Japanese People Start Calling Shukan Bunshun As Sentence Spring

Recently, the weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun has been at the forefront of covering the scandal involving Becky and her alleged affair with married singer Enon Kawatani. The magazine is generally referred to by the public as either Shunkan, meaning weekly, or Bunshun, a made up Japanese word comprised of the kanji, 文 and 春. In a private LINE conversation published by the tabloid in their January 28th issue, Becky referred to Shukan Bunshun as “Sentence Spring” (センテンススプリング）, the literal English translation of the two kanji.

In the conversation, which took place on January 5th, one day before the press conference in which Becky denied having an affair with Kawatani, Becky and Kawatani wrote “thank you, Bunshun”. This is thought to be in regard to Bunshun breaking the story of their affair, thereby bringing it into the public eye and allowing them to possibly have a relationship outside of the shadows. At the end of the conversation, signed off by exclaiming “Sentence Spring!”, and in doing so, coined a new nickname for the tabloid. This new nickname has been met by amusement from the Japanese population, primarily among sarcastic denizens of the internet.

Since then, the name Sentence Spring has also been used by people and media outlets to criticised Shukan Bunshun for what are believed to be invasions of privacy when publishing private LINE conversations.