The excellent Japanese manga and pop culture site Pink Tentacle posted a list compiled by the publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha of the 60 most popular new words and phrases in Japan during this past year. Among them:

- Arafo – Short for ‘around 40′. Taken from Around 40 the name of a popular television series, to describe anyone in their 40s. Spin-off word: ‘Arasu’, coined by Japanese fashion marketers to mean ‘around 30′.

- Asa banana – ‘Morning banana’. Describes a recent fad of eating bananas for breakfast, made more intense by the occasional banana shortage throughout the year. (more…)