They don't, in fact, call homoerotic comics or media "Yaoi" and "Yuri" in Japan. At least they haven't since the 1970s. Most Japanese younger than their 60's have no idea what westerners are talking about when we mention these two words. "BoysLove" and "GirlsLove" (yeah, borrowed English) are the most up-to-date terms for that stuff I've heard. Slightly older and still recognized are the terms "shonen-ai" and "shojou-ai", which will probably be understandable forever, because they literally mean "boy(s) love" and "Girl(s) love" in Japanese. Pretty much only westerners use Yaoi/Yuri these days, to describe Japanese homosexual cartoons.
The origins of "Yaoi" and "Yuri" are kind of interesting though, even if they're obsolete as terms used *IN* Japan. Yuri (which is a common girl's name in Japan, meaning "Lily") just happened to be the title of a popular magazine featuring romantic relationships between girls and women (aimed at female audiences, they weren't particularly graphic or sexual). Yaoi started out as an acronym: "YAma nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi" meaning "No climax, no punchline, no point" (early Yaoi manga aimed at female readers was pretty much all romance and building tension, minimal actual sex). However the Fujoshi (female yaoi fans) had their own acronym that was a lot funnier: "YAmete, Oshiri ga Itai " "Stop it! My butt hurts!" ^_^ These terms pretty much fell out of common usage in Japan by the 80s, however.
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They don't, in fact, call homoerotic comics or media "Yaoi" and "Yuri" in Japan. At least they haven't since the 1970s. Most Japanese younger than their 60's have no idea what westerners are talking about when we mention these two words. "BoysLove" and "GirlsLove" (yeah, borrowed English) are the most up-to-date terms for that stuff I've heard. Slightly older and still recognized are the terms "shonen-ai" and "shojou-ai", which will probably be understandable forever, because they literally mean "boy(s) love" and "Girl(s) love" in Japanese. Pretty much only westerners use Yaoi/Yuri these days, to describe Japanese homosexual cartoons.
The origins of "Yaoi" and "Yuri" are kind of interesting though, even if they're obsolete as terms used *IN* Japan. Yuri (which is a common girl's name in Japan, meaning "Lily") just happened to be the title of a popular magazine featuring romantic relationships between girls and women (aimed at female audiences, they weren't particularly graphic or sexual). Yaoi started out as an acronym: "YAma nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi" meaning "No climax, no punchline, no point" (early Yaoi manga aimed at female readers was pretty much all romance and building tension, minimal actual sex). However the Fujoshi (female yaoi fans) had their own acronym that was a lot funnier: "YAmete, Oshiri ga Itai " "Stop it! My butt hurts!" ^_^ These terms pretty much fell out of common usage in Japan by the 80s, however.