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Kraftwerk lied to me! This calculator can't fit in my pocket at all.
2026-01-07
If you have ever listened to the band Kraftwerk, the Japanese-language release of their song about little calculators that play a little melody when you press a special key may have taught you the Japanese word dentaku. Language learning can be fun!
Just one thing, though: most words starting with den, which means electricity make perfect sense. A utility pole is den-chuu, an "electric pole". A train is den-sha, an "electric vehicle". A telephone is den-wa, for "electric speech". But den-taku means "electric table". What on earth does a pocket calculator have to do with the idea of an electricity-powered table?
It all comes down to how, in 1964, a Japanese business owner had a choice: he could buy a brand new car and drive his family across the country for a lavish getaway, or he could buy one contraption as large as your kitchen microwave so his accountant could stop using a little wooden abacus.