The Japanese Word “Okama” in Video Game Translations

This time, we’ll take a similar look at something that’s both tricky and controversial: the Japanese word okama.

Along the way, we’ll also briefly examine the multiple meanings behind the word okama, as well as its different uses in Japanese media. We’ll then look at how okama has been translated into English in a variety of video games since the 1990s, and then use some detective work to see how use of the word okama is now changing in Japanese entertainment itself.

Meaning of Okama

You could literally write entire books about the Japanese word okama, its centuries-old origin, its evolution, its modern connotations, and more. But the quick version is that okama can refer to a bunch of different things, including homosexual men, transgender women, and crossdressers.

For reference, here’s how different Japanese-to-English dictionaries define okama. The first three are standard dictionaries, while the fourth one is more of an English-to-Japanese slang-oriented dictionary:

As we can see, okama is a mostly negative and derogatory term. In some contexts, however, it’s used as a neutral term or as a positive self-identifier.

Okama in Japanese Media

Dictionaries are one thing, but real-life usage is another. Here are a few representations of okama in Japanese media:

A common depiction of okama in Japanese entertainment

In this issue of Comic BomBom, Mario says: "I thought you were an okama, but you're actually a homo after all?!" (Japanese source article, likely NSFW)

A book about how the word okama is discriminatory, in response to its heavy use in a major publication

I don't think the Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ever uses the word okama directly, but Japanese players call this character an okama

Matsuko Deluxe, a household name and prominent okama on Japanese television, often remarks on okama-relevant topics

A love comedy manga series about okamas, crossdressing, and identity

In short, okama has a variety of meanings and is usually negative, but not always. In addition, like most words, its meanings, connotations, and depictions can change over time.

Okama in Translation

There’s no single English equivalent for the Japanese word okama, yet it appears often in Japanese entertainment. I’ve seen it handled many different ways in English game localizations, so I thought I’d share some of my findings below.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon [Nintendo 64] (Japan: 1997, North America: 1998)

The original Japanese version of this classic Konami game is filled with the word okama – often as a clear insult, but not always. This is because one of the main villains in the game is a flamboyant crossdresser with an exaggerated female speech pattern:

The beginning of the Japanese game includes multiple instances of the word okama. It seems that when possible, the English localizers tried to write around the word.

In this line, “okamas” was replaced with the word “members”:

"...Only that there are several of those mysterious okamas, and that they call themselves the 'Neo Momoyama Bakufu'."	"Well, all I found out was that there are several members who call themselves the 'Peach Mountain Shoguns'."

And in this line, the whole sentence was changed to avoid the okama reference:

"She had begun her own investigation by pursuing the mysterious okamas."	"They are thought to be caused by the Mysterious Flake Gang."

When the word was less avoidable, okama was replaced with the English word “weirdo”:

"Oh yeah! Where the heck did that okama jerk go!?"	"By the way, where did that weirdo go?!"

"You... OKAMA!"	"You... you WEIRDO!"

Note that these examples are only from the beginning of the game. If I find any other noteworthy examples in the future, I’ll add them here.

Yakuza Series (2005 – present)

Sega’s popular and long-running Yakuza series often features okama characters. And because most of the Yakuza games have received multiple translations and re-releases, we can actually see how treatment of the word okama has changed over the past 15 years.

Yakuza 2 [PlayStation 2] (Japan: 2006, Worldwide: 2008)

Yakuza 2 features an okama character named Ako/Okano who runs a bar. In the 2008 English translation, we can see that okama was translated as “homo”:

"What, is it strange for there to be an okama who used to be a biker gang member?"	"What, a homo can't have had a punk phase?"

Yakuza 2 received a complete Japanese remake years later, and was released in English in 2018. The game’s all-new translation also took a different approach to Japanese cultural terms. As a part of this new approach, the word okama was simply left in Japanese:

Yakuza 3 [PlayStation 3] (Japan: 2009, Worldwide: 2010)

One side quest in Yakuza 3 involves an okama and an onabe. In the English release, these terms were translated as “drag queen” and “drag king”:

"The only one who really understands me, an onabe, is you, an okama!"	"It takes a sweet drag queen like you to know what a drag king like me is feeling inside!"

Almost a decade later, the game was re-released for the PlayStation 4. However, citing modern social sensibilities, the developers voluntarily removed okama-related side quests from the Japanese version. The same side quests were removed from the English re-release as well.

Yakuza 4 [PlayStation 3] (Japan: 2010, Worldwide: 2011)

Yakuza 4 also features okama references. In one scene in the original translation, we can see that okama was translated both as “cross-dresser” and as “tranny”:

Okama: "Oh, my. Are you playing with me? Daijoyū is so obviously an okama bar."	Cross-dresser: "Oh, you naughty boy! Are you flirting with me? Drama Queen's a tranny bar, sweet cheeks."

In line with the previous games’ re-translations, the English re-release of Yakuza 4 left the word okama in Japanese:

Interestingly, this 2019 English re-release also leaves “okama” unitalicized, unlike in the 2018 Yakuza 2 re-translation.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse [3DS] (2016)

In the Japanese version of this Atlus game, an NPC uses the word okama as a self-identifier. In the English release, we can see that okama was translated as “cross-dresser”:

"But even okamas have it tough too, you know."	"I should know, cross-dressers have it pretty tough, too."

Dragon Quest II and Dragon Quest XI [1987 – present]

Dragon Quest fever sweeps Japan whenever Square Enix releases a new game in the series. It was especially wild in the 1980s and 1990s: fans camping in front of stores, TV reporters covering the situation live, wide-scale school absences, thieves stealing games from kids… the list goes on and on. The phenomenon even spawned an urban myth about the Japanese government making it illegal to release Dragon Quest games on weekdays.

In short, the Dragon Quest series was – and still is – enormous, mainstream, and beloved by millions of players in Japan.

Japanese fans in line for Dragon Quest IV

Japanese news article about a Dragon Quest-related crime

I bring this up because Dragon Quest II includes an okama reference at a certain point in the script. What’s more, the game has received countless ports, re-releases, translations, and re-translations over the past 30+ years. This gives us a unique, historical look at how the word okama has changed in Japanese and in translation over time.

Dragon Quest II [Famicom] (Japan: 1987, North America: 1990)

The Dragon Quest series regularly refers to something called a “puff-puff”, which is implied to be an erotic massage that involves putting your head between a woman’s breasts. Puff-puff scenes are a running gag in the series, and they often end with surprise twists.

Many hours into Dragon Quest II, a character in a town offers to give you a puff-puff:

In the Japanese puff-puff scene, this character takes offense and reveals the surprise twist: they’re actually an okama. The English version of this scene, however, was rewritten to be more family-friendly.

Of course, the English word “queen” does have the slang definition of “a homosexual man, especially one regarded as ostentatiously effeminate”. As such, you could potentially argue that the original okama idea is technically still in the English translation, whether intended or not.

Dragon Quest I + II [Super Famicom] (Japan: 1993, English fan translation: 2002)

This new, upgraded version of Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II featured improved graphics and sound, as well as text updates. Although this compilation was never released outside of Japan, fans created an unofficial English translation a decade later.

Here’s the same okama scene in this upgraded release:

In the Japanese version, we can see that the original okama reference was carried over into this new release. In fact, new text was even added to intensify the character’s displeasure.

In the fan translation, we can see that okama was translated as “homosexual”. The full line itself, though, was mistranslated. As a result, the character now appears to insult you, the player, by calling you a homosexual.

Dragon Quest I + II [Game Boy Color] (Japan: 1999, North America: 2000)

This portable version of Dragon Quest II was given a brand new official translation a decade after the original translation’s release. This time, the puff-puff massage reference wasn’t completely removed:

As we can see, despite the new translation, the okama reference was still dropped in this English release. Interestingly, the line does take on new meaning once you know the context of the original Japanese scene.

Dragon Quest 1+2+3 [Wii] (Japan: 2011)

This special Dragon Quest compilation was released exclusively in Japan to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series. The compilation included two versions of Dragon Quest II: the original release from 1987 and the upgraded release from 1993.

Surprisingly, both the official website and the instruction manual included this small note:

The (games’) contents are mostly unchanged from their original releases, but in consideration of current social and cultural circumstances, portions of text have been modified.

The official website states that some text was updated to better reflect current social and cultural views

The instruction manual also notes that text was updated to reflect current social situations

Unfortunately, there isn’t much information about this topic online. What text could possibly have prompted these changes? Was it the okama reference in Dragon Quest II? Something else entirely?

To find out more, I bought my own copy of the anniversary compilation and played both versions of Dragon Quest II. After many hours, I discovered that the original okama references are still intact in the 2011 re-releases:

"So what if I'm an okama?! You meanie..."

"Hmph! Gimme a break! So what if I'm an okama?! You meanie..."

So if the developers altered text in this compilation for social and cultural reasons, then what text did they change? For now, it’s a mystery to me.

Dragon Quest II [Mobile] (Worldwide: 2014)

In 2005, a completely new remake of Dragon Quest II was released for Japanese cell phones. Unfortunately, the nature of this release makes it impossible for me to research today.

In 2014, a port of this cell phone remake was released for Japanese mobile devices. An English version was released several months later, and featured a brand new translation:

As we can see, the Japanese mobile version still used the original okama line. The English translation followed the previous translations and again dropped the okama reference.

Dragon Quest XI [3DS, PS4] (Japan: July 29, 2017)

In a way, Dragon Quest XI is like one, big celebration of all the previous Dragon Quest games – everywhere you look, you’ll find cameos, references, homages, quotes, and more. You even get to travel back inside the previous games to experience them in new ways. Naturally, this specific puff-puff character makes an appearance too.

A few months before Dragon Quest XI debuted in Japan, a preview article included screenshots of this puff-puff character’s cameo. What’s more, one screenshot featured the exact same okama quote from Dragon Quest II:

However, a YouTube video posted a week after Dragon Quest XI’s release shows that this okama quote was replaced with a completely different line:

So did the okama quote get replaced before the game’s release, or did it get replaced in an update patch after the game’s release?

To find out, I bought a brand new, sealed, early purchase copy of Dragon Quest XI. After disabling updates, I loaded the game, jumped to the proper point in the game, and discovered that my copy of the game matched the YouTube video I had seen:

In short, it seems that the original okama line was removed from Dragon Quest XI sometime between April 2017 and July 2017. My best guess is that someone important noticed the preview screenshot during those three months and requested the change.

It’s important to note here that the 3DS version and the PlayStation 4 version of Dragon Quest XI were released on the same day in Japan. The 3DS version was never released in English, but the PS4 version did receive an English release a year later, in 2018.

Interestingly, the line in the English PS4 release doesn’t match the updated Japanese line. Instead, the English line appears to be based on the 2014 mobile translation, although it’s not an exact quote:

Basically, it appears that the Japanese developers scrambled to remove the okama reference from Dragon Quest XI before its debut in 2017. Meanwhile, the English translators didn’t need to rush to change anything, because a replacement English line had already been devised years earlier.

Dragon Quest II [3DS] (Japan: August 10, 2017)

Two weeks after Dragon Quest XI’s debut, a port of Dragon Quest II was released for the 3DS. This version was based on the 2005 cell phone remake and was only released in Japan.

As we saw earlier, the mobile release retained the okama line. The 3DS version, however, uses the same replacement line found in Dragon Quest XI:

Incidentally, despite this text change in the 2017 3DS version, the 2014 mobile version still contains the okama reference even now, in 2020.

Also, it’s a minor detail, but the text formatting in this new Japanese line doesn’t match the formatting of the line in Dragon Quest XI. This suggests this wasn’t a simple copy-and-paste, set-it-and-forget-it content change.

Dragon Quest XI S [Switch] (Worldwide: September 27, 2019)

This updated version of Dragon Quest XI was released to a much wider audience than ever before. It featured changes to the original game, along with all new content.

For reference, here’s the puff-puff line in question:

As we can see, this puff-puff line is identical to the one from the original 2017/2018 releases of Dragon Quest XI. In other words, the okama reference is absent in both Japanese and in English.

Dragon Quest II [Switch] (Worldwide: September 27, 2019)

This cell phone-based port of Dragon Quest II was released on the same day that Dragon Quest XI S was released. In the Japanese version, the okama line uses the same replacement line found in Dragon Quest XI:

The text formatting in this Japanese line matches the formatting in Dragon Quest XI and not the previous Dragon Quest II release. This suggests the okama replacment line had to be manually re-entered again at some point. In other words, there’s probably a big note next to this line in the Japanese source code that says “BE SURE TO UPDATE THIS LINE IN FUTURE RELEASES”.

Surprisingly, this English line was also re-translated from scratch, even though the rest of the script is identical to the 2014 mobile translation. The new line doesn’t make much sense in context, though, given that it only appears when your female companion is absent or dead.

In total, this single okama-related line in Dragon Quest II has been translated at least six different ways over the years, and has been changed in Japanese at least twice.

Summary

We’ve looked at so many versions of Yakuza and Dragon Quest and whatnot that it’s all become a big blur by this point. What was the point of all this again?

There are two points, actually – to see how the word okama has been handled in video game translation over time, and how the word okama has changed in Japanese entertainment over time.

Okama in Translation Over Time

First, from the examples above, we’ve seen how okama has been translated in different ways across a variety of video games:

We’re working from a tiny sample size, of course, but it’s at least clear that game publishers initially tried to avoid or sidestep any okama references in translation. That practice continues to this day, but it’s also now more common to see okama references left intact and translated in proper context. We’re even starting to see the word okama left as an untranslated Japanese term when it fits the situation.

Okama in Japanese Entertainment Over Time

From the examples above, we’ve also seen that Japanese game publishers used the word okama without concern between the 1980s and 2010s. In the late 2010s, however, industry leaders began to consider okama a culturally insensitive word. Some publishers have even started to change and/or drop the use of the word okama and okama-related content. This new stance applies to new games and classic re-releases alike.

Final Thoughts

I first started studying Japanese in the 1990s, and I have a faint memory of a teacher mentioning the word okama and how it’s not a good word to use. But later on, during my studies in Japan, I kept seeing the word okama being used everywhere on television, in movies, in manga, and so on. This left me confused – was it a taboo word or not?

Over time, I gained a more natural, nuanced understanding of the word okama, but it was never a topic I formally learned about in Japanese classes or in translation courses. So I’m glad I was able to finally look into it in more detail and share what I learned here.

Anyway, we’ve looked at the word okama in detail in this article, but it’s only one piece of a larger picture. There are many other similar Japanese words that have their own unique histories, uses, connotations, and more. Some examples include:

• mister lady
• new half
• blue boy
• sister boy
• gei
• homo
• onabe
• onē

Many of these words come from the English language, yet have their own unique nuances in Japanese. It’d be neat to see how they’ve changed over time too, and to see how they’re still changing today. For example, I feel like onē has become a more considerate replacement of okama in recent years, but I bet something new will replace it in a decade or two. I wonder what it’ll be.

The word ニューハーフ ("new half") in a 2015 television program

The word オネエ (onē) in a 2020 television program

When I first started doing research for this article, I didn’t know what to expect. It’s interesting – we often hear about how language changes over time, but we rarely see how translation can change over time too. This has been a learning experience for me, and hopefully it’s been fun and informative for you too.

Also, if you know of any other examples of okama in Japanese entertainment translation, let me know!

If you enjoyed this article, I've written a few other gender-related translation articles that you might like here. And if you're a fan of bad video game translations, you'll probably like this!