The most common cant used in show business is the backslang. They say "Ger-mana" instead of manager, "To-shiro" for shirouto (meaning amateur), and "Wonfu" for fan. Showered with backslangs makes me feel as if they are making fun of me. And such situation can sometimes cause irritation.

But when I come to think of it, I wonder what makes them wanting to reverse the words. First of all, it must be something similar to slang expression that can only be understood within their own industry. They use specific expressions so that the conversation can only be understood between fellow members. If you want to notify someone of risky account or something the third party should not know of, then, the words used must be something specific.

Another reason may be pure word game. The act of reversing the word itself may suggest the air of literature.

And lastly is the idea of magic. Reversing the order, not only with words but also in general, is the basic of magic. Backward masking was once popular. Such is a record recorded in a certain way so that if one would spin it the other way around, a completely different message could be played. One of the Beatles songs, if spanned backwards, was known to play "Satan is a God". Likewise, in the occult world, dogs are often thought to symbolize Devil. This is only because "DOG" can be spelled by reversing the alphabets of the word "GOD". The opposite of God turns out to be Devil.

In western magic, the method of rotating the letters is derived from Kabbala. In Kabbalah, rotating the order of spelling is called "Anagram". Notredam, a prophet known to be a Jew, was one of those who were well acquainted with Kabbalah and sprinkled his prophet songs with many anagrams. For example, a stanza called "ANOHÕs horizon" suggested the catastrophe of Noah and can be viewed as predicting a deluge that has ever been experienced.

Backslangs that people of the Japanese broadcasting industry choose to use may have some relations with the Kabbalah. This is because, historically speaking, many of the business where backslangs were commonly used had something to do with show business, amusements and religion. Looking back the history, those who were in charge of such cultures were the Hata-clan. Show business can be viewed as the culture of Hata-clan.

As you may know, Hatas were Primitive Christian Jews. Based on this fact, the backslangs used in Japan may have derived from the culture called Gematria. It is my opinion that the communication method utilized only between the Kabbalists began to spread more among the general public, which lead the backslangs to be regarded as the specific term used only among the people in show business. The truth is yet to be revealed.

Translated by Rie Ishida