NEWSWORTHY
LDP's Seiko Noda goes against custom, addressing lawmakers with honorific suffix san, not kun
Former internal affairs minister Seiko Noda, the first female chair of the Lower House Budget Committee, is making headlines for her unconventional style in steering deliberations — calling lawmakers by their names with the honorific suffix san, rather than kun, which is usually used ...
Getting to know Japan on a first-name basis
What's in a first name? In Japan, you'll find insights into societal change.
Most common name for company chiefs in Japan is Makoto Sato: survey
If your name happens to be Makoto Sato, the chances of you rising through the corporate ranks all the way to the top are probably higher than others. That's according to results from a survey on the most prevalent names for company presidents among 2.6 ...
A linguistic storm is brewing in Luderitz, where some residents of the remote Namibian town are protesting plans to change its name to !Nami#nus. Those are not typographical errors. The name, proposed by some government officials and tribal authorities, incorporates clicklike sounds in the language spoken ...
East Japan Railway Co. and West Japan Railway Co. have named four bullet trains that will run on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line, which will connect Tokyo and Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, via Nagano, from spring 2015. The names — Kagayaki, Hakutaka, Tsurugi and Asama — were ...
Prove you're Japanese: when being bicultural can be a burden
Japanese are Japanese and foreigners are foreigners, and never the twain shall meet? In many aspects of daily life in this country, there is one way for the Japanese and another for the rest of us. Like it or not, that's just how it ...
Many stories behind names for foreign players in Japan
While Japan and the rest of the baseball universe are deep in the World Baseball Classic fever, the conventional major league and Japanese teams are going about their business getting ready for their respective April 1 and March 29 opening days. In the U.S., "QJ" ...
