Problems with the Description of Words Relating to Gender and Sexuality in English-Japanese Learner's Dictionaries

While English-Japanese learner's dictionaries have developed relatively sophisticated ways of describing sexist terms, they are not fully successful in the treatment of words related to gender and sexuality as a whole. Our survey reveals that (1) some English-Japanese learner's dictionaries translate non-discriminatory English words into derogatory Japanese words; (2) there seems to be no clear policy about providing translation equivalents with discriminatory English words; and that (3) non-derogatory words are given carelessly as synonyms of derogatory headwords. This paper will report mismatches and inconsistency in the selections and arrangements of translation equivalents for words related to gender and sexuality in current English-Japanese learner's dictionaries, and argue that low awareness of the issues relating to sexuality in Japanese society underlies such deficiencies. It will also propose how those lexical items should be treated, suggesting immediate improvements be made in order not to reproduce discrimination against sexual and gender minorities.