Quick Reference

Meaning & Definition

One verb, tataku, covers everything from knocking on a door to clapping your hands to keeping time on a drum. But open a Japanese news app or Twitter/X during a scandal and you’ll see the exact same verb doing something else entirely: describing an entire country piling on to criticize someone. That range, from a physical tap to a public pile-on, is what makes 叩く worth learning properly rather than just memorizing as “to hit.”

In its literal sense, 叩く describes a light, repeated striking motion, not a heavy blow. Doa wo tataku (ドアを叩く) means to knock on a door, te wo tataku (手を叩く) means to clap your hands, and taiko wo tataku (太鼓を叩く) means to beat a drum. The motion is quick contact, often repeated, rather than a single forceful impact. From that physical base, 叩く extends figuratively to “attack with words” or “criticize harshly,” especially when a group turns on one target: netto de tatakareru (ネットで叩かれる) means “to get bashed online,” and seijika wo tataku (政治家を叩く) means “to criticize a politician.” The passive form tatakareru (叩かれる) is the one you’ll see constantly in this sense, since the person being criticized is almost always the grammatical focus. Two set phrases round out the figurative side: karuguchi wo tataku (軽口を叩く) means “to crack jokes” (light, playful mouth-tapping), while kageguchi wo tataku (陰口を叩く) means “to talk behind someone’s back.” As a noun, tataki (叩き) shows up in the business idiom tataki-dai (叩き台), literally a “platform to be hammered on,” meaning a rough draft meant to be criticized and revised. Being godan, it conjugates as tataita (past), tatakanai (negative), and tatakareru (passive, the criticism sense above).

How to Use It

The figurative “criticize/pile-on” meaning is so common in news headlines and social media commentary that learners who only know the “knock/clap” definition often miss it entirely when reading. If you see tatakareru (叩かれる) attached to a person’s name in an article, assume it means “got bashed,” not “got physically hit.” Also learn tataki-dai (叩き台) separately as a fixed business/meeting term for a starting-point draft; it doesn’t mean the document is bad, just that it’s open for revision. Finally, don’t confuse 叩く with naguru (殴る), which means to punch or strike with real force to hurt someone. 叩く is about light, repeated contact (or metaphorical criticism), while naguru is about a single, forceful, damaging blow.

Example Sentences

Cultural Context

Japan’s online culture has a well-known term for mass public criticism: enjou (炎上, literally “catching fire”), and 叩く is the verb that describes the act itself. When a celebrity, company, or ordinary private citizen says or does something perceived as wrong, it’s common to see thousands of people “tataku” the target at once, flooding comment sections and social media with criticism within hours. Because the underlying verb literally means a light, repeated tap rather than a single heavy blow, the imagery fits: it’s not one devastating strike, but countless small hits from many directions that add up to real damage, both socially and psychologically, for the person on the receiving end.

This pattern is frequently discussed in Japanese media as a social problem, particularly because the anonymity of the internet makes group criticism feel low-risk for each individual participant even as the cumulative effect on the target can be severe. News programs and variety shows regularly cover cases of people being tatakareru over relatively minor missteps, and this collective piling-on is widely recognized as its own social phenomenon, distinct from ordinary criticism or debate.

📚 Learn More