How would you express "sphere" or "world" in the Japanese language?

Question

How would you express the concept of "sphere" or "world" in Japanese? For example, "Anglosphere" or "Indian speaking world". Is there a repeating pattern or suffix for this purpose, or are there just specific words for these terms?

Answer 1

The most common word and character associated for this kind of usage is [圏]{けん}.

Anglosphere would be [英語圏]{えいごけん}, and a common term to refer to the East Asian cultural sphere is [漢字文化圏]{かんじぶんかけん} which encompasses China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Answer 2

There is also the word [分野]{ぶん・や} that means field/realm/sphere.

Some examples

• 研究分野　→　field of research
• 彼は物理学の分野でよく知られている　→　He is well-known in the field of physics
• 彼は彫刻の分野では第一人者だ　→　He is second to none in the world of sculpture.

Also the suffix 〜[界]{かい}.

• 政界　→　the political world
• 芸能界　→　the entertainment world; show businesses
• 業界　→　the business world

---

Examples taken from プログレッシブ英和・和英中辞典 and ウィズダム英和辞典.

Answer 3

There's 圏 as in e.g. 漢字文化圏（かんじぶんかけん） and 英語圏（えいごけん）.