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Intermediate Japanese - Free Online Course
KANSAI-BEN
関西弁
Kansai dialect
Kansai-ben is a dialect of Japanese spoken in a large portion of Western Japan known as the Kinki / 近畿 region. The Kinki region is comprised of a handful of prefectures lying to the West of Nagoya: Shiga, Kyoto, Mie, Nara, Wakayama, and Hyogo. Kansai/ 関西 is a general term for Western Japan, while ben /弁 means “dialect.”
Historically, political and economic power in Japan were divided between the eastern and western portions of the country. Kansai literally means “west of the border.” Kansai, along with eastern Kyushu, was settled by the ancient Yamato people when eastern Japan was still a wilderness. Kansai is the home of the first two Japanese capitals: Nara (600-794), and Kyoto (794-1868).
Eastern Japan is dominated by Tokyo, the current capital, and Japan’s largest city in modern times. Eastern Japan is generally known as Kantō / 関東 (literally: “east of the border”) During the Edo Period (1603-1867), eastern Japan emerged as a rival political center to challenge the Kansai region. Although the emperor was located in Kyoto, the Tokugawa shoguns (the military rulers of Japan) established their base in Edo (now Tokyo). Edo experienced rapid growth under the Tokugawas. When the power of the shogun was “restored” to the emperor in 1868, Emperor Meiji chose to relocate the imperial capital to Edo. He gave the city a new name to commemorate the occasion: Tōkyō / 東京, or “eastern capital.”
The relocation of the imperial capital to Tokyo marked the beginning of Japan’s development as a modern nation-state. One important aspect of national identity is a common national language. While the language spoken throughout the country was technically all “Japanese,” the relative lack of mobility and contact between the regions had led to the formation of dialects. In some cases, the dialect of a particular region was only slightly different from the Japanese spoken in neighboring regions. In other cases, dialects were practically unintelligible to Japanese from outside the immediate area.
Since Tokyo was now the center of Japan, the Tokyo dialect was recognized as “standard” Japanese (hyōjun-go/ 標準語). This became the language of government, university education, and national media. Today, when foreigners learn “Japanese,” they are actually learning the modern form of the Tokyo dialect.
Nevertheless, dialects persisted in the regions. Just as an Alabaman and a native of Massachusetts speak somewhat different versions of American English, residents of the various regions of Japan speak somewhat different versions of Japanese. Some dialects have extremely small populations of speakers. The Kansai dialect, which covers the area detailed above, is the most significant “non-standard” version of the Japanese language.
A full description of the differences between Kansai-ben and standard Japanese is beyond the scope of this article. At a high level, we may note that there are differences between colloquial expressions, and some variations in grammar and pronunciation. For example, the standard pronunciation of tabemasen (“I don’t eat”) is tabemahen in Kansai-ben. (If you want to hear what Kansai-ben actually sounds like, watch Black Rain, the 1989 movie starring Michael Douglass. The movie is set in western Japan; and there are several scenes that contain extended dialogues in Kansai-ben.)
There are a handful of books written with the aim of teaching native-English-speakers to speak and understand Kansai-ben. These might be worthwhile investments of your time and resources if you already speak standard Japanese, and plan on an extended stay in Western Japan. If you don’t already speak standard Japanese, though, you are better off to focus on mastering hyōjun-go first. Hyōjun-go is understood throughout the country---including those areas that also speak Kansai-ben.