indicates possession
Structure
- Noun1 + の + Noun2
Are there any rules when it is necessary to use の for compound words? For example:
ワインの生産 - vine production (requires の)
デジカメ市場 - digital camera market (doesn’t require の)
アジアの言語 - Asian languages (requires の)
定期購読予約 - subscription contract (doesn’t require の)
So how can I know in which cases I need to use の?
Sorry for being quite late with the answer 
So, first, let’s talk about の.
We know that の are the possessive particle['s/of](for those knowing grammatical cases(格助詞) - it points genitive case).
But の is a bit bigger than that, if we look from the wider perspective we will see that it is used when we want to modify a noun with another noun. (Like な put before a noun modified by なadjective.)
So Noun1 + Noun2 require の, therefore we use Noun1 + の + Noun2.
So now let’s move to compounds.
For example, compounds, without の, are often created with suffixed and prefixes.
超 + word, word + 的, a name of the city + 市, surname + 氏 etc.
Another method is:
Where word1+word2+…+wordN are added one to another. it is often used in business(where some kanji compounds are deeply rooted), games(where some made up phrases are created that way usually for names of spells, special attacks etc), news headlines, names of palces etc.
There is no real rule, people just use it when they feel it would look cooler, sound more formal or simply will get more rhythmical(less repeating of の).
The example is 定期購読予約. 定期購読の予約 is alright, but 定期購読予約 looks more businesslike.
While there are no real rules, and you can create compounds like that when you feel it is right - it does not mean everybody will understand what you mean by it.
My advice is(and what can you notice from popular compunds):
- use compounds that are often used or pick the way most of them are created( 総務部総務課 general affairs bureu + general affairs section ), you can find them in newspapers(NHK news) for example
冷凍の食品 → 冷凍食品
山の桜 → 山桜
有酸素の運動 → 有酸素運動 - if you make your own compund make one that is logical and easily recognizable like 憤然幽霊 (wrath of phantom
well this one might not be that easily understandable),野生猫 (wild cat - this is a better example)etc
but not 軽自動車鼠(motorbike mouse) - if you are making compund, remember to not put の inbetween a compound that is actually used.
For example word1のword2のword3 where word2+word3 are common compund will never good look as word1+word2+の+word3 since people are already used to seeing word２+word3 as a compound. Instead write word1 + の + word2 + word3 or word1 + word 2 + word3. - DO NOT USE YOUR OWN COMPOUNDS IN FORMAL WRITING
The more you read, the easier it will become to create more natural sounding compounds.
Do you find the answer easy to understand?
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Interesting, thanks for the explanations. Good to know that it’s relatively free to use の or not in compounds.
I don’t remember where I first saw this (I’m pretty sure I didn’t come up with it myself, as I vaguely remember reading something to the effect a few years ago?), but doesn’t の act pretty much identically in most cases to the bang notation for characters in fandoms (eg. dark!Harry, post-HBP!Snape, Time-Turned!Alt-Universe!Hermione, hpmor!Quirrel, rational!Harry, &c.)?
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Hey and sorry for the late answer 
That’s a really good point! It works very like that.
To be more precise, it lets the preceding noun modify the following noun, expressing some kind of relation between them. In many cases, the first noun works very similarly to an adjective or possesive s.
So there are cases when it will express possession like in アイコのペン (Aiko’s pen), property of something ナイロンのドレス (nylon dress), kind of something チワワの子犬 (chihuahua puppy). Can also express location, subject of something, etc.
The bolded ones are the closest to ! function in my opinion.
Cheers!
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