Why Automotive Circles Still Use The Word 'Jap' - And That Might Be OK

The email had all the stopping power of a fart at an office Christmas party.

“TEAM JAPSPEED DRIFT TEAM TO RETURN TO AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL”

“Were they returning from 1943?” I wondered. How could any team be named “Jap” anything in 2015?

As it turns out, there are a lot of automotive-related companies and events with the prefix Jap. JapFest, JapAuto, JapSpeed. JustJap. Uh, huh.

I mean, “Jap” is still a bad word, right?

Initially, I was reminded that automotive subculture skews right — it always has. The archetype for a “car guy” is someone who values horsepower over regulation, personal rights over corporate responsibility, low taxes and less interference from anyone stepping between them and their possessions. Those are all fairly base, sanitary conservative principles.

Those qualities are hardly universal truths in the automotive universe, but rather an observation I’ve made after years writing about cars and talking to the people who own them.

Now, I’m not saying that “conservative” is synonymous with “racist” — far from it. But at more than just a few meetups, rallies and high school shop classes, the word “Jap” or “WOP” was thrown around with less regard than a metric wrench. Hell, the word “wop” has even been dropped by members of auto C-suites, too.

These are people for whom political correctness doesn’t constitute progress.

But the word “jap” is used far more frequently overseas in places such as Australia, New Zealand and Europe — presumably places with less familiarity with Japanese-American internment camps than Donald Trump voters. But I don’t live in those places, so I don’t know.

And I’m not Japanese — not even close.

I’m also not the type of person that gets offended for other people either, but I have no problem speaking my mind.

Which made me wonder how auto companies were getting away with “Jap” in advertising and billboards, names and festivals. The word to me is highly insensitive, much in the same way “colored” is not the same thing as “people of color” — although both “colored” and “people of color” are vague, lazy and mostly insulting, in my opinion.

I called the Japanese American Civil League, in Washington, D.C., to ask their take on the word and its current usage. The organization’s long, complex history (put eloquently by its first National Secretary Mike Masaoka, which is worth a lunch-time read here) led me to believe that these people would have a nuanced understanding of why the word “Jap” was still around.

“Is ‘jap’ still a bad word? I really don’t know,” I asked.

Silence.

“Can we call you back at a later date?” the woman replied.

End phone call

Unfazed, I wrote to the Japanese Consulate in America:

Growing up in America, it was my understanding that the word ‘Jap’ was derogatory and offensive to Japanese people, but I don’t know about the word’s reception in Japan — or elsewhere.

Can you help me understand please?

No response for two days.

I looked all over to find similarities. The NFL still has a team called the Redskins. The Arc used to stand for the “National Associated for Retarded Citizens,” but now only goes by the acronym. The NAACP is acceptable in all references for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, although the organization doesn’t really shy away from the word colored:

“Times change and terms change. Racial designations go through phases; at one time Negro was accepted, at an earlier time colored and so on. This organization has been in existence for 80 years and the initials NAACP are part of the American vocabulary, firmly embedded in the national consciousness, and we feel it would not be to our benefit to change our name.”

Maybe times have changed. Maybe “jap” actually means “jap,” but people have forgotten why “jap” was ever bad to begin with. I don’t like the idea of that, but I don’t get my way all the time either.

That prompted a call to Japautoparts, a Miami-based auto parts supplier.

“What exactly are you asking?” said Peter, who said he’s worked on and off at the shop over the years.

“Why do you guys have ‘jap’ in your name?” I said.

“The current owners bought the store from the last owners several years ago. The store has been around since the 1980s and it’s a known business around here. I guess they didn’t want to change the name. ” Peter said. Their corporate name isn’t Japauto anyway, he added.

Just because its tradition doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid, I thought.

“Has anyone said anything about changing the name?” I asked.

“Yeah, the employees wondered if we should change it a while back,” he said. Because of the connotation of the word jap, he added.

“Nothing changed?” I said.

“No. People who come here know what Japautoparts means, we supply Japanese auto parts,” Peter said. “We don’t mean it in a derogatory way.”

“Thanks for your time,” I said.

Hardly satisfactory, but again, I don’t want to be offended for other people.

Then, a response:

In general, Japanese people are aware of the offensive connotations of the word ‘Jap’ in some contexts, as would be expected. On the other hand, in the Japanese language it is fairly common to abbreviate words and/or combine shortened words to form a new term, mostly for simplicity. So in this sort of context, as with the usages you described, it would not necessarily be unusual or considered offensive.

Bruce Powley
Consulate General of Japan Denver

To paraphrase: The word “jap” is offensive, except when it isn’t.

Or rather, my high school auto teacher cursing at my Subaru GL’s brakes during shop day: Wholly offensive and inappropriate. Japautoparts, Japfest and JapFest: Maybe not.

Personally, I don’t think I’ll ever use “jap” as an abbreviation for the word “Japanese” in the same way I’ll never use a long list of other words that mean other things.

But for me and other people who still cringe at the word in an email, I guess it’s good to clear the air.