パソコン
パソコン
pasokon
= personal computer; PC
パソコン is a classic example of wasei-eigo — a Japanese word built from English parts but clipped and reshaped to fit Japanese phonology. It collapses “personal computer” into just four syllables, following the same shortening pattern that gives Japanese speakers スマホ (sumaho) for smartphone and タブレット (taburetto) for tablet.
パソコン refers specifically to a personal computer — a desktop or laptop — as distinct from a スマホ (smartphone) or タブレット (tablet). In everyday speech and writing it is entirely standard and carries no casual or informal connotation; you will hear it in news broadcasts, government websites, and corporate memos just as freely as in casual conversation. The full form パーソナルコンピューター is rarely used outside highly technical or legal contexts. When precision matters — for example, in a job posting specifying required equipment — パソコン already implies a full-sized machine with a keyboard, so no qualifier is usually needed.
Learners sometimes write パソコン with a long vowel mark as パーソコン, by analogy with words like パーティー — but the correct form has no lengthening mark after パ. Also note that パソコン does not extend to smartphones; calling your phone パソコン would confuse a native speaker. If you need to specify a laptop in particular, use ノートパソコン (nōto pasokon); a desktop is デスクトップパソコン (desukutoppu pasokon).
Everyday use
今日は会議の資料をパソコンで作りました。
Kyō wa kaigi no shiryō o pasokon de tsukurimashita.
I created the meeting materials on my computer today.
Casual / Social Media
授業でパソコンを使ってレポートを書いた。
Jugyō de pasokon o tsukatte repōto o kaita.
I wrote my report using a computer in class.
Formal / Cultural context
この求人はパソコンの基本操作ができる方を対象としています。
Kono kyūjin wa pasokon no kihon sōsa ga dekiru kata o taishō to shite imasu.
This job posting is intended for applicants who can perform basic computer operations.
Japanese has a well-established habit of borrowing English tech terms and clipping them to a more manageable length — パソコン (pasokon) from “personal computer,” スマホ (sumaho) from “smartphone,” リモコン (rimokon) from “remote control.” This pattern, known as 短縮語 (tanshukugo), reflects both a practical need to fit multi-syllable foreign words into Japanese speech rhythm and a broader cultural comfort with blending foreign vocabulary into daily life. For learners, recognising this shortening rule unlocks dozens of tech and lifestyle words at once.
In Japanese office culture, パソコン skills became a standard employment requirement throughout the 1990s and 2000s, to the point where job listings routinely include 「パソコン基本操作ができる方」 (applicants who can operate a PC) as a baseline qualification. The word itself therefore carries connotations of professional competence and white-collar work. At the same time, younger generations increasingly perform tasks on スマホ that older workers would handle on a パソコン, so the word now implicitly signals a full keyboard-and-screen setup rather than mobile computing.