Japan's National Masturbation Day

A quirk of the Japanese language turns a National Holiday for the Ocean into one for Masturbation.

The third Monday in July is known as the "Marine Day" National holiday, to celebrate the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Hokkaido in 1876. This year it falls on the 21st. In spoken Japanese, the date "0721" for July 21 is pronounced as "o-na-ni-i" (o = 0, na = 7, ni = 2 = i = 1).

By coincidence, this pronunciation is almost identical to onani, a derivative of Onanism. Any Bible student could explain that the word "Onanism" refers to the story of Onan, who was obliged but refused to consummate a marriage with his dead brother's wife (Genesis 38:7-9). In common understanding, the reference and meaning are about masturbation.

The Japanese culture is much more open to the issue involving the "M-Word." And this subject has been extremely popular with the Japanese media even though the National Holiday itself is now over.

Our latest design focuses on this humorous language quirk.

http://www.cafepress.com/hantranslation/730403