List of Japanese words of Portuguese origin | japedia.wiki
List of Japanese words of Portuguese origin
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|更新日: 2026年7月30日
Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when PortugueseJesuit priests and traders introduced Christian ideas, Western science, medicine, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period (15th and 16th centuries).
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan and the first to establish direct trade between Japan and Europe, in 1543. During the 16th and 17th century, Portuguese Jesuits had undertaken a great work of Catechism, that ended only with religious persecution in the early Edo period (Tokugawa Shogunate).
List of direct loanwords
Many of the words which were introduced and entered the Japanese language from Portuguese and Dutch are written in kanji or hiragana, rather than katakana, which is the more common way to write loanwords in Japanese in modern times. Kanji versions of the words are ateji, characters that are "fitted" or "applied" to the words by the Japanese, based on either the pronunciation or the meaning of the word.
The † indicates the word is archaic and no longer in use.
↑イエズス会編、 (1960) [1604]。「タタン」。Vocabvlario da lingoa de Iapam (日報地所)(ポルトガル語)(1960年岩波書店再版、土井忠雄編注)。日本:岩波書店。 p. 769.タタン。ツツナガ ジェネロ デ メタル ブランコ。(「とうたん」を日本語として扱い、ポルトガル語の「tutunaga」を用いて意味を説明する)
16c のtƒtanの発音は[tɔ:tan]でした。Society of Jesus, ed. (1980年)。扇長音の表記[ 'O'促音]。保薬日報辞典。土井忠雄訳。森田武史長南、実。日本:岩波書店。 p. 848。