign actually intended."

"Like, they really think it's a big group of foreigners who are confused and can't read a lick of Japanese. In fact, we have thousands of Japanese members and many of our members speak Japanese well and understand what the writer intended when they made the Engrish."

The fascination surrounding the imperfect translations or 'Engrish' resonates well with the phenomenon of humorous slogans on t-shirts.

Just like the Engrish in Japan Facebook group, the Twitter account dedicated to these tops brings a lighthearted touch to language mishaps. With a shared theme of laughter through linguistic blunders, both platforms emphasize cultural differences in a way that brings joy rather than confusion.