It is a convention for video games made in Japan, when loading data, to
display the legend

`NOW LOADING`

Whereas titles made overseas generally stick with the more succinct

`LOADING`

Is there any linguistic reason for the addition of the word "now"?
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2018-03-15T18:48:53.070
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2018-06-11T15:43:02.050
2018-03-15T19:52:26.540
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question
translation word-choice computing
Why do Japanese games say "Now Loading" instead of "Loading"?
Whether you are asking about games that are in Japanese or in English, I would
assume (pure speculation here) that, as the game was likely made for domestic
consumers originally or by a Japanese team, ['Now
Loading'](https://d1w8c6s6gmwlek.cloudfront.net/jokertshirt.com/products/997/135/9971359.png)
was easier for non-English speakers to comprehend. When overseas games
shortened the legend the Japanese likely saw no need to do so, as there is
really no compelling reason to do so. Also, their Japanese customers are used
to seeing it displayed in its entirety.

That being said, I have not noticed this particular difference that you have.
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2018-03-15T19:10:37.680
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answer
I doubt there is a good linguistic reason for this. Probably someone happened
to come up with "Now Loading", and other developers followed without thinking
much about it. This is not surprising at all. After all, Japanese people have
coined tons of [_wasei-eigo_](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/wasei-eigo/)
terms and kept using them without thinking about them.

Another similar example is "Sorry, this site is Japanese only"; around 2000,
many Japanese people somehow believed this was a _polite_ and natural English
expression, and put this sentence at the header or footer of their websites.
No one knows who started using this, but it did spread like an infectious
disease.
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2018-03-16T08:07:24.893
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answer