25 Why does to "nyan nyan" mean "to have sex" in Japanese? (Japanese Cat Idioms)

On this episode of Ichimon Japan we ask: Why does to "nyan nyan" mean to "have sex" in Japanese?

Topics Discussed

• Japanese expressions/idioms related to cats
• What the Japanese expression neko no te mo karitai means and how it is used
• What pets are most popular in Japan
• The Japanese festival game of kingyosukui
• What the Japanese expression nekojita means
• What the Japanese expression nekobaba means
• What the Japanese expression nekoze means
• What the Japanese expression dorobōneko means
• Snakes falling from the ceiling of an old Japanese house
• The Sazae-san opening
• An experiment designed to find out how heavy a fish a stray cat is willing to carry
• What neko o kaburu means
• Theories about the origin of the expression neko o kaburu
• What the Japanese expression nyan nyan suru means
• The origin of the expression nyan nyan suru
• The story of Tomoko Takabe
• The Nyan Nyan Jiken (Nyan Nyan Scandal) of 1983 and its aftermath
• Erika Sawajiri
• What happened after Tomoko Takabe's photo was published in 1983
• Underage smoking in Japan
• Why Focus chose to use nyan nya to mean sex (according to one theory)
• What nyan nyan shashin are
• And much more!

Note: It is possible that nyan nyan as it was used by Focus in 1983 was not coined with the onomatopoeia for a cat crying in mind. In fact, the term appears to have been an allusion to something Tomoko Takabe used to say. It is not clear if this original nyan nyan was an allusion to cats. However, due to the fact that without any context a person hearing the term for the first time would likely assume that it is in some way connected to cats meowing, I decided to include nyannyan in this episode along with cat-related idioms.

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Sources, Links, Videos, Etc.

The English-language article about the story of Tomoko Takabe and Focus' coverage of the "Nyan Nyan Scandal" that was mentioned several times can be accessed via the link below. As mentioned in the episode it does have the pictures but none are explicit. That being said, the website that published the article does have a lot of explicit content that is NSFW.

• Story about Tomoko Takabe/Nyan Nyan on Tokyo Kinky

Here are a couple of Japanese-language sources used for this episode.

• 動物が使われている言葉
• ニャンニャン事件 (Wikipedia)

To listen to either of the Ichimon Japan episodes mentioned during this episode, use the links below.

• Does “hai” mean “bye” in Japanese? (The many ways to say “goodbye” in Japanese) | Ichimon Japan 24
• What’s th