What are the reasons to use the English "or" in Japanese texts?

Question

Sometimes I encounter the English "or" used in texts written by Japanese natives, which seems a little odd from a foreigner's point of view. I mean it's true that the Japanese are known for rather liberal use of loanwords, but surely they must have some native ways to convey such a basic concept? Some examples of such usage can be found in the popular "あるあるorねーよ" videos on Nico Nico Douga, or in mahjong books like this one I've bought.

Is there some deeper meaning behind this use of "or", or is it purely a stylistic choice I should pay no attention to? My best guess is that perhaps it is meant to be viewed more as a symbol (like || in programming) than an actual word, and you could also argue that it improves readability by clearly separating the two options with a "foreign" element. Does this sound right?

Answer 1

Compared to other options such as か, "or" does have the benefit of looking like a separator symbol in between visually. Other than that, it seems to fit better as a way of writing a choice question succinctly.

AかB on its own sounds less like asking to choose one between the two, more like stating the fact (that there are options). When asking, you usually say something like お茶かコーヒー、どちらにしますか, making it explicit that the speaker wants to hear the answer. AかBか will sound a bit more like a choice, but it will occupy more space, which can add up when designing diagrams and tags. The same goes for "A? それともB?".

That doesn't mean there is no way other than using the English "or" in Japanese, but it makes it a convenient option especially when you have space limitations. That said, the logic above is inherently visual - I believe "or" is hardly used in speech in Japanese.