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Kotobagari (言葉狩り, lit. "word hunting") refers to the censorship of words considered politically incorrect in the Japanese language. Words such as foreigner (gaijin), leper (rai), blind (mekura), deaf (tsunbo), crazy (kichigai), slaughter house (tosatsujō), and moron/retard (hakuchi) are currently not used by the majority of Japanese publishing houses; the publishers often refuse to publish writing which includes these words.

Critics of kotobagari point out that the activity often does not serve the purpose of correcting the underlying cause of discrimination. For example, a school janitor in Japan used to be called a kozukai-san (choir person). Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to yōmuin (task person). Now youmuin is considered demeaning, so there is shift to use kōmuin (school task person) or kanrisagyōin (maintenance person) instead, an example of what Steven Pinker calls the "euphemism treadmill".

See also: Political correctness

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• Japanese language