"Japanese Names"(PDF). The Indexer Volume 26, No. 2. June 2008. p. C-4-8. "A Net search under 'Japanese names' will uncover a small number of articles which will supplement the information in this article. One of them is an excellent article in Wikipedia, although it may be directed more at people who can read Japanese."
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Male names often end in -rō (郎, "son"), but also "clear, bright" (朗)
This looks funny, with one translation in parens and the other not; I'd make it –rō (郎 "son", but also 朗 "clear, bright"). I don't know how to make that nice with the language template. —Tamfang (talk) 03:37, 13 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Nevertheless, when a Japanese name is written in the Roman alphabet, ever since the Meiji era, the official policy has been to reverse the order. As of 2019[update], the government has stated its intention to change this policy.[1]
There are so many issues in that section that it seemed the only way to improve the article was to remove the text from the article.[1]
No sources are cited for what is claimed to be an official government policy.
The 2019 Reuters article that is cited says "But beginning in the late 19th century, Japanese began adopting the Western custom of putting the given name first and family name second, at least when writing their names in English." That makes in seem like a practice adopted by individuals, likely when corresponding with westerners, to reduce confusion. The Reuters article never mentions that the name order was "policy." The article is about a suggestion by a government minister to use the traditional Japanese name order. Other ministers agreed to study the issue.
I thought about adding text to the article that when using Roman alphabet that some people follow the Japanese practice of writing the surname followed by the given name and others use the western practice of given name followed by the surname. I likely could have used the existing Reuters article though that one has weak support for that both versions of the naming order are in use. --Marc Kupper|talk18:41, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Update: I looked at the talk page archives and discovered that the 2019 suggestions were likely triggered by the then upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics to be held in Tokyo, Japan. More specifically, it was about showing Japanese names on electronic displays and TV broadcasts. Talk:Japanese name/Archive 2#New instructions from Japan has details but unfortunately I did not see anything that could be usefully added to the Wikipedia article in terms of how to write out names using the Roman alphabet. --Marc Kupper|talk19:03, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
While some people may still believe this, Lafcadio Hearn, in Shadowings, makes it clear that at least in his time (1880 to 1905, the date of publication), the ending -ko (子) was not any part of the name, but an honorific suffix like -san (さん).
The while clause is puzzling. If it means "this" is a misconception, what is "this"? The preceding paragraph provides no obvious candidate. My best guess is that "this" is what we are about to learn from Hearn (no wordplay intended), in which case while is inappropriate; I'd omit the preamble, or restructure the sentence thus:
Lafcadio Hearn, in Shadowings, makes it clear that at least in his time (1880 to 1905, the date of publication) the ending -ko (子) was not any part of the name, but an honorific suffix like -san (さん); and some people may still believe this.
External links checked 2008-09-19. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:52, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved
