This follows up my post on itsudemo, where I explained why this should be read as “anytime” (as in, “at any time”) from a few points of view. You’ll see why below. It was inspired by a little slice of anime.

The girl in this anime (Persona 4, incidentally), a cute 9 year old named Nanako, received a notice/survey from her school. The school was holding an open classroom for parents to come see how their children are being educated, anytime between 1pm and 5pm on the indicated day. This was a big deal to Nanako, because she felt like her father was becoming an increasingly remote part of her life. It wasn’t so simple; her father was a police detective who couldn’t let go of Nanako’s mother’s having been killed by a hit and run driver who remained at large, a cold case with little prospect of resolution.

Of course, what wasn’t good was the father becoming ever more remote. There’s something of a family crisis and finally, her father, who was the one in the wrong here, signed the form as above.

So, Nanako reads the form…

Nanako: “I tsu de mo…. nani ka.” 

Being this cute is criminal. Your dad's gonna arrest you, Nanako.

So yes, she sounds as cute as she looks saying this. But, this brings up the crux of the matter: that’s not actually what the pen writing in black in the first image says. It actually says, “itsudemo kanou”, that is, 可能 (かのう), composed of “can” and “ability”. It’s usually read as “possible” or “feasible”.

In other words, her father was conveying that he could make it to the open classroom “anytime”. In other words, he wouldn’t allow work to drown out his relationship with his daughter any further.

Why didn’t Nanako read it that way? Ah, well that’s because the kanji was above her reading level. So she used nanika (何か、なにか) instead.

The kanji used in “nanika” (and there’s only one) is the kanji used for “what” types of questions. The “ka” is the “question” particle that every young Padawan learning Japanese has drilled into his/ her head from the earliest stages; the particle acts as a question mark in grammar.

The problem is, this isn’t grammar; it’s vocabulary. Here, I’ll show you a subtly different use.

In the above example, the “ka” in “nanika” represents uncertainty. In other words, it’s not a simple “What?” question; it’s expressing a thought more like, “What is this…?”. In other words, “nanika” expresses that the speaker doesn’t know what the “what” actually is.

Therefore, nanika = “something”, as in, “something or other”. 

 Let’s go back to Nanako.

Nanako: “I tsu de mo… something.” 

That’s what it means. Of course, it just happens to sound ten times cuter in Japanese with Nanako saying “nanika” instead… because it’s adorable that she can’t actually read it yet; it underlines how young she is.

Father: “It means, I can go anytime.” 

I’m paraphrasing; I don’t have the episode handy, but he explains what it means in language she can understand. This is followed by the happy Nanako celebrating and being glad she can be seen with her father in front of other students and their parents and not feel left out anymore.

That’s one case solved, at least. – J

The Japanese word “itsu demo” (いつでも) has two very distinct parts. Itsu (何時、いつ) is represented by kanji that literally read, “what time”. Dictionaries say “demo” means but or however, but that is not how it is applied here. Its true secrets lie deeper.

In truth, “demo” here is used like regardless, and in the following manner:

Itsu demo = regardless of when

A dictionary will give various and contradictory meanings for “itsudemo” because the usage changes with the context of the sentence. Think of it like one root and many branches. It’s easier than just deciding Japanese is an alien language hailing from Mars, which is what a lot of people do.

When “Demo” Is “Good” 

Let’s try “demo” in another context: ima demo, which combines “ima” (“now”) with “demo”, and ii, which is a small word used for “good”. Combine them and we get:

ima demo ii (今でもいい).

Ignoring the “why” for the moment, this means: now is good. 

Example: “When can I see you? We need to talk about the Ferrari.” “Now’s good.”

So our structure is like this:

[Question about time] -> “ima demo ii”

OK, so what about our main topic? It’s simple:

“When can I see you? We need to talk about the Ferrari.” “Anytime’s good.”

[Question about time] -> “itsu demo ii”

This is what I would call the normal usage.

Another “Itsudemo” 

Let’s imagine an executive from corporate headquarters is visiting a small manufacturing plant owned by the same company. In particular, he is concerned about a particular assembly line that has been having numerous and costly stoppages.

Executive: “What’s going on with that assembly line?”

Worker: “Oh, it’s the paint machine. It’s always breaking down, but they say there’s no budget for a new one.”

Executive: “I’ll be the judge of that. These stoppages are costing us a lot of money!”

Now, the worker isn’t using the word always in the sense of “constantly”. He’s using it to express a high frequency. If he said “constantly”, it might mean within five minutes of every start. If he said “regularly”, it might mean every two days. “Always” probably means something more random than that.

Let’s see one way this could appear in Japanese. (I’m not a native speaker, so this is for an example only.)

ペイントマシーンがいつでも壊せる. (Paint machine ga itsudemo kowaseru.)

Grammatical differences aside, what we can understand is that the paint machine is prone to break down anytime while it is in use.

In other words, even if a “translation” would turn “itsudemo” into “always”, the Japanese meaning never changed at all.

Constantly Prepared

Without bothering with full bilingual examples, when police talk about being constantly prepared to serve the public, they use “itsudemo” too. You may be doing a double take. How can “itsudemo” not be “constantly” in the last example, but it is here?

The only problem is looking at it from a narrow English point of view. Anytime can mean “five weeks from now” or “five seconds from now”. The police are trying to express that if you are in trouble five seconds from now, they’ll be ready to help. That’s the public posture.

That’s all for today. I’ll be citing “itsudemo” in posts in the near future. You’ll see how it’s a very useful thing to know by heart.

いつでもコッメントしてよね。(itsudemo comment shite yo ne. = Comment anytime!) – J