Japan’s Family Register Law revokes its controversial name

Author Takeshi Kaiko, who was born in 1930 -- 1989, never used a pen name in place of his unusual surname, but once recalled in an essay, My highly unusual name has caused me nothing but constant aggravation since I was a child. Most people read the Kanji for his surname as Hirakidaka or Kaidaka.

When Kaiko was suffering from writer's block, someone told him about a young man who picked up Kaiko's book and started humming, Kaitakaken until it came out sounding like Kaita? Touche was Kaiko's spontaneous reaction, as he noted later.

Everyone has their own feelings and anecdotes about the name given to them by their parents. Rules are being drawn up with regard to how names may be pronounced.

A committee of the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council compiled recommendations for revision of the Family Register Law on February 2. The focus of interest is whether the revision will make it harder for parents to come up with unusual or bizarre baby names, referred to as kirakira nemu literally shining names in Japanese.

The council s recommendations state that pronunciation must be within accepted limits, while the Justice Ministry calls for flexibility. I doubt that will be of much help, even though a standard is supposed to be set for the accepted limits.

A story that ran in The Asahi Shimbun gave three names as hard examples: Marin, written with one kanji denoting the sea; Pikachu with two kanji characters denoting light and space and Michael written with the kanji for the common Japanese boy name of Taro.

How will these cases be judged? Different generations will view them differently. We can't wait for more cases to accumulate and see if they're helpful in decision-making.

This dilemma is a result of the richness of the Japanese language that ascribes multiple pronunciations to each kanji character.

The correct pronunciation of Kaiko's given name should be Takeshi. He is said to have frequently signed himself as Ken. Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that covers a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. The column was written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers and provides useful insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.