Re: Japanese name use single space between the last name and the first name?

[Osamu Aoki <debian@aokiconsulting.com>]

Hi, Tomohiko,

I think you explained very well.

Here is my thougghts:

Quotation from Tomohiko Kubota and Osamu's comments.
> From: Osamu Aoki <debian@aokiconsulting.com>
...
> > When I saw my name in document maintainer section in English with first
> > and my last name in one piece, I felt strange.  I posted here and since
> > no one replied, I fixed that page.
> 
> Ok.  I posted the mail because the comment with cvs commit may
> mislead non-Japanese people who don't know Japanese custom.
> (The comment can read that Japanese name uses spaces everywhere
> in every contexts; which is not true.  I'd like Chinese translation
> of DWN not to use spaces.)

I think you are right about situation.  I was not careful about CVS
message.  Sorry.

> I think a space may be used for Japanese name in English sentences.
> Also, I added spaces even for Japanese translations if the name
> is written independently in "()".  

Intersting detail :-)

> However, I didn't add spaces when the names appear in ordinary
> sentences because such a expression is apparently strange.
...
> Right.  Your explanation is consistent with mine, and I expect
> non-Japanese members of this list will trust us.  The keypoint
> seems whether the name appears independently (i.e., book author,
> sign on government/bank documents, name tags, and so on) or in
> ordinary sentences.
 
Very good summary.  Trust Kubota-san, he lives in Japan, speaks
Japanese, and very well informed.
...
> > My intent of adding space in the English was to clarify splits
> > between first and last name.
> I understand your intent.  However, I am afraid that many people
> will misunderstand that "Osamu" is "?$B@DLZ" and "Aoki" is "?$B=$",
> while the truth is opposite.

(I guess you are using 7 bit encoding JIS codes in the above)

Yes, true.  This is actually interesting topics.

Most Japanese names are spelled as following order in Japanese:
   Last-name First-name  (spelled in Japanese/chinese characters)
But for most common way of spelling Japanese name in romanized format
is:
   First-name Last-name  (spelled in Roman characters)

Japanese flip word order to conform to the expectation of
English/Frenche/German/...  speakers.  (This is kind of officialized by
the convention used in the Japanese Passport.)

At least, some chinese (or maybe all of chinese) do not do this.  So the
"Mao Tzuo-tong"(maybe wrong spell but I hope you understand me.)

I think some Europeans have names with the so-called "Last name" coming 
first. (Hungary?)

Anyway, name order and its translation convention are very deep topics
with much emotion: "which culture dectates the way you are called?"

> > I do not care which way to write, IMHO.  But it has to be consistent.
> 
> Ok.  Since it is I who modify English version of DWN for Japanese
> names (by a semi-automatic small Perl script), I can change the
> policy and the script hereafter.
> 
> > Also, getting opinion of Chinese person's preference in English context
> > may be interesting.  I see most chinese names in Japanese web pages do
> > not use a space between last and first name in Japanese.
> 
> I am also interested.  Also, I can add items for my script for
> Chinese, Korean, Russian, Greek, Thai, and any other
> non-Latin-alphabet people.  Suggestions are welcome.

Cheers :)

-- 
~\^o^/~~~ ~\^.^/~~~ ~\^*^/~~~ ~\^_^/~~~ ~\^+^/~~~ ~\^:^/~~~ ~\^v^/~~~ 
+  Osamu Aoki <debian@aokiconsulting.com>, at the gateway server      +