noun
petty bourgeois; lower middle class
Refers to the social class of small-scale business owners, shopkeepers, and lower-level white-collar workers, often with a nuance of conventional, narrow-minded, or materialistic values. Used in sociological, historical, and literary contexts.
彼は小市民的な生活に満足している。
He is content with a petty bourgeois lifestyle.
この小説は小市民の日常を描いている。
This novel depicts the daily life of the lower middle class.
ブルジョワ refers to the bourgeoisie or capitalist class, typically wealthier and more powerful than the 小市民.
Compound of 小 (small, petty) and 市民 (citizen, townspeople). The term emerged in modern Japanese to translate Western sociological concepts like 'petty bourgeois' and 'lower middle class'.