Japanese Manga Onomatopoeia Database (J-MOD): Data Search Mechanism for Non-Japanese People To Understand Manga

Abstract

Onomatopoeia is used frequently in Manga, which are particularly popular items in Japanese culture, and it plays a significant role. In short, understanding onomatopoeia is an essential element in enjoyment of Japanese Manga. However, it is hard for non-Japanese people who are not familiar with the Japanese language to understand the onomatopoeia that is culturalspecific to Japan. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to support non-Japanese people to enjoy Japanese Manga more deeply through providing a database that allows users to search for the meanings of onomatopoeia used in Manga. In addition to the method of retrieving meanings by text input, we devise a retrieval method of reverse lookup on the six categories of ‘space,’ ‘contact,’ ‘action,’ ‘state,’ ‘atmosphere,’ and ‘nature.’ This enables the Japanese- Manga reader to learn about the onomatopoeia actually used in Manga, and even non-Japanese readers can understand the meaning of onomatopoeia without misunderstanding and enjoy Manga more deeply.