I was just wondering, because in English we can say "This story begs the
question" etc. The wording for English is very versatile, and I was wondering
if Japanese has this as well, for example in this sentence:

> このゲームは質問を頼む
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question
usage animacy
In Japanese, can we say an object asks a question?
In English, an inanimate thing can frequently be the subject of a sentence as
if the thing had its will. In Japanese, that happens less often, and many
sentences are better translated into Japanese by selecting other words as the
subject. Wikipedia has some [examples of such
sentences](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%84%A1%E7%94%9F%E7%89%A9%E4%B8%BB%E8%AA%9E%E6%A7%8B%E6%96%87#.E7.89.A9.E3.81.AA.E3.81.A9.E3.81.8C.E4.B8.BB.E8.AA.9E.E3.81.AB.E3.81.AA.E3.82.8B.E5.A0.B4.E5.90.88).
To take a few:

>   * The book will teach you the basic conversation of Spanish.
> （△その本はスペイン語会話の基礎を教える。）  
>  → By reading the book you can learn the basic conversation of Spanish.
> （その本を読めばスペイン語会話の基礎が学べる。）
>   * The airplane enables you to reach Los Angels tomorrow.
> （△飛行機はあなたを明日ロサンゼルスに着くのを可能にする。  
>  → Thanks to the airplane, you can reach Los Angels tomorrow.
> （飛行機のおかげであなたは明日ロサンゼルスに到着することができる。）
>   * The heavy snow prevented him from going home yesterday.
> （△あの大雪は彼の昨日の帰宅を妨げた。  
>  → Due to the heavy snow, he could not go home yesterday.
> （あの大雪のため、彼は昨日家に帰れなかった。）
>   * This photo reminds me of my childhood. （△この写真は、子ども時代をわたしに思い起こさせる。）  
>  → When I see this photo, I recall my childhood. （この写真を見ると私は子どもの頃を思い出す。）
>

The English sentences are followed by the literal Japanese translation. Here
"△" indicates that that Japanese sentence is probably understandable but
unnatural, because an inanimate thing like _book_ or _airplane_ is the
subject. To translate such sentences naturally, you have to rephrase them so
that a living thing becomes the subject, as shown in the second line of each
bullet.
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answer