黙殺

Japanese

Kanji in this term
黙	殺
もく Grade: S	さつ Grade: 5
on'yomi

Alternative spelling
默殺 (kyūjitai)

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) もくさつ [mòkúsátsú] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [mo̞kɯ̟̊sa̠t͡sɨ]

Noun

黙(もく)殺(さつ) • (mokusatsu) 

1. ignoring someone's suggestion, opinion, or report.
2. keeping a contemptuous silence

Usage notes

• At the close of World War II, Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki chose mokusatsu to express Japan's reaction to the Potsdam Declaration's demand for Japan's unconditional surrender. It was translated to mean that Japan rejected the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and later it was often suggested that the Allies took his response to be more assertive than he putatively intended it to be, the ostensible mistranslation thus contributing to the events that followed.
• The Japanese verb for withholding comment is mokusatsu(suru), which could be better understood culturally as, “We'll wait in silence until we can speak with wisdom.”

Verb

黙(もく)殺(さつ)する • (mokusatsu suru) transitive suru (stem 黙(もく)殺(さつ)し (mokusatsu shi), past 黙(もく)殺(さつ)した (mokusatsu shita))

1. to take no notice of
2. to treat with silent contempt
3. to shut one’s eyes
4. to ignore
5. to withhold comment
6. to cut someone dead
7. to withdraw from discussion, a common practice to take pause and reflect on what has been discussed and what the next steps should be

Conjugation

Conjugation of "黙殺する" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)

Katsuyōkei ("stem forms")
Mizenkei ("imperfective")	黙殺し	もくさつし	mokusatsu shi
Ren’yōkei ("continuative")	黙殺し	もくさつし	mokusatsu shi
Shūshikei ("terminal")	黙殺する	もくさつする	mokusatsu suru
Rentaikei ("attributive")	黙殺する	もくさつする	mokusatsu suru
Kateikei ("hypothetical")	黙殺すれ	もくさつすれ	mokusatsu sure
Meireikei ("imperative")	黙殺せよ¹ 黙殺しろ²	もくさつせよ¹ もくさつしろ²	mokusatsu seyo¹ mokusatsu shiro²
Key constructions
Passive	黙殺される	もくさつされる	mokusatsu sareru
Causative	黙殺させる 黙殺さす	もくさつさせる もくさつさす	mokusatsu saseru mokusatsu sasu
Potential	黙殺できる	もくさつできる	mokusatsu dekiru
Volitional	黙殺しよう	もくさつしよう	mokusatsu shiyō
Negative	黙殺しない	もくさつしない	mokusatsu shinai
Negative continuative	黙殺せず	もくさつせず	mokusatsu sezu
Formal	黙殺します	もくさつします	mokusatsu shimasu
Perfective	黙殺した	もくさつした	mokusatsu shita
Conjunctive	黙殺して	もくさつして	mokusatsu shite
Hypothetical conditional	黙殺すれば	もくさつすれば	mokusatsu sureba
¹ Written imperative ² Spoken imperative

References

• 2002, Ineko Kondō; Fumi Takano; Mary E Althaus; et. al., Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary, Third Edition, Tokyo: Shōgakukan, →ISBN.