Wapanese, short for "wannabe Japanese" or "White Japanese" depending on who you ask, is a term which describes generally, but not exclusively, white individuals who display a perposterous reverance and obsession with all things Japanese, and believe themselves to be part of Japanese culture. Note: A wapanese is not a Japanophile, who generally displays substantive and factual knowledge about Japan beyond the superficial. Wapanese will generally display one or more of the following traits:

1. Someone who watches Anime or reads Manga is not instantly Wapanese. Wapanese display an unhealthy and obsessive level of love for the genre however and watch and talk about it constantly. Wapanese are often attracted to the shallowest Japanese anime such as "Naruto", but insult it and they will become defensive as though they were protecting high art.

2. Despite having never set foot in Japan. Wapanese will believe and proclaim that every facet of Japanese culture is superior to all others, particularly American. Whether it is junk food like Pocky, animation, film, economy, work ethic, respect for this and that, Japan will be better in every way. Wapanese love to harp how much better Japanese music is than American music, despite the fact that they listen to J-pop, which has the same amount of substance as American pop, meaning none.

3. When watching anime they will claim, even if the voice acting is fine, that the Japanese track is inherently superior and more emotionally engaging. A truly pretentious Wapanese will tell their friends they watched anime without subtitles. Good luck understanding a word they say...

4. Wapanese love to harp on how superior the character of the Japanese people is to others. They will tell you they are more in touch with nature, more respectful of tradition and elders,and a whole list of other cliches they've gathered from anime and sterotypes.

5. Will proudly refer to themselves as "Otaku", often naming their club at school something of that nature. They seem to miss the fact that in Japan being an Otaku means you are a sheltered and pathetic person obsessed with trivial pursuits, and that they need help. Re-reading what I just wrote, I actally don't think the Wapanese could have chosen a more fitting name for themselves.

6. Will make attempts to follow Japanese fashion and particularly wear Kimonos. They will usually embarass themselves, and more often than not wear this stuff the wrong way and at the wrong times from what I understand. They will fill their rooms with asian things, notice I say asian and not Japanese, because most Wapanese will buy anything that looks remotely asian and proclaim it to be Japanese (Wrongly). They will make poor attempts to assimilate into Japanese culture by buying Japanese food, and eating sushi, even if they don't actually seem to much like it.

7. Due to their inability to woo women in their own land, male Wapanese delude themselves into thinking that if they went to Japan, Japanese women would flock to them, practically jumping to date and bed them. Wapanese do not seem to understand that Japanese women are not interested in dating introverted, obsessive, and clingy men just because they have a weak understanding of Japan's culture. See Yellow fever. Wapanese girls often become obsessed with male characters in anime. It's a sad sight.

8. Often owns a sword (Katana or other Japanese weapon of course) and claim they have studied the Samurai and Ninja and know how to expertly use their blade. Aside from being wrong, they forget that Ninjas and Samurai probably were in a lot better physical shape than them.

9. Frequent users of the ever irritating Japanglish. Where they sprinkle english conversations with Japanese words derived from anime (they studied it they will say however). These mainly include hello, goodbye, and inherently fanboy/girl-ish words like Kawaii for "cute".

10. Will try and mimic physical motions from Anime. Anime characters generally move in a very exaggerated form and so watching Wapanese do this is rather funny. They will pout, and pull down their eyelid at you and other dumb things. The worst is when they start prancing around as if they were some super ninja, making dumb poses and yelling things. This is when you look away and be glad you are indeed not them, but it's even humiliating to watch from afar. They also have the tendency to repeat words twice as if to make them more spunkily Japanese, like "hi, hi!" to fellow Wapanese, peace signs and furious giggling are also popular amongst them. They also love anime smileys like ^_^.

11. Will claim to be an expert on some Japanese topic. Mainly stuff like Buddhism/Shinto, Samurai, Ninjas and other "really Japanese" stuff. Their understanding will actually be derived mostly from anime, and despite all their claims of "training" or "meditation", they don't really know anything.

12. Will cosplay. Often the most elaborate costumes seem to be by Japanophiles, Wapanese tend to throw something together and make themselves look silly.

13. Don't realize that the Japanese would find them equally as sad, if not more so, than we Americans do.

14. The Wapanese trend is most prevelent in junior high/middle school, when things like Dragonball Z and Pokemon are very popular. Many will grow out if it by high school. However, just as many do not, and grow up into full fledged Wapanese. I pity those individuals.

“Wapanese” are decidedly caucasian individuals who, by means of thoroughly warped postmodern acculturation processes, have come to the decision that it is in their best interest to act as if they were denizens of the nation of Japan. The term “wapanese” can be accurately though of as an analog to wigger. A whitey can be classified as a “Wapanese” if they are in possession of two or more of the following defining traits:


1. Has an unhealthy obsession with shallow, saccharine and intellectually insulting animation shows (also refered to as anime by the nerd elite) originally tailored for young Japanese children

2. Operates under the erroneous belief that every aspect of American culture is vastly inferior to that of Japan’s – even though 99.9% of Wapanese have never had firsthand experience of any sort with their preferred culture (in other words, they’ve never set so much as one foot upon the island(s) of Japan)

3. Halfheartedly studies Japanese language and/or is a part-time practitioner of martial arts

4. Has a sword (samurai swords only, of course) collection

5. Is a Virgin
6. May be afflicted with a terminal case of yellow fever

There is a difference between watching anime and being Wapanese.

An anime watcher does just that, he watches anime.

The Wapanese watch anime and will think they were born and raised in Japan.

An anime watcher may use a quote now an then from an anime he likes.

The Wapanese will try to learn Japanese, but not the correct way, from watching anime. They'll only learn a few words and use them with English, using what is called Japanglish.

An anime watcher will watch what he can on television or maybe buy a video or DVD.

The Wapanese will buy untranslated anime and translate them horribly. They will proceed to gripe and complain that their hacked up garbage is better than anything ever made.

An anime watcher will do nothing else.

Due to a chemical imbalance in their heads, the Wapanese will denounce their country, stalk Asian girls, eat nothing but Asian food, grow disgustingly huge and/or pale, live in their parents house until they are 30 or older, and generally be annoyances for the rest of their lives or until they snap out of it, which usually happens around 9th or 10th grade.

Wapanese is the term used to describe a person of non-japanese descent (usually white, however some others are lumped in there as well) who is incredibly obsessed with Japanese things.

A person who watches anime or majors in Japanese language at university is not counted as wapanese.

These are common behaviours displayed by wapanese:

1. Being obsessed with anime. The typical anime watcher enjoys the shows because they are fun to watch and interesting (not all are for children, that is a myth). However, wapanese will take it to an unhealthy level.

2. Their rooms will be filled with japanese things. Anything from anime stuff to japanese things such as Tatami. A true wapanese will have next to nothing non-japanese in their room.

3. Many wapanese will believe that Japan is the best country ever and that if they go there they will be adored. However, most wapanese don't understand that Japan is a very racist society and they don't like white people very much.

4...

Wannabe Japanese. NOT "white japanese" or anything like that, WANNABE JAPANESE.

Those outside of Japanese culture, who, through fandom and such, have somehow gotten the idea that Japan is better than wherever they are living, and try their hardest to be Japanese. This behavior, however, may show in people who aren't Japanese, and simply enjoy the Japanese culture they know, having no desire to be Japanese or idea that Japan is better than where they live. Wapanese are the extreme stereotype of obsession with Japanese culture.

See "The Last Samurai"

A derogatory term used to describe any person fanatical about the Japanese culture and tries to become Japanese at any expense(and usually failing.)

A wapanese person is more acurately described as a social misfit that tries to find belonging by means of the Japanese Culture by entering a group or other groups of people with similar background and common interest(that being the Japanese culture.)

This person often finds the Japanese culture to be superior to any other culture(usually in defense of their newly found place of being), and finds great pride in showing off a new word or new words he/she has learned from an anime or a word from a manga he/she translated, and often insults those that DO know Japanese because the speaker doesn't truly know what he/she said.(there are no true curse words in Japanese, btw, just different terms which can be insulting in a situation).

This term (wapanese) is often indiscriminately applied to any person whom watch anime in general (a generally mild misnomer as anime is simply a cartoon and should be treated as such. Even though the drawing style and types of activity are mildly different(note that Dragon Ball Z is only loosely an anime as it more poorly animated gibberish that hyperactive 14 year-olds lose pent up energy on.))