tanaage ni suru lit. ‘to lift it up onto the shelf’
Japanese idiom, everyday. To keep putting something off instead of dealing with it.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 棚上げにする
?
Common in news and office talk, especially for plans, bills and disputes that get parked indefinitely. You’ll often see it in the passive (“計画が棚上げされた”) or as a noun (“棚上げ状態”). It means more than a short delay: the issue sits up on the shelf with no date to come back to it.
Also said 棚上げする, 棚上げになる, 棚上げされる
棚上げにする
in real sentences
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首相は議員の処分を棚上げにしました。
Shushō wa giin no shobun o tanaage ni shimashita.
The Prime Minister postponed the legislator’s punishment.
Tatoeba, sentence by shiruchi, translation by pip, CC BY 2.0 FR
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これらの計画は無期限に棚上げされています。
Korera no keikaku wa mukigen ni tanaage sarete imasu.
These plans have been put on indefinite hold.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by pip, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 棚上げにする
come from?
The Daijisen (via Kotobank) lists a trade sense first: holding goods back from the market for a while to balance supply and demand, literally keeping them up on the shelf. The second sense, leaving a problem unresolved for now, grew out of that. Neither sense has a recorded date.
Mistakes learners make with 棚上げにする
Mixing it up with 棚に上げる (tana ni ageru). That one means conveniently ignoring your own faults while criticizing others (“自分のことは棚に上げて”), so it isn’t about postponing at all.
Other Japanese idioms like 棚上げにする
Spot a mistake in 棚上げにする
?
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