五輪 – How do you say Olympics in Japanese?

The Tokyo Olympics in Japan kicked off with the opening ceremony Friday the 23rd of July. Then for just over two weeks until August 8th people from around the world will be competing for the gold. So, if you want to know when and where in Japan are the 2020 Olympics I will post the link of the schedule in the Resources section.

However, if you want to know how to say Olympics in Japanese keep reading.

Olympics in Japanese

There are two main ways you can say Olympics in Japanese. The first word for Olympics in Japanese is directly borrowed from the English word. The second word is unique to Japanese

https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/

オリンピック

First, オリンピック is the word directly borrowed from English for Olympics. When talking about the Olympics in Japanese you can use this word as you would in English. If you want to talk about more specifically the Olympic games you could say:

• オリンピック大会 – Olympic games
  
• 国際こくさいオリンピック大会たいかい – International Olympic Games

Or, if you want to say Tokyo Olympics, that is pretty easy too:

• 東京とうきょうオリンピック – Tokyo Olympics
  

Tokyo in Japanese is 東京： How to Read and Write places in Japan

五輪

Next, the word 五輪ごりん also means Olympics. This word can be broken up into 五 which means five and 輪 which is the Kanji for round or circle things.

Kanji (漢字) Made Simple

In this case, it refers to a ring. So, 五輪 literally means five rings which is a reference to the five rings of the Olympics.

オリンピック vs 五輪 – Which Word should I say for Olympics in Japanese?

五輪 and オリンピック can be used interchangeably for the most part. So you can say 五輪大会 instead of オリンピック大会 and so on. But, generally, if you are speaking in Japanese most people will say オリンピック. Some people may say 五輪, but 五輪 is mostly used in writing or in the news. Probably because it is shorter.  Let’s take a look at some more words:

• オリンピック開会式 かいかいしき – Olympics Opening Ceremony
  
• オリンピック閉会式へいかい – Olympics Closing Ceremony
  
• 五輪聖火 せいか – Olympics Torch
  

Above we could have swapped around the two words for Olympics in Japanese and it would have meant the same thing.

Resources

• Olympic Competition Schedule