Render Japanese Names in the Right Order

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/opinion/letters/japan-names.html

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To the Editor:

Re “On Names, Japan’s Foreign Minister Says, Western News Outlets Get It Backward” (news article, May 23):

Americans, and those in all Western societies, have long transliterated Chinese and Korean names into European languages in the order used by the people of those societies; family name first, individual name second. But in the case of Japanese names, we have always reversed the order, using the practice preferred in our own societies.

As an American who was raised in both Japanese and Western cultures, I have long been struck by the fact that this is not merely inconsistent, but also unfair.

The exception made for Japanese names has a historical basis: In the 1850s, a weak Japan acquiesced in adopting many of the practices of powerful Western countries. But that explanation cannot serve as justification any longer. How would Americans feel if, for 150 years, another powerful country expected us to happily flip the order of our personal names every time we interacted with that society?

When the foreign minister of Japan now asks the rest of the world to follow the Japanese practice, as we already do with Korean and Chinese names, it’s long past time for us to acquiesce. It’s also time for The New York Times to apply its own policy — “to render people’s names the way they prefer” — to Japanese names as well, and to add its considerable influence to the critical mass that this change will require outside of Japan.

Matthew FosterMerrick, N.Y.The writer is the son of American missionaries to Japan, and a professor of religious studies at Molloy College.