OL

1963 November 25 is the key printed point for OL: Oya Soichi Bunko lists a Josei Jishin article reporting the poll result for a replacement for BG, with オフィス・レディ and O.L. Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites a 1965 use and defines OL as the initials of office lady. The word route is Japanese-made English in postwar office culture. BG meant business girl, but the magazine campaign treated it as risky because B-girl or bar girl could be heard abroad before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The Oya Soichi Bunko index places the article on pages 58-61. The 1963 poll had 26,481 votes, and オフィス・レディ beat オフィス・ガール and サラリー・ガール. OL then spread in media, job ads, and lifestyle writing after 1963. Modern OL means a woman office worker, often in clerical or administrative images, and it appears in OL向け, OLファッション, and 元OL. English office lady is understood in some dictionaries as a Japan-specific term, but ordinary English says female office worker or simply office worker. Cambridge Japanese-English marks it as wasei-eigo. The Japanese term is also dated or gendered in many workplace contexts. Example: OL向け雑誌.