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リア充 riajuu
Winning at real life.
What does riajuu mean?
Someone whose offline life is full: friends, dates, plans every weekend. The word was coined online, by people watching from indoors.
Example
週末は友達と旅行なんて、リア充だね。
A trip with friends this weekend? You're living the good life.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Friends only Casual. Natural with friends, out of place at work or with strangers.
Culture note
Short for real life fulfilled. Every December the old forum jokes about riajuu and Christmas come back around.
The story behind riajuu
Riajuu is a piece of message board vocabulary from the mid-2000s, condensed from a phrase meaning that one's real life is fulfilled. The point is who invented it: people posting from indoors, about other people who were outdoors, with a mixture of envy and defensive humour that has never entirely faded.
It is best known from the annual ritual in which the internet, every December, loudly wishes misfortune on couples. This is a joke, mostly. In practice the word is aimed sideways at friends with dinner plans, or turned inward when your own weekend accidentally fills up and someone accuses you of having become one.
Get riajuu in your pocket
リア充 is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
