J-horror

noun

Japanese horror fiction in film, video games, and other popular culture, typically marked by psychological tension and supernatural elements.

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Meanings

nounJ-horror (uncountable)
  1. uncountableJapanese horror fiction in film, video games, and other popular culture, typically marked by psychological tension and supernatural elements.

    While everyone into J-Horror is gushing over the zombie mayhem that is Junk, I think Wild Zero is a far better movie.

    2000 November 1, Latte Thunder, “Wild Zero - More Japanese Zombies!!”, in alt.horror (Usenet), retrieved 05 Oct 2018, message-ID <8totmb$v8c$1@murdoch.harvard.net>
    3 more examples

    I've given myself the task of tying modern feminism in Japan to the trend in the new wave of J-horror flicks . . . I'd love to be able to include MEMENTO MORI in the discussion, but . . . so I'm holding off ordering a copy.

    2001 September 23, TetsuwanATOM, “Re: Memento Mori”, in alt.asian-movies (Usenet), retrieved 05 Oct 2018, message-ID <_Ger7.48534$xB1.12794429@news1.rdc1.tn.home.com>

    Audition…An almost unclassifiable masterpiece of J-horror and one of the very few movies in the genre in which the demonically violent protagonist is allowed to be a woman, satirising women’s position in Japanese society and cinema.

    2018 June 7, Peter Bradshaw, “The scariest horror films ever – ranked!”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2024

    Even a particularly high interest in contemporary Japanese cinema in Britain in the early 2000s – the time of the J-horror boom – didn’t result in distribution for Somai’s final features, Wait and See (1998) and Kaza-hana (2000).

    2021 December 13, Josh Slater-Williams, “Where to begin with Shinji Somai”, in British Film Institute, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2024

Origin

From J- (“Japanese”) + horror.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

J-horror. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/J-horror

MLA

“J-horror.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/J-horror. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “J-horror,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/J-horror.

Source: J-horror on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.