S & D

In a million years I could not have guessed that was what the S and D stood for: Seijitsu (誠実; basically ‘good faith’ or ‘integrity’) and Doryoku (努力; ‘effort’). But I love when Japanese gets used this way, especially for an overseas audience (although that is not the case for this, which is on domestic Toyota dealerships).

With my corporate clients’ translation work, I have encouraged them to deploy more Japanese words inside of English materials. For example, there was a time that using yasashii (優しい; sort of meaning ‘friendly’) made more sense to explain once and then use to describe their medical products that were user friendly but also minimally invasive and less burdensome for patients, rather than trying to shoehorn ‘friendly’ into the material. I think it is very effective and differentiating. Leaning into and emphasizing the Japaneseness of a global company based in Japan beats aping the slick/soulless corporate speak of other global giants.

Oh, also, since this is Toyota: One time I was in a Green Car on the Tokaido New Trunk Line 🚄 and looked across the aisle to see Akio Toyoda enjoying a nice train ride. He of course disembarked at Nagoya. He had two seats to himself, surely to prevent seat neighbors from chatting him up. I like that the president of the sometimes-largest car company in the world also uses trains. They of course are a way better option than cars, for the Tokyo - Nagoya run anyway.