Quick Reference

Meaning & Definition

背広 (sebiro) carries a hidden piece of London inside it — the word is widely believed to derive from Savile Row, the famous street in London’s Mayfair district renowned for its bespoke tailoring. When Japan opened to the West in the Meiji era, this foreign street name was borrowed phonetically and written with the kanji 背広, giving a thoroughly Western garment an unexpectedly Japanese-looking name.

背広 refers to a Western-style business suit — specifically the matched set of a jacket (上着, uwagi) and trousers (ズボン, zubon) made from the same fabric. It is essentially synonymous with the loanword スーツ (sūtsu), but 背広 feels more formal and literary, and is more common in written Japanese, official documents, and older speech. If you want to refer to the jacket alone without the trousers, you would say 上着 (uwagi) or ジャケット (jaketto); 背広 always implies the full two-piece ensemble. In casual conversation, most younger Japanese speakers default to スーツ, while 背広 tends to appear in newspaper articles, formal announcements, or the speech of older generations.

How to Use It

The most common mistake learners make is treating 背広 and スーツ as interchangeable in all contexts. While they refer to the same garment, スーツ is the everyday spoken word in modern Japan — saying 背広 in casual conversation can sound stiff or old-fashioned. However, 背広姿 (sebiro sugata, ‘dressed in a suit’) is a set phrase still used naturally in writing and broadcasting to describe someone in formal business attire. Also note that 背広 never refers to just a jacket: if someone hands you a jacket at a dry cleaner and asks about your 背広, they expect you to bring the matching trousers too.

Kanji Breakdown

背広 is written with real kanji — 背 (se, meaning ‘back’ or ‘spine’) and 広 (hiro, meaning ‘wide’ or ‘broad’) — but the characters are ateji (当て字), meaning they were chosen purely for their phonetic sound, not their meaning. The combination 背広 does not literally mean ‘wide back.’ The kanji were selected to approximate the sound of ‘Savile Row’ (セビロ) when Japanese speakers first encountered the word in the Meiji period. This makes 背広 a rare example of a Western place name disguised as a native Japanese compound.

Example Sentences

Cultural Context

背広 entered Japanese life during the Meiji era (1868–1912), when the government actively promoted Western dress (洋服, yōfuku) as a symbol of modernization. Male government officials and military officers were among the first to adopt suits, gradually displacing the kimono (和服, wafuku) in formal and professional settings. By the early twentieth century, the suited salaryman had become an enduring visual symbol of Japan’s urban workforce — a transformation so complete that today wearing traditional clothing to an office would stand out far more than a suit ever could.

Japan has developed its own highly specific suit culture around job hunting, known as 就活 (shūkatsu). University students entering the job market are expected to wear a リクルートスーツ (recruit suit) — an almost universally black or very dark navy two-piece suit, white shirt, and subdued tie — to every company information session, interview, and entrance ceremony. This uniformity is not accidental: standing out visually is considered risky during job hunting, so the recruit suit functions less as a fashion choice and more as a social signal of seriousness and conformity. Entire retail sections of department stores are dedicated to recruit suits each autumn and spring.

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