RSS Feed

3/27/2020

Topic Reading-Vol.2907-3/27/2020


Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Japan asked the international media to change how we write their names. No one listened
It was about a century and a half ago when Japan transformed itself from a samurai-ruled closed country to a modern imperial state and opened the doors to the world. In order not to be treated like other colonized Asian neighbors, Japanese leaders decided to introduce their individual names in an opposite way from their traditions, the given name first instead of the family name. Since then, the Japanese government and people and international media communities have been using the given-name-first order. Now, the new emperor was enthroned last year and the Olympic Games are going to be held, though the when to be held is TBD, Japan wants to reverse the name order to the way people are using in the country and asked the international media to comply with. Well, the name of the country or city is changed from time to time, like Peking to Beijing, Bombay to Mumbai, and Burma to Myanmar only to name a few. But such changes are easier to adopt than the names of the entire citizens of over 120 million even though not all of them need to be called or mentioned by foreign media or contacts. Also, the amount of data that is stored in cyberspace and archives need to be either modified or adjusted to be referred. For example, prime minister Shinzo Abe needs to be referred to also as Abe Shinzo. And if you think of business contacts, associates, and friends, how and when the naming order would be changed if ever?
Enjoy reading the article and count how many Japanese names you may need to rename.

No comments:

Post a Comment