Translation guide
The English word "corruption" covers several distinct concepts in Japanese, from political bribery to data corruption and moral decay. The best translation depends heavily on context.
Illegal or unethical conduct by people in power, especially involving bribery or misuse of public funds.
The standard term for corruption in politics, government, or business involving bribery or embezzlement.
The politician was arrested for corruption.
Corruption scandals were uncovered one after another.
Broader term for corruption, decay, or rot, often used in political or moral contexts. Can imply systemic decay.
Government corruption has become a serious problem.
Specifically refers to bribery (giving and receiving bribes). Often used in legal contexts.
An investigation was conducted on suspicion of bribery.
Errors in computer data that make it unreadable or incorrect.
General term for damage or corruption of data, files, or hardware.
The file got corrupted and can't be opened.
Specifically 'data corruption'. Common in IT contexts.
Colloquial term for garbled or corrupted data, often due to encoding issues.
It wasn't mojibake, but data corruption occurred.
Loss of moral integrity, often in a person's character or society.
Moral decay, depravity, or falling into vice. Often used for personal corruption.
Power corrupted him.
Also used for moral decay, especially in a societal sense.
Decadence, degeneracy, often used in literary or historical contexts.
Alteration or degradation from an original pure form.
Making something worse through alteration; corruption of a text or system.
That translation is a corruption of the original work.
Distortion, twisting, or misrepresentation, often of facts or texts.
Change in quality, often implying degradation or corruption of original nature.
汚職 (oshoku) specifically refers to corruption involving bribery or illegal acts by officials. 腐敗 (fuhai) is broader, meaning decay or rot, and can be used for moral, political, or systemic corruption. In news, 汚職 is more common for specific scandals, while 腐敗 describes a general state.
While 腐敗 means 'corruption' in the sense of decay, it is not used for digital data corruption. Use 破損 (hason) or データ破損 instead.
Please back up your data to prevent data corruption.
City life can corrupt people's hearts.
退廃した貴族社会。
A decadent aristocratic society.
歴史の歪曲は許されない。
Corruption of history is unforgivable.
伝統の変質を嘆く声もある。
Some lament the corruption of tradition.