もったいない

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. もったいない!▶ —
   What a waste!
2. ご飯を残すのはもったいない。▶ —
   Wasting rice is regrettable.

Collocations

Mnemonic

Mottainai (もったいない) means "regrettably wasteful" — the globally exported Japanese word covered earlier in nokosu. The kanji 勿体無い ("lacking essence") fuses Shinto belief that all things house deities, Buddhist mujou (impermanence), and the agrarian "seven gods in one grain of rice." Wangari Maathai (Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate) cited it at the UN in 2005 and globalized it. It captures the four Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Respect) in a single word. The Economist, BBC, and Time use it untranslated; Japans government runs a "Mottainai Campaign." Korean akkapda and Chinese kexi diverge. JLPT N5 plus Nobel-prize cultural code.

Quick check

1. Trigger of mottainai globalization?

   • Wangari Maathai (Nobel Peace) UN speech in 2005
   • Edo bushidou
   • Meiji Shinto
   • COVID