Misunderstanding about "Japanese Names"
JIAN ZEMIN (CHINA), TUNG CHEEHWA (HONG KONG), RYUTARO HASHIMOTO (JAPAN), KIM YOUNG SAM (S. KOREA), GO CHO TONG (SINGAPORE). These names are picked up from the article in Newsweek (Dec. 8, '97) about Asian-Pacific Economy Cooperation summit in Vancouver in November.
Do you notice anything strange? There is one issue that has been bothering me.
It is how the names of Japanese are written. The name of Japan's prime minister is not Ryutaro Hashimoto. His name is Hashimoto Ryutaro because in Japan family names come before the first name.
Do you think that it must be written in a European style in English? We are taught so in school in Japan.
Then why are other names in the article written with family names first? Chinese and Koreans names are with family names first and first names last as Japanese do. Why are only the Japanese names written in a European way? Here are a few more examples: MAO TSUETONG, DING SHAOPING, and KIM DAE JUNG, who is the president of Korea. All of these are written with their family names first. One of the well-known Vietnamese names is HO CHI MINH that is also written with the family name first.
So I wonder why there is this difference. If Japanese start insisting their names be written in a Japanese way, the way can be changed? There are people in America who do not know the fact that in Japan names are written with family names first. I feel offended. Am I too childish?
Of course Asian American have their names in a American way. As they live in America, there is no point that they insist the original way and confuse other people. One of my friends surprised me once saying "What? Mao is not his first name?" I'm afraid that leaders of communist party of China may not be happy if they hear it. So for your own sake, you'd better not be obstinate to keep your name written in a Japanese way. To avoid a confusion we'd better do as Romans do in Rome.
When we, Japanese, deal with other Asian people, it may be a bit confusing. If all of participants are people who have their names with the last name first, isn't it a little bit strange that only the Japanese introduce themselves with first names first?
In this connection, people in Hong Kong have European names in front of their Chinese names which are last names first such as John Cheng Tsuetong. They introduce them differently according to the occasion such as "John Cheng" or "Cheng Tsuetong". It seems that in the land where East meets West people are clever and satisfy their needs.
P.S.
One of my friends taught me that in Thailand people have their names with first name first. In the same article from Newsweek, the name of the prime minister of Thiland was shown as CHUAN LEEKPAI. LEEKPAI is his last name. His name is written in the same way as it is in their country.
He also told me that in Thailand it is polite to call others by first name even he is the prime minister such as Mr. CHUAN. The culture there is different even in Asia. What fun!
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