...if they're twins why are they "onee-chan" and "Komachi"? Do Japanese families really make a big deal out of who was born first by 20 minutes?
Yes, its pretty common for twins to address each other that way, at least in manga and anime. Couldn't tell you if real japanese twins do it though.
I'm not too sure about Japanese but Chinese people do that.
Calling older siblings (applies to all relatives, paternal aunts/uncles, maternal cousins, paternal/maternal grandparents) by birth order, gender?, and seniority (things like "eldest sister", "second sister", "eldest brother", "third brother", etc.) is a thing. Some times, it's even considered rude to call older relatives by name even if you're from the same generation or just a few days apart.
Although things aren't as strict as it used to be, people will call you off for calling older siblings and cousins by name alone. If I had to translate it strictly it would sound something like "paternal/maternal older cousin brother/sister (name)". Something like "older brother/sister (name)" also works for both siblings and cousins depending on the dialect.
As far as I know, Japanese culture has a mellowed version of that. They at least don't separate relatives by maternal and paternal sides as strictly (if they have it) as we do.
last edited at May 15, 2020 1:47AM
