ストレス

• 読み: ストレス
• ローマ字: sutoresu
• 漢字の分解: From English 'stress.' Fully naturalized loanword used as-is in Japanese.
• 発音: /su.to.ɾe.su/

意味

Stress — mental or physical tension from daily life pressures like work, relationships, or environment.

ストレス is one of the most deeply embedded English loanwords in Japanese, used by virtually everyone from children to the elderly. It functions as both a noun and a quasi-adjective (ストレスフル). Japanese society's unique pressures — long work hours, rigid social expectations, packed commuter trains — have made ストレス an essential daily vocabulary word. The concept of ストレス社会 (stress society) is frequently discussed in media as a defining feature of modern Japan.

例文

1. 仕事のストレスで最近ずっと胃が痛い。
2. ストレスたまりすぎて週末ずっと寝てた。
3. 人間関係のストレスが一番きつくない？

使い方ガイド

場面: daily conversation, workplace, healthcare, social media

トーン: matter-of-fact, empathetic

正しい言い方

• ストレスたまってない？たまには休んだ方がいいよ。 (Are you stressed out? You should take a break sometimes.)
• 仕事のストレスやばくて、転職考えてる。 (Work stress is so bad I'm thinking about changing jobs.)

避ける言い方

• 「ストレスなんか気の持ちようだよ」は相手を否定する言葉 (Saying 'stress is all in your head' dismisses someone's genuine suffering)

よくある間違い

• Pronouncing ストレス with English stress patterns — the Japanese pronunciation has even stress on each mora: su-to-re-su

起源と歴史

From English 'stress.' Entered Japanese in the mid-20th century through medical and psychological contexts, becoming an everyday word by the 1980s-1990s as work culture pressures intensified.

文化的背景

時代: Mainstream since the 1980s-1990s

世代: All ages

社会的背景: Universal

地域メモ: Used across all of Japan. ストレス社会 (stress society) is a widely recognized descriptor of modern Japanese life.