| 10/19 |  |
Personal name Kanji |
NIC Japnese Language Shcool
NIC
This corner answers foreigner's doubt about Japanese language.
Foreigners feel some difficulty to understand spoken Japanese.
But Japanese has the similar experience as they do.
The following article, which is written in Zatsu Gaku Nippon
(Japan Trivia) published by Kodansha, seems to explain this matter well.
We would like to introduce it for the foreigners’ convenience.
Q: Why are there restrictions on the Kanji, or Chinese characters,
that can be used in personal names in Japan ?
A: Once a local government office refused a couple who attempted
to name their child Akuma-li terally, “devil”.
Public reaction was nearly evenly divided between those who felt sorry
for any child given such an unpleasant name and those who thought that
the government office had no right to interfere with an individual’s name.
Article 50 of Japan’s Census Registration Law states that
“the name of children must be written with commonly used and simple characters”,
that is, either in the Kanji designated for everyday use and for personal names
or in the hiragana and katakana syllabifies.
This means that under the present Census Registration Law
there are 2,435 characters available for use in names.
That list includes both the characters for Akuma,
so the parent should have no problem registering that name.
But some character combinations may not be acceptable by government offices
if “they are inappropriate under normal social conventions, such as if
the child could be expected to suffer discrimination in the future”
as a result of the name.
This policy seems to have been applied to baby Akuma.
The kanji used in personal names were first restricted in 1948.
The official reason was to have names written in contemporary Japanese,
but another likely explanation is that the government bureaucrats j
ust put a stop to the growing use of difficult names because it was
too much trouble to process names that were hard for the bureaucrats to read
or understand.
NIC :Japanese language school Instructor Suzuki
Email ： info@nicjapanese.com http ： http://www.nicjapanese.com
NIC Japanese Language School
NIC
This corner answers foreigner's doubt about Japanese language.
Foreigners feel some difficulty to understand spoken Japanese.
But Japanese has the similar experience as they do.
The following article, which is written in Zatsu Gaku Nippon
(Japan Trivia) published by Kodansha, seems to explain this matter well.
We would like to introduce it for the foreigners’ convenience.
Q: Why are there restrictions on the Kanji, or Chinese characters,
that can be used in personal names in Japan ?
A: Once a local government office refused a couple who attempted
to name their child Akuma-li terally, “devil”.
Public reaction was nearly evenly divided between those who felt sorry
for any child given such an unpleasant name and those who thought that
the government office had no right to interfere with an individual’s name.
Article 50 of Japan’s Census Registration Law states that
“the name of children must be written with commonly used and simple characters”,
that is, either in the Kanji designated for everyday use and for personal names
or in the hiragana and katakana syllabifies.
This means that under the present Census Registration Law
there are 2,435 characters available for use in names.
That list includes both the characters for Akuma,
so the parent should have no problem registering that name.
But some character combinations may not be acceptable by government offices
if “they are inappropriate under normal social conventions, such as if
the child could be expected to suffer discrimination in the future”
as a result of the name.
This policy seems to have been applied to baby Akuma.
The kanji used in personal names were first restricted in 1948.
The official reason was to have names written in contemporary Japanese,
but another likely explanation is that the government bureaucrats j
ust put a stop to the growing use of difficult names because it was
too much trouble to process names that were hard for the bureaucrats to read
or understand.
NIC :Japanese language school Instructor Suzuki
Email ： info@nicjapanese.com http ： http://www.nicjapanese.com
NIC Japanese Language School