Fans of the Chunichi Dragons of Japan's Central League cheer on the team. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Instead of rooting on their team, the cheering squad for the Chunichi Dragons may have "insulted" the players by using the second-person pronoun “omae,” denoting someone of a lower rank or age.

When the team is threatening to score, the squad chants while playing musical instruments, “Oi, Oi, Oi, Oi, Oi, Oi, let’s go (name of the player). Get an all-out fighting spirit to fire you up. If omae do not get a hit who will do that? Now, grab the victory.”

Tsuyoshi Yoda, who took over as manager of the Dragons from the beginning of the season, questioned if the line, “‘If omae do not get a hit’ is impolite to players,” according to a team official.

The team asked the squad members to change the lyric, but received the reply, “We cannot quickly do it.”

Many cheering squads of 12 NPB teams sing similar songs with lyrics that include omae, referring to batters.

But only the cheering squad of the Dragons of the Central League has run into controversy.

The squad was organized and officially recognized by the team in 2014. After that, members have sung a parody of ‘Southpaw’ of Pink Lady, a female duo, a popular song that became a big hit in Japan in 1970s.

The squad posted a message on their account of a social networking site on July 1 that read, “We were told by the team that “Southpaw,” which we use to cheer on players, includes an inappropriate word. We have decided to voluntarily refrain from singing the song for the time being."

On July 2, Yoda said, “My only intention was that I wanted the squad to chant each player’s name instead of saying omae.”

The word omae is now used to refer to a fellow student, close friend or a person of lower rank than the speaker. But its origin, “oomae,” was the highest level of honorific expression to refer to a god, divinity or aristocrats, according to Hiroaki Iima, who compiles Japanese dictionaries.

The word became shortened in use to omae in the Heian Period (794-1185).

Until the early Edo Period (1603-1867) the term was used for a higher level of people. But after that, the word started to refer to people on an equal standing or of a lower social rank.

The degree of respect that speakers can express by using a honorific expression changes with the passing of time. Now, the use of omae has plunged in terms of respect.

Another former honorific “kisama,” which was used for referring to people of a higher rank, also gradually declined in use for the same level fellows in the military before the end of World War II, resulting in it becoming an abusive word.

Iima said that it is not problematic to say omae when baseball fans chant to cheer on the players.

“It is impolite to say the word to someone who is unacquainted with the speaker in modern society. But (there is no problem) because the squad uses the word with the intention that, ‘Both parties, we and the player, are teammates,’” said Iima.

But Iima also indicated that people tend to be in conflict when a word’s degree of respect is in a transitional period because people’s recognition of the nuance of a word varies.

“The degree of respect on omae can be further lowered,” Iima said. “The controversy might be the foreshadowing of such a change.”

Cheering squads of other professional baseball teams including the Yomiuri Giants, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and the Hanshin Tigers also chant “omae” referring to their players. But that is not viewed as a problem.

The phrase, “If omae do not get a hit, who will be the one to do so?” chanted to the melody of the huge hit song “Neraiuchi” (Sharpshooter) of singer Linda Yamamoto, is widely used during high school baseball games.

Yukiko Umetsu, a writer who had compiled books about cheering squads of high school teams, was disappointed with the controversy surrounding the Dragons’ omae issue.

What has touched Umetsu when watching cheering squads for both professional and amateur players at stadiums is the attitude of the squads' members. They want to help fight alongside the players, according to Umetsu.

“Other team players who are not eligible to play and sit in the stands also raise their voices in the hopes of ‘Please,’ or ‘Get a hit.’” I have never thought they were impolite while watching them.”

The Asahi Shimbun also interviewed one of the Dragons players who was called omae, and the veteran player replied, “We do not mind being referred to in that way at all.”