full-time employee, salaried employee
the Japanese are known for shortening foreign loanwords down to four syllables. some of my favorite examples of this are below. the trend also proceeds for words which the Japanese themselves made up, including サラリーマン (sarariiman, a salaried employee), which has been shortened now to a four syllable (ri•i•ma•n, would be how the Japanese conceive of syllables) noun. the word probably arose in the 1960s, which would explain its sexism. the female counterpart from that time was (and remains, unfortunately), OL (which, when pronounced in Japanese is also four syllables: o•u•e•ru), an abbreviation for office lady, women who work full-time but as glorified clerical staff, if that. their responsibilities are to answer the phone, greet visitors, make tea for everyone, tidy things up...
as the Japanese economy has been in a long-term slump, and the once invulnerable life-time employment system came to a shocking end, the use of リーマン has declined somewhat, because people are beginning to think of careers as more fluid.
some other favorite abbreviations:
- モズレク mozureku: Mozart's requiem
- チャイコン tyaikon: the Tchaikovsky Concerto
- メンコン menkon: the Mendelssohn Concerto
- セクハラ sekuhara: sexual harassment
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