What Does This Mean?
おじさん構文 (ojisan kōbun, "middle-aged-man syntax") is the Japanese name for a texting style associated with middle-aged men on LINE and other messaging apps: many emoji, emoticons, katakana and commas, addressing the recipient with a -チャン nickname, adding ナンチャッテ ("just kidding") and sending long, friendly messages or status updates. It is mostly used humorously for imitation and parody; the equivalent for women is おばさん構文.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
""The parody account wrote every message in おじさん構文: lots of emoji, ○○チャン and a ナンチャッテ at the end.""
LORE & ORIGIN
Wikipedia (ja) says the term spread from a tweet in April 2017, where 構文 means "writing style". It lists traits such as over-familiarity, a lecturing tone and long single messages, and attributes them to a missing view of how the reader will take it plus a wish to be liked, with a generational gap between business-email habits and young social-media habits. It notes that in 2021 the style became a topic of discussion in a news story and that merchandise such as a card game later used it as a theme.
MENTIONS OVER TIME
Radar observation data not yet available for this term.
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