What Is a "Circle" in Japan? The Laid-Back College Club That Keeps Popping Up in Comedy
In Japan, a "circle" (saakuru) is a student-run hobby group at a university, and a looser cousin of the more serious official clubs. Here's what the word means and why it keeps turning up in Japanese comedy.
So what is a "circle"?
At Japanese universities, a "circle" (saakuru, borrowed from the English word) is a student-run group built around a shared hobby. That can be tennis, music, travel, film, or pretty much anything else. Circles are usually more relaxed than bukatsu, the official clubs that tend to come with regular practice and a more serious commitment. Think of them as something like a campus club or an intramural team, though the details vary from school to school.
For many students, a circle is where they make friends, and it often becomes a big part of how people talk about their college years. Some circles are known as much for their hangouts, trips, and drinking parties as for the activity in their name.
Why circles show up in comedy
The word does a lot of work in very little time. Say "circle" in Japan and many people picture a whole college lifestyle: group trips, late nights, and a sense that the hobby itself might be optional. That makes it handy shorthand for comedians, because one mention sets the scene without any explanation.
It also works as a character note. Whether someone is dying to join a circle or rolls their eyes at circle culture tells the audience a lot about who they are. And because circles carry such a carefree, youthful image, they make an easy contrast with anything serious, which gives comedians something to build on.
Where to see it
Circles come up in both of these routines. Here's how each one starts:
"Grandpa" by Pabun (manzai, a stand-up routine performed by a comedy duo): a student studying for college entrance exams visits their grandfather for the first time in a while and learns that Grandpa is planning to apply to the same university. The grandkid sets out to talk him out of it.
"Travel Plans" by Ohayo Wayama (solo sketch): a travel agent is pitching a Guam package to a first-time overseas traveler, a customer we never see or hear. Then the customer mentions that what they really want is a journey to "find themselves."
A Visit to Grandpa's
A student tries to reason with Grandpa about college. Grandpa won't budge.
3:19
Your First Trip Abroad
A first trip abroad brings out a travel agent's wildly excessive enthusiasm.
3:45
We use AI as part of how we create our articles.
Subtitles on this video: AI translation from the Japanese.