天災

• Reading: てんさい
• Romaji: tensai
• Kanji breakdown: 天 (ten) — heaven, nature, sky; 災 (sai) — disaster, calamity
• Pronunciation: /teɴ.sai/

Meaning

Natural disaster; natural calamity; act of God. A catastrophe caused by natural forces.

A noun referring specifically to disasters caused by nature — earthquakes, typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions — as opposed to 人災 (jinsai, man-made disaster). An important distinction in Japanese, as insurance and legal contexts treat 天災 differently from human-caused events. Often appears in the pair 天災は忘れた頃にやってくる (natural disasters strike when you have forgotten about them), a famous warning attributed to physicist Terada Torahiko.

Examples

1. 日本は天災が多い国として知られている。 Japan is known as a country prone to natural disasters.
2. 天災に備えて、非常食を用意しておくべきだ。 We should stock emergency food supplies to prepare for natural disasters.
3. 天災と人災の両方が重なり、被害が拡大した。 A combination of natural and man-made factors caused the damage to spread.

Usage Guide

Context: disaster preparedness, news, insurance

Tone: serious

Origin & History

From Sino-Japanese: 天 (ten, heaven/nature) + 災 (sai, disaster/calamity). Literally 'heavenly disaster' — a calamity brought by nature, not by human hands.

Cultural Context

Era: Classical

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal