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I would like to ask which one of the following two words could be used to express the word "leader" when I am talking about someone who is the head of a club or at least the member of its board; for example an anime fun club. When I checked the dictionary I found these two words with the meaning "leader":

始端部したんぶ and 引率者いんそつしゃ

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    I would guess 会長{かいちょう} or something, if only to follow the pattern of combining the type of group with 長.
    – ssb
    Jan 2, 2013 at 17:22
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    Search google images for "Suzumiya Haruhi armband" =P.
    – Flaw
    Jan 2, 2013 at 17:39
  • aa, I have checked it I see a screenshot showing an armband which says 団長 だんちょう。 Jan 2, 2013 at 17:44
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    クラブ(倶楽部)の長だから・・・ How about [部長]{ぶちょう}?
    – user1016
    Jan 2, 2013 at 18:08
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    There is also リーダ, which would give the whole club a subtle foreign tang...
    – Earthliŋ
    Jan 3, 2013 at 2:55

3 Answers 3

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I'll go ahead and add this as an answer since nobody else has, but basically you'll be taking whatever kind of gathering it is that you have, using its kanji and adding 長 to it. So for example if it's some kind of 会 then it'll be 会長. If your group is a 団, like a 劇団 or whatever, you can say 団長. If it's a school club, like in 部活動, you'll say 部長. Or as pointed out you can also just say クラブのリーダー.

alc suggests the last two.

club president クラブのリーダー、〔部活動の〕部長

There are other words you can explore, like 担当者, but I think the 長 route is appropriate given the context.

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Just to add, 始端部 literally means “starting end,” and is used to refer to the leader of a magnetic tape, although I think that it is more commonly referred to as リーダー. (But speaking of common words, magnetic tapes themselves are rare nowadays.)

It is better to always check a Japanese-English dictionary after you look up an English-Japanese dictionary. The purpose of an English-Japanese dictionary for learners of Japanese is to list the Japanese words corresponding to many meanings of a given English word. The purpose of a Japanese-English dictionary for learners of Japanese is to explain a given Japanese word in English. They are not the opposite of each other.

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For a more casual setting, would not 「幹事」 be the best choice? Some of the previous comments suggesting 部長 or 会長 seem to me to be very formal and more appropriate for business settings...

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    Those words can be used formally but I don't think they are exclusively reserved for business. Any kind of group with some formalized structure can have a 長, can't it?
    – ssb
    Jan 9, 2013 at 14:15
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    I do not think that 幹事 is more casual (or more formal) than 部長 and 会長. Jan 9, 2013 at 18:50

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