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In English "last minute" is a pretty common phrase, but I am having a hard time finding a parallel in Japanese. I want to say things like

  • Any last minute questions?
  • I am doing some last minute studying
  • Person A: You didn't tell us you were going to Paris! Person B: it was kind of last minute
  • Why do you always do things so last minute?

I think that ぎりぎり works for the last phrase, but I don't think it would work for the first three. ギリギリの質問がありますか sounds wrong to me.

For the first phrase, you could say something like 試験を受ける前、質問がありますか but I feel like that loses the sense of urgency and "last chance"-ness that last minute gives.

Thanks in advance

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    Weblio example sentence: 私はその旅行をギリギリまで決めなかった。- I didn't decide on that trip until the very last moment.
    – mic
    Oct 30, 2019 at 15:53
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    On twitter their is a ギリギリ質問コーナー. So it's not that weird.
    – mic
    Oct 30, 2019 at 16:03
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    ^ ギリギリ in その旅行をギリギリまで決めなかった means "last moment/minute", but.. 「ギリギリ質問コーナー」の「ギリギリ」はそういう意味じゃないです
    – chocolate ♦
    Oct 31, 2019 at 1:12

1 Answer 1

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One term I've heard to good effect is 土壇場【どたんば】. By kanji, this literally means [土]{ど} ("dirt, earth, earthen") + [壇]{たん} (usually read だん on its own; "platform, mound, raised area") + [場]{ば} ("place, location"), and as a compound, this means "the location of an earthen mound used for beheadings", which is rather gruesome. As an idiom, to do something 土壇場で has an extended meaning of doing something "right at the point of getting beheaded" → that is, to do something "at the eleventh hour", "at the last minute".

See also the J→E entries at Weblio and Eijiro.

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    「土壇場で勉強する」とか「土壇場で質問する」とは母語話者はあまり言わないと思います。ただし、「土壇場でキャンセルする」等はよく使う表現です。実際に「ドタキャン」という略語もありますので。
    – user4032
    Nov 1, 2019 at 2:15

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