AISHITEMASU!!!

This is “I love you” in Japanese, in case you wonder, and this is to follow up on our post yesterday. In Japan there is an organization called “Devoted Husband”, which encourages men to express their love to their wives. They even organize events in which the men stand and shout their love to their wives who stand listening, some of them in tears.

In Japan, expressing love and appreciation is uncommon, especially among men. Even Valentine’s Day is a time for women to give men gifts (isn’t that great? ;-)). As a Japanese man put it: “If I said to my wife, ‘I love you,’ she would think I’m crazy.”

So the goal of the organization is to teach men to appreciate their wives and express their feelings. They declared January 31 “Beloved Wives Day,” a day during which a man is supposed to tell his wife how much he appreciates her for all that she does every day for him and their family. The date, read as “1-3-1” in Japanese, sounds like “aisai,” which means “beloved wife.”

And the organization has greater social goals in mind: “Husbands who take great care of their wife seem to care about those around them. So if there are more devoted husbands on earth, the world would become more peaceful.”

So, if you are a married man, you know what you have to do to make the world a better place: stop reading this blog, go to your wife and shout AISHITEMASU!!!

6 Comments on “AISHITEMASU!!!”

  1. The sound of this expression is very interesting for Brazilian’s ear, because we have two sentences in spoken language “Ói qui tchi amassu!’, or “Ói qui tchi matu”(Look, that I kill you). Trying to say them fast, it is the similar sound of I love you in Japanese. This, of course is not the reason to not say I love you, but maybe someone has stranges desires with the wife or husband.

  2. uhhmm,,…can i know what’s da japanese translation of i hate you??
    because all i know is ashiteru in japanese..

  3. one yr ago “ai shite iru” was the only words i knew in japanese, now that i m learnin japn. i came across many words . But still there are times wen i forget every thing other than ai shite iru

  4. Anata? I would have to go with “(Ore wa) omae ga kirai yo!” if you wanted to really express that you hated somebody. ‘Omae’ is just about the least polite way to say ‘you’ there is and ‘ore wa’ puts the emphasis on how much you hate them, similar to saying, “I HATE you!” in english. The ‘yo’ stresses it even more. But, if you really want to anger someone, “Zakennayo!” is the rudest the japanese can get. Be prepared for a fist fight if it’s a young punk though.

  5. I just wanted to say, it’s a really sweet idea. I love my girlfriend to death and I tell her I love her a dozen times a day. She is my world. And I am a fighter by nature. Telling someone you love and need them doesn’t make you look weak. It is a strength to know and admit your feelings. I wish japanese men would realize that. Love should be cherished and nurtured not put on the back burner for male chauvanistic pride. With her, I give her roses whenever I feel like it not because I want to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ just so I don’t taint what it symbolizes between us. I hope this holiday catches on in the mainstream japanese culture. Japanese wives need it, too. Just like all women.

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