Unseen Japan: A wild theory about how the Japanese word for ‘I’ was corrupted by Allied occupiers leaves Japanese Twitter users shaking their heads.

I’m not 100% sure why I’m including this story. I think it’s a combination of interest in the idea that misinformation turns up in the oddest places, and an interest in how it’s refuted by crowd action. Anyway, Unseen Japan: A wild theory about how the Japanese word for ‘I’ was corrupted by Allied occupiers leaves Japanese Twitter users shaking their heads.. “Languages evolve constantly. I’ve discussed this evolution in past articles – e.g., the drift from ‘nippon’ to ‘nihon’ for the name of Japan. Many times, this influence is just a natural, internal progression. But sometimes, it happens through outside influence or even force. In Japan, one story about a supposed forced change in the way that people spell a simple Japanese word recently made the rounds on Twitter. However, in this case, the ‘change’ appears to be nothing more than a post-World War II conspiracy theory.”