JALT2025 - Tokyo

The Current State of Naming Conventions for Japanese Names in English

Nov 2, 2025, 9:40 AM

30m

National Olympics Memorial Youth Center / 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター

Research-oriented Presentation (30-minutes) Sociocultural Linguistics and Pragmatics Room 303

Speaker

Jon Harrison (Nihon University, CST)

Description

This presentation illustrates the current state of naming conventions used in Japan and internationally for Japanese names written in English. Politics and culture are clashing with language norms affecting content to be taught and to be learned in the classroom. The presentation will quantify the number of major government agencies, companies, universities, and research journals in Japan adhering to the 2020 naming conventions and also naming conventions used by Japanese and international online news sources.

Summary

This presentation illustrates the current state of naming conventions used in Japan and internationally for Japanese names written in English. Politics and culture are clashing with language norms affecting content to be taught and to be learned in the classroom. The presentation will quantify the number of major government agencies, companies, universities, and research journals in Japan adhering to the 2020 naming conventions and also naming conventions used by Japanese and international online news sources.