Olympics in Japanese – Combat Sports: 柔道、空手
The Summer Olympics are in Japan this year from July 23rd to August 8th. If you are a fan of combat sports or martial arts then the Olympics has you covered. The Olympics will be hosting wrestling, boxing, Judo, and other combat sports events. I will provide the official link to the Olympics schedule at the end of this post. Before that though keep reading to learn about how to say these sports in Japanese.
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Sports at the Olympics in Japanese are close to English
Most sports words in Japanese are the same in English. Take a look below:
- レスリング – Wrestling
- ボクシング – Boxing
- フェンシング – Fencing
テコンドー – Taekwando
Other than Taekwando these words are pretty close to the English words. Taekwando even is not that much different from English but I believe the word was borrowed directly from Korean.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Olympics in Japanese – 柔道、空手
The next two words for combat sports both originate from Japan.
柔道 – Judo
柔道 means Judo. The Kanji 柔 is the character for soft, delicate, or gentle. Then we have 道 which means path and is used in words talking about philosophies or different teachings.
空手 – Karate
Next, 空手 is Karate written in Japanese. The first part of the word, 空 means empty. 手 is the Japanese word for hand. So we can translate 空手 to Empty-handed. This meaning is opposed to using weapons to fight. Because of course, you use your hands when you do karate.
