It’s Chinese to me.

Mickey Mouse false cognate in kanji?

Def: False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are not.

Japanese kanji and Chinese ideograms have many false cognates. The (世論 kanji) What Japan Thinks  website came up with a list of the more interesting ones. In a June post, I talked in a humorous manner about the Tepco logo as really a false kanji cognate for the Mickey Mouse symbol.

Ranking result

Q: What kanji were you surprised to learn the Chinese meaning of? (Sample size=1,070)

Rank	Kanji	Japanese meaning	Chinese meaning	Score
1	挨拶	Greetings	Torture	100
2	手紙	Letter	Toilet paper	80.7
3	愛人	Lover	Wife	74.6
4	娘	Daughter	Mother	64.9
5	下水	Sewage	Pig guts boiled in spices	63.7
6	切手	Postage stamp	To cut one’s hand	47.3
7	汽車	Steam train	Car	46.2
8	暗算	Mental arithmetic	To conspire a plot	40.0
9	勉強	Study	Force someone to do something against their will	38.7
10	邪心	A wicked heart	Dreaming	35.0