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Japanese names are usually written in kanji, although some names use hiragana or even katakana, or a mixture of kanji and kana. While most "traditional" names use kun'yomi (native Japanese) kanji readings, a large number of given names and surnames use on'yomi (Chinese-based) kanji readings as well.
Last fall, Japan embraced a policy to swap the order and write the surname first on all official documents, recommending capitalization to emphasize which name is the family name.
Jan 23, 2020 · Several years ago, Japan’s Cultural Affairs Agency (CAA) issued an advisory notice on the use of the native name order in English contexts, but it was ignored. Now, the move has public support—a recent opinion poll showed 60% in favor of the change.
- Name Order
- Family Names
- First Names
- Titles
- Seimei Handan
In Japan, like in China and Korea, the first name follows the family name. A person with the first name "Ichiro" and the family name "Suzuki" is, therefore, called "Suzuki Ichiro" rather than "Ichiro Suzuki".
Most Japanese family names consist of two kanji(Chinese characters). The meanings of many of the kanji used in family names are related to nature, geographical features or locations, for example, mountain (yama), tree (ki), rice field (ta), island (shima), village (mura), bridge (hashi), between (naka), below (shita), etc. Some of the most common J...
Japanese first names also commonly consist of two kanji. The meanings of those kanji are often positive characteristics such as intelligence, beauty, love or light, names for flowers, the four seasons and other natural phenomena, or the order of birth (first son, second son, etc.). Since quite a few kanjihave identical pronunciations, first names t...
The Japanese commonly address each other by last name. Only close friends and children are usually addressed by first name. In addition, people rarely address each other just by name, but usually attach an appropriate title to the name. There is a large number of such titles depending on the gender and social position of the person you are addressi...
Seimei handan or name diagnosis is a type of fortune telling concerning names. Its theories center around the number of strokes that are required to write the charactersof a name. (Note that there is a defined number of strokes for every Japanese character). Depending on the total number of strokes, and the sums of strokes for different parts of a ...
Jan 2, 2020 · A new decree ordained that official documents should reverse the order of Japanese people’s names when they are rendered in the Latin alphabet. Hitherto in, say, English documents, Japanese ...
Style for Japanese persons' names. From March 30th, 2020, the style for Japanese persons’ names will change on NHK WORLD-JAPAN’s English-language radio and television broadcasts as well...
Mar 21, 2020 · In the Japanese case, the practice of writing a person's given name first and family name second was not imposed by Westerners. Rather, it was established by the Japanese themselves at the end of the 19th century. The family-name-first format has always been used in Japanese.
