情報
じょうほう
jouhou
= information; news; intelligence; data
情報 (jouhou) is built from two kanji that together tell a surprisingly human story: 情 (emotion, feeling) + 報 (report, notification). Originally, a 情報 was a report colored by feeling — a dispatch carrying not just facts but the weight of lived experience. Today the word is used neutrally for any kind of information, yet that etymological warmth quietly distinguishes it from cold, clinical “data.”
情報 covers three overlapping senses that English splits across multiple words.
① General information / news — the everyday sense. 旅行の情報 (travel information), 最新情報 (latest news), 情報を集める (to gather information). This is the meaning you’ll encounter most in daily life, from tourist brochures to weather apps.
② Intelligence (military / strategic) — 情報 is the standard translation for “intelligence” in security and geopolitical contexts. 情報機関 (intelligence agency), 情報収集 (intelligence gathering). The nuance of “a report that matters” makes the word a natural fit.
③ Verbal idioms — Japanese treats 情報 as the object of several high-frequency verbs: 情報を得る (to obtain information), 情報を提供する (to provide information), 情報を共有する (to share information), 情報を処理する (to process information).
情報 vs. 知識 (ちしき, knowledge): 情報 is something you receive — it arrives from outside and may be incomplete or unverified. 知識 is something you accumulate over time through study and experience. A single news headline is 情報; understanding why that event happened is 知識.
Two compound words built on 情報 are essential for modern Japanese literacy:
個人情報 (kojin jouhou, personal information) — You will see this on every website sign-up form, privacy policy, and government document in Japan. 個人情報保護法 (the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, enacted 2003) made this compound ubiquitous in daily life.
情報処理 (jouhou shori, information processing) — A core IT and computer-science term. 情報処理技術者試験 is Japan’s national IT certification exam, so this compound appears constantly in tech job listings and university curricula.
A common learner mistake is reaching for データ (data) when 情報 is more natural in conversation, or vice versa. データ feels technical and quantitative; 情報 works in both casual and formal registers and is the safe default.
情 (じょう) combines 心 (heart/mind) with 青 (blue/pure), carrying meanings of emotion, feeling, and human sympathy — seen in words like 感情 (emotion) and 情け (compassion, mercy). 報 (ほう) depicts a person being held accountable, conveying the act of reporting back or notifying — seen in 報告 (report) and 予報 (forecast). Together, 情報 literally suggests “a notification carrying feeling.” Over time the emotional connotation faded and the word became the neutral, all-purpose term for information that it is today — but the kanji ancestry explains why Japanese speakers sometimes use 情報 where English might prefer the more detached word “data.”
Everyday use
旅行前にその地域の観光情報をいろいろ調べました。
Ryokou mae ni sono chiiki no kankou jouhou wo iroiro shirabemashita.
Before the trip, I looked up all sorts of tourist information about the area.
Casual / Social Media
SNSで口コミ情報を集めてから、そのレストランを予約した。
SNS de kuchikomi jouhou wo atsumete kara, sono resutoran wo yoyaku shita.
I gathered word-of-mouth reviews on social media before booking that restaurant.
Formal / Cultural context
正確な情報をもとに報道することが、ジャーナリストの責任です。
Seikaku na jouhou wo moto ni houdou suru koto ga, jaanarisuto no sekinin desu.
Reporting based on accurate information is the responsibility of a journalist.
Japan has a widely used sociological term — 情報社会 (jouhou shakai, information society) — that entered mainstream discourse in the 1980s as personal computers spread and has only grown more relevant in the smartphone era. The concept acknowledges that in contemporary Japan, managing and evaluating 情報 has become as central to daily life as physical labor once was. The flip side is 情報過多 (jouhou kata, information overload), a phrase that appears regularly in wellness journalism and productivity books as Japanese consumers grapple with the relentless pace of digital news feeds and group-chat notifications.
A distinctly Japanese television genre called 情報番組 (jouhou bangumi, information program) shapes how millions of people start their day. These wide-ranging morning variety shows — broadcast live on weekday mornings — blend weather forecasts, breaking news, health tips, celebrity gossip, and regional food features into a single fast-moving format. Programs like Mezamashi TV and Sukkiri have loyal audiences who rely on them not just for hard news but for the ambient sense of being informed and connected. The genre is so embedded in Japanese morning culture that missing your usual 情報番組 can genuinely feel like starting the day without a compass.