Figure 1.--The Japanese word for school uniform is "gakuseifuku". This applies to all uniforms for all ages and both genders. "Gaku" is a prefix meaning academic; "seifuku" means uniform. Japanese school uniforms appeared in the late 19th century and seemed to have been modelled on contemporary European uniforms. The traditional boys secondary uniform was modelled on the Prussian cadet uniform. Some primary schools adopt this uniform look as well, a few the classic British look, more seem reminiscent of French styles of 50 years ago.

>We have found a useful on-line dictionary that readers can use to persue more clothing related terms. Please let us know if you find additional terns that should be included in our Japanese glossary.

Japanese-English Dictionary Interface (JEDI)

I used the Japanese-English Dictionary Interface (JEDI) dictionary twice and it worked beautifully, then all of a sudden stopped working. I have no idea what happened or what I am doing incorrectly. I have used it subsequently and it again worked wonderfully.

Eijiro

A HBC readervtells us that she knows a great on-line dictionary, but it requires Japanese fonts. It is probably the most popular amongst translators and, in fact, is compiled by professional translators (which has both its advantages and disadvantages).

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Created: July 14, 2002
Last updated: July 19, 2002