Game music composer Yuzo Koshiro’s “Bukkake” dinner makes a big splash

Many people post photos of their meals on social media, expecting to receive comments about how delicious the food looks. But it seems that veteran game music composer Yuzo Koshiro was not prepared for the confused reaction he received from English-speaking followers when he posted a pic of an innocent noodle dish on X yesterday. 

Bukkake udon is a bowl of thick noodles with a broth poured on top of it. “Udon” refers to the type of noodles and “bukkake” simply means to “splash on” something. In this case, the broth is splashed on to the noodles. However, as a loan word in English, bukkake is used to refer solely to a pornographic genre and is a common keyword on adult video sites.  

This prompted many English-speaking followers of the Streets of Rage and Shenmue composer’s X account to react accordingly.  

Koshiro’s subsequent puzzlement as to why people were reacting so strongly to a photo of his meal led many people to explain the word’s most common slang usage outside Japan. In fact, the word “bukkake” has become so strongly associated with adult content in the west that Japanese noodle chain Marugame Udon’s branches in the US have renamed the dish to “B.K.,” as can be seen on their Texas and California menus. This revelation prompted Koshiro to make some fun alliteration. 

This incident shows how loan words can take on different associations- leading to bizarre misunderstandings. Japanese has many English loan words that have taken on vastly different meanings. On a food-related note, the word “Viking” in Japanese is used to refer to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Hearing that your hotel breakfast is a Viking could cause much confusion.