Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Language

This interesting article, originally from the NYT, sheds some light in connection to my previous post also originally sourced from the NYT. Being half Japanese, I have Japanese middlenames representable by characters. The English side of my business card has only initials for my middle names, but the Japanese side spells them out in characters. Literally every time a Japanese person sees the Japanese side, they remark in amusement. What’s interesting is that younger employees frequently remark how “cool” the mix of characters looks (the middle-name kanji characters are surrounded by my katakana-charactered english names). No such welcome reaction from the oler generation. Not that I need or want one, but the contrast is noticible. The “inclusionary vs. exclusionary” cultural differences between Japan and China will become increasingly obvious as the level of tourism rises (at least as initiated by the gov’t). Question is, which will “win out”, if that’s right thinking…