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N3How you sound · Sep 28, 2026

How to say "notorious" in Japanese: 悪名高あくめいたかい vs 評判ひょうばんがいい vs 有名ゆうめい

有名ゆうめい (yuumei) means famous — it says nothing about whether that's a good or bad thing. 悪名高あくめいたかい (akumyou-dakai / akumei-dakai) is notorious: famous specifically *for* something bad, like a scandal or a crime. 評判ひょうばんがいい / 評判ひょうばんが悪わるい (hyouban ga ii / warui) is a softer, everyday version — a good or bad reputation, the kind you'd hear about a restaurant or a coworker. English collapses all of this into "famous" or "well-known," but Japanese keeps the judgment separate from the fame.

Call someone 有名ゆうめい when you mean 悪名高あくめいたかい and you've said "well-known" when you meant "notorious" — the sentence sounds like a compliment, or at best neutral, when you meant the opposite.

The basics

有名ゆうめい: famous, with no judgment attached

有名ゆうめい (ゆうめい, yuumei) just means "famous" or "well-known." It's the default word, and by itself it carries zero opinion about whether the fame is deserved or good.

あの俳優はいゆうは有名ゆうめいだ。 — That actor is famous. (no judgment either way) このお寺てらは桜さくらで有名ゆうめいです。 — This temple is famous for its cherry blossoms. (positive context, but 有名ゆうめい itself is neutral)

有名ゆうめい only picks up a positive or negative feel from whatever comes after で ("famous for ___") — the word itself stays neutral. It also says nothing about whether anyone likes the person or place, and famous in Japanese shows that split with 有名ゆうめいだけど、人気にんきはない (famous, but not popular).

悪名高あくめいたかい: notorious, famous for something bad

悪名高あくめいたかい (あくみょうだかい/あくめいだかい) is much stronger — it means famous specifically because of something bad: a scandal, a crime, cruelty, corruption. It's not a mild word.

あの政治家せいじかは汚職おしょくで悪名高あくめいたかい。 — That politician is notorious for corruption. (strong, specific, negative) 彼かれは嘘うそつきとして悪名高あくめいたかい。 — He's notorious as a liar. (the fame itself is bad)

You wouldn't use 悪名高あくめいたかい for something mildly annoying — it's reserved for reputations serious enough that the badness is the fame.

評判ひょうばんがいい / 評判ひょうばんが悪わるい: everyday good or bad reputation

評判ひょうばん (ひょうばん, hyouban) is "reputation" as a neutral noun, and it swings good or bad with いい or 悪わるい. This is the word for ordinary reputations — a shop, a teacher, a product — not scandals.

このラーメン屋やは評判ひょうばんがいい。 — This ramen shop has a good reputation. (everyday, positive) その店みせは接客せっきゃくが悪わるくて評判ひょうばんが悪わるい。 — That store has a bad reputation because of poor customer service. (everyday, negative, but much milder than 悪名高あくめいたかい)

The difference in weight matters: 評判ひょうばんが悪わるい is what you'd say about a restaurant with bad service; 悪名高あくめいたかい is what you'd say about a serial scammer.

Beyond the basics

名高なだかい: renowned, the positive-leaning cousin of 有名ゆうめい

名高なだかい (なだかい, nadakai) overlaps with 有名ゆうめい but leans literary and often (though not always) positive — it's the word you'd see in writing about a renowned craftsman or a storied shrine, rarely in casual speech.

この刀かたなは名工めいこうの作つくとして名高なだかい。 — This sword is renowned as the work of a master craftsman. (literary register, positive lean)

名高なだかい shows up in guidebooks and formal writing far more than in conversation, where 有名ゆうめい does almost all the work.

悪評あくひょう: the noun form, "bad reputation" as a thing that spreads

悪評あくひょう (あくひょう, akuhyou) is the noun — "bad reputation" or "criticism" as a thing that exists and moves, closer to English "bad press" than to an adjective describing a person.

そのアプリは不具合ふぐあいが多おおく、悪評あくひょうが立たった。 — The app was full of bugs, and bad reputation/criticism spread. (the bad reputation itself, as a spreading thing)

悪評あくひょう pairs naturally with 立たつ (to arise/spread) or 買かう (to earn/incur) — 悪評あくひょうを買かう, "to earn bad press." Reputations like this often spread through indirect talk rather than someone saying it to your face — see honne and tatemae for how that gap between what's said and what's meant works in Japanese.

Why villains in anime get introduced with 悪名高あくめいたかい

Anime and manga narration loves 悪名高あくめいたかい for introducing a threat before the audience meets them directly — a bounty poster, a rumor, a name whispered in fear. It front-loads a reputation the character then has to live up to (or subvert), which is exactly the "famous for being bad" meaning doing narrative work: the fame arrives before the person does.

悪名高あくめいたかい海賊かいぞくが現あらわれた。 — A notorious pirate has appeared. (classic setup line — the reputation precedes the character)

Compare that to introducing a hero with 有名ゆうめい — same grammatical slot, completely different implication, because 有名ゆうめい never tells you why someone is known. The same gap between surface fame and the tone underneath shows up in sarcasm in Japanese — a compliment-shaped sentence that means the opposite.

Common mistakes

  • Saying 有名ゆうめい when you mean notorious. 有名ゆうめいな犯罪者はんざいしゃ ("a famous criminal") sounds oddly flat compared to 悪名高あくめいたかい犯罪者はんざいしゃ — 有名ゆうめい doesn't carry the judgment 悪名高あくめいたかい does, so it undersells how bad the reputation is.
  • Reaching for 悪名高あくめいたかい over something minor. Calling a slightly rude clerk 悪名高あくめいたかい is too strong — 評判ひょうばんが悪わるい fits ordinary bad reputations; 悪名高あくめいたかい is for genuinely serious, widely known badness.
  • Treating 評判ひょうばんが悪わるい and 悪名高あくめいたかい as interchangeable. They differ in scale as much as in register — one is "known to have some issues," the other is "famous specifically for being terrible."
  • Assuming 名高なだかい is just a fancy synonym for 有名ゆうめい. It's mostly literary and often positive-leaning; using it in casual conversation about, say, a famous YouTuber sounds oddly formal.

Which word should you use?

Word Reading What it means Judgment Register
有名ゆうめい ゆうめい Famous, well-known None (neutral) Everyday
悪名高あくめいたかい あくみょうだかい/あくめいだかい Notorious Strongly negative Everyday–formal
評判ひょうばんがいい/悪わるい ひょうばんがいい/わるい Good/bad reputation Mild positive/negative Everyday
名高なだかい なだかい Renowned Usually positive Literary
悪評あくひょう あくひょう Bad reputation (noun) Negative Formal-ish

FAQ

Is 悪名高あくめいたかい ever used playfully, not seriously? Occasionally, for comic exaggeration — calling a friend's terrible cooking 悪名高あくめいたかい as a joke — but the default reading is serious, so use it carefully with people you don't know well.

Can 有名ゆうめい be negative depending on context? Only through what follows it — 有名ゆうめい itself stays neutral, but ~で有名ゆうめい ("famous for ~") inherits whatever tone that blank carries.

What's the difference between 悪評あくひょう and 悪口わるくち? 悪評あくひょう is a spreading bad reputation or critical press about something; 悪口わるくち (わるぐち) is someone directly badmouthing or insulting a person. 悪評あくひょう is about image; 悪口わるくち is about speech aimed at someone.

Is 評判ひょうばん always about reputation with strangers, or can it be personal? Both — 評判ひょうばん works for a shop's reputation among customers or a person's reputation among coworkers; it's the general word for "what people say about X."

How would you say "this restaurant has a bad reputation" without exaggerating? このレストランは評判ひょうばんが悪わるい is exactly right — everyday register, no implication of scandal.

Is there a single word that means "infamous" in the sense of legendary-but-bad, like a folk villain? 悪名高あくめいたかい is the closest match — it's specifically used for reputations that have become widely known because of the badness.

Practice

1. "That politician is notorious for corruption."

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あの政治家せいじかは汚職おしょくで悪名高あくめいたかい。 — 悪名高あくめいたかい names the badness directly as the source of the fame.

2. "This ramen shop has a good reputation." (everyday, positive)

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このラーメン屋やは評判ひょうばんがいい。 — 評判ひょうばんがいい is the everyday register for a shop's reputation.

3. "That actor is famous." (no judgment either way)

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あの俳優はいゆうは有名ゆうめいだ。 — 有名ゆうめい stays neutral without more context.

4. "That store has a bad reputation because of poor customer service." (mild, everyday)

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その店みせは接客せっきゃくが悪わるくて評判ひょうばんが悪わるい。 — 評判ひょうばんが悪わるい, not 悪名高あくめいたかい, since it's an everyday complaint, not a scandal.

5. "He's notorious as a liar."

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彼かれは嘘うそつきとして悪名高あくめいたかい。 — 悪名高あくめいたかい + として names exactly what he's notorious for.

6. Fix this: あの詐欺師さぎしは有名ゆうめいです。 (should sound notorious, not just famous)

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あの詐欺師さぎしは悪名高あくめいたかい。 — 有名ゆうめい undersells a scammer's reputation; 悪名高あくめいたかい carries the judgment.

7. "The app was full of bugs, and bad reputation spread." (the reputation itself, as a spreading thing)

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そのアプリは不具合ふぐあいが多おおく、悪評あくひょうが立たった。 — 悪評あくひょう is the noun for a spreading bad reputation; it pairs with 立たつ.

8. "A notorious pirate has appeared." (classic anime setup line)

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悪名高あくめいたかい海賊かいぞくが現あらわれた。 — 悪名高あくめいたかい front-loads the reputation before the character is seen.

Calling someone 有名ゆうめい when you mean 悪名高あくめいたかい undersells a bad reputation, so practise describing a few well-known people and places aloud in a trial lesson and choose between the two.

Vocabulary from this article

Tap the block to select all of it, then copy. In Anki: File → Import, note type Basic, separator Tab — the first column becomes the front, the second the back.

有名	ゆうめい — famous, well-known (neutral)
悪名高い	あくみょうだかい/あくめいだかい — notorious
評判	ひょうばん — reputation
評判がいい	ひょうばんがいい — has a good reputation
評判が悪い	ひょうばんがわるい — has a bad reputation
名高い	なだかい — renowned (literary, often positive)
悪評	あくひょう — bad reputation, bad press (noun)
悪評が立つ	あくひょうがたつ — bad reputation spreads
汚職	おしょく — corruption
詐欺師	さぎし — a scammer, con artist

I'm Yuuki, a Japanese teacher based in Tokyo. I've taught on italki as a Top 1% teacher and watched over 1,500 anime, and 有名ゆうめい versus 悪名高あくめいたかい is a mix-up I hear often — it can accidentally turn a warning about someone into what sounds like a compliment.

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Sources: the author's own lessons and standard reference grammars.

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