When a Brand Name Becomes the Word

In English, most people say “Velcro” when they mean a hook-and-loop fastener — even though Velcro is technically a brand name. In Japanese, the exact same thing happened, but with a different brand: マジックテープ (majikku tēpu), which is a registered trademark of the Japanese company Kuraray. Ask any Japanese person what that ripping, scratchy fastener on shoes and bags is called, and they’ll say マジックテープ without a second thought.

The English term “magic tape” doesn’t exist as a product name in English-speaking countries. If you said “magic tape” to an American, they might think of Scotch Magic Tape (a matte-finish adhesive tape) — something completely different. For hook-and-loop fasteners, English speakers say “Velcro” informally or “hook-and-loop fastener” in technical contexts.

The Trademark Trap: A Pattern in Japanese

マジックテープ belongs to a fascinating category of wasei-eigo: brand names that became generic words. Japanese is full of these. ホチキス (hotchkiss) means “stapler,” named after the E.H. Hotchkiss Company. セロテープ (serotēpu) means “cellophane tape,” from a specific brand. バンドエイド (bandoeido) means “adhesive bandage,” borrowed from Band-Aid.

English has this phenomenon too — Kleenex for tissues, Jacuzzi for hot tubs, Xerox for photocopying — but the Japanese examples are particularly interesting because they often use different brand names than English does. An American says “Velcro” while a Japanese person says マジックテープ; both are using trademarks as common nouns, but different trademarks for the same product.

Fun Fact

The Velcro Companies famously launched a campaign begging people to stop using “velcro” as a generic term, even producing a humorous video with lawyers singing about trademark law. Kuraray, the maker of マジックテープ, faces a similar challenge in Japan — virtually every Japanese person uses their brand name generically, which is wonderful for recognition but a headache for trademark protection. In legal and industrial documents, the generic Japanese term is 面ファスナー (men fasunā — surface fastener), but almost nobody uses it in daily conversation.