List of Japanese Latin alphabetic abbreviations

Abbreviations are common in Japanese; these include many Latin alphabet letter combinations, generally pronounced as initialisms. Some of these combinations are common in English, but others are unique to Japan or of Japanese origin, and form a kind of wasei eigo (Japanese-coined English).

This is a list of Latin alphabet letter combinations used in Japan.

Contents 1 A 2 B 3 C 4 H 5 J 6 N 7 O 8 P 9 R 10 S 11 V

A

• AV – Adult Video

means porn video

• AV – Audio Visual

means audio visual

• AVG – AdVenture Game

means adventure game, a type of video game

B

• BGM – BackGround Music
• BS - Broadcast Satellite (TV station from NHK)

C

• CM – Commercial Message

means television commercial

H

• H – Hentai / EtcHi

see hentai/ecchi (note etchi v ecchi)

J

• JH – Japan Highway Public Corporation
• JR – Japan Railway
• JSDF – Japanese Self-Defense Force (see SDF below)

N

• N'EX – Narita Express
• NG – No Good

means wasei-eigo (made in Japan English) opposite of OK.

• NHK – Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, national publicly owned TV network

O

• OL – Office Lady

means female office worker. See Office lady.

P

• PV – Promotional Video

means music video, usually. Otherwise, literally any promotional video.

R

• RPG – Role Playing Game

means role-playing game, a type of video game

S

• SDF – Self Defense Force

means Japanese Self Defense Forces, the Japanese military (see JSDF above)

• STG – ShooTing Game

means 2-D arcade shooter, a type of video game

V

• VG – Video Game

means computer or video game

• VTR – Video Tele-Replay

means the display of pre-recorded footage