中国地方じゃないですか?

So, I just reached the second half of level 6, and we learn a whole bunch of Japanese geographic terms - 本州 九州 四国 東北 東京 and so forth. Then there’s 中国 which, yes I know means China, but it’s also the name for the region at the western end of Honshu which includes Hiroshima and Tottori. So why’s Chuugoku not included as a synonym?

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i would think that would be considered a different vocabulary, 中国 vs 中国地方

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This is one of the cases where it clearly shouldn’t be a synonym because it’s clearly not the what they’re looking for. If someone was talking about China and you think they’re talking about central Honshu it’s obviously wrong. This is basically just an unfortunate synonym.

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Well yeah, but 東北 has “north east” as the primary meaning, and “Tohoku Region” as a synonym, even without the 地方 attached. Actually, it doesn’t seem like 地方 even gets taught…

I mean, it’s not a huge issue - especially considering it’s a kanji website not a vocab website - but I kinda feel like if you come across 中国 in Japan, it’s got just as much a chance of referring to Chugoku as it does to China. If not more. Just found it a tiny bit perplexing. Mind you, according to the Wikipedia page, the tourism industry refers to Chugoku as 山陰地方 for the northern half and 山陽地方 for the southern half, precisely because of the confusion with China.

You can swap those nouns, and the sentence’s meaning would be unchanged. :stuck_out_tongue: Also, it’s western Honshu. Central Honshu is 中部地方.

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I think you have a good point, but FWIW, you almost never see 中国 in Japan being used to refer to the Chuugoku Region - I’m racking my brains and can’t think of a single time I’ve seen it being used without 地方 attached in that case (and my partner is from Yamaguchi so I see / hear the district mentioned more than most, I guess). Most other regions are used standalone - 東北, 中部, 近畿, 北陸 etc. - but Chuugoku always gets 地方 attached (this is also common with 近畿, but not always the case).

I can see the argument for not teaching these two conflicting definitions, since it’s a pretty early piece of vocabulary and it’s not generally used in that way in Japan… But I definitely agree that if 地方 isn’t in the vocab list, it should be (it’s used a lot in everyday Japanese, especially if you’re travelling etc.), and 中国地方 ought to be a vocab term in its own right.

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I live in Hiroshima and I see it used without 地方 all the time as part of the titles of regional events. The local paper is the 中国新聞.

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Good point, I should have clarified that I meant outside the region itself. There’s minimal chance of someone actually in the region looking at the 中国新聞 and thinking “oh I don’t want that, it’s all about China”… :sweat_smile: In national publications or outside Chuugoku, though, it’s pretty much always used with 地方 for that reason.

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