Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Two threads about how Japan is seen through a foreign lens overlapped. One was a running fan argument over two sluggers in MLB—Japan's Munetaka Murakami and Korea's Lee Jung-hoo—that turned on which metrics matter: batting average, or on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS, and whether average with runners in scoring position means anything. Comparing the two on splits that don't fix the number of games doesn't settle who's better. The other was a familiar language-trivia thread on the sweets chain "Chateraise"—a coinage from the French château (castle) and raisin (grapes), i.e. "castle of grapes," a name born in Yamanashi—and how it lands on native French ears. The etymology matches the company's own account, while the claim that the French "mock it mercilessly" is likely exaggerated. Both fold into the recurring pleasure of watching how Japanese things read to outsiders, mixing teasing with affection.

Key Reaction Themes

  • A fight over metrics — Batting average, or on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS; opinion also splits on whether clutch (runners-in-scoring-position) average means anything.
  • Dueling stat lines — Posts marshaling walks, strikeouts, and clutch numbers to rebut the other side.
  • Reception of a coined name — "It's a Japanese coinage, so of course the French can't read it," plus how French itself sounds to Japanese ears.
  • Skepticism toward the framing — Pushback on the bait headline that the French "mock it."

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

The French reception of the name "Chateraise"

A thread on how a wasei-French brand name sounds to native speakers.

Sources: 2ch

Comments:

  • "It's a Japanese-made coinage, so it can't be helped that the French can't read it."
  • "Seriously? That's a bonus."
  • "Château means castle in French, right? No idea about 'reze.'"
  • "To Japanese ears even 'France' (Furansu) can sound like furanzu — 'rotting vinegar' — so it's a ridiculous name too, lol."
  • "It's like 'hiyayakko' (cold tofu), which you can read as 'cool guy,' isn't it?"
  • "It's like snickering at 'Oman bonds' — it only comes across as a sad humblebrag about a husband with the mind of an elementary schooler."
  • "So doesn't this basically amount to slander against the French — saying they're at the level of Japanese elementary schoolers?"
  • "Just shut the French up with the taste, that's all."
  • "In the first place, 'raise' (reze) and 'rase' (raze) sound completely different anyway."
  • "If anything, my opinion of Chateraise went up."

MLB: Munetaka Murakami vs. Lee Jung-hoo

A Japan-vs-Korea fan argument over the two players' batting stats and metrics.

Sources: fmkorea, mlbpark

Comments:

  • "No matter how high your average is, if all you hit are singles, a high on-base percentage is better, right? There's slugging too, and any way you look at it it's Murakami. He's even made the All-Star Game, so this was settled long ago."
  • "Batting average: Lee .301, Munetaka Murakami .237 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"
  • "On looks, Lee is overwhelmingly ahead, though."
  • "Unmarried: Tomoyuki Sugano 36, Shota Imanaga 32, Kim Ha-seong 30, Yoshinobu Yamamoto 27, Lee Jung-hoo 27, Kim Hye-seong 27, Munetaka Murakami 26."
  • "When All-Star hitters were asked which metrics they value, it was all on-base stats like OPS and xwOBA and slugging stats. Batting average is basically just an inferior version of on-base percentage. That said, extra-base hits—doubles and up—create value beyond on-base, which is why All-Stars care about those two. Maybe stop preening over a metric no one rates?"
  • "Average with runners in scoring position: Son-mun .348, Lee .316, Shohei Ohtani .298, Nishida Riku .286, Hye-seong .258, Kazuma Okamoto .246, Seiya Suzuki .211, Masataka Yoshida .211, Munetaka Murakami .193."
  • "What's the point of hauling out average-with-runners-in-scoring-position, a stat even more useless than batting average? Even an idiot can picture what a pitcher does when a slugger comes up with runners on base."
  • "[Walks] Ohtani 69, Murakami 62, Suzuki 53, Okamoto 40, Yoshida 25, Lee 18, Son-mun 17. This is how pitchers rate them, see ☆"
  • "Strikeouts: Kazuma Okamoto 148, Munetaka Murakami 121, Shohei Ohtani 114, Seiya Suzuki 112, Lee 45, Masataka Yoshida 28."
  • "A caught fly ball amounts to the same thing, so even if you bring up strikeouts, you end up back at on-base percentage in the end, lol."