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Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Government tells parents what not to name their babies
Those who were in Japan in August 1993 might recall a news item about the father of a newborn, who went to the Akishima City office and attempted to register his infant son with the given name "Akuma," written with two characters that combined mean devil or demon. Perhaps out of sympathy for the child, paper pushers at the city office were disinclined to accept the father's application. Akuma's dad maintained that such a name was perfectly legal, because the ideographs for aku and ma both appear in the Education Ministry's list of characters approved for standard use. The media had a field day reporting the story. In January 1994, the Hachioji branch of the Tokyo District Court ruled that Akishima City had not followed proper procedure, temporarily restoring the name so that it could be denied properly. By July of the same year the father finally gave up, agreeing to pick a different name, ending the controversy. But, reports Weekly Playboy (June 9) the root problem, of what constitutes an acceptable name, became more widespread. It seems that all too many parents these days have been saddling their infants with kirakira (flashy), i.e. silly or frivolous names. Which finally moved the Diet on May 26 to pass a new law setting standards for naming children. The new law specifies what types of names will not be accepted for entry into family registers. For example, names cannot be assigned a reading that's unrelated to the actual characters. So two characters typically read "Taro," a common Japanese male name, cannot be read "George" or "Michael." Likewise, readings cannot be assigned to characters in an arbitrary manner. The character "Ken" (meaning healthy or robust) cannot be assigned to be read as "Ken-sama" (Master Ken) or "Kenichiro." In addition, characters used in a name cannot be assigned with an opposite or contradictory reading -- sort of analogous to the practice of calling a tall man "Shorty" in the West. So for instance "Takashi" (meaning high) cannot be read "Hikushi" (low). And it goes without saying that the new law bans names that carry discriminatory and/or antisocial nuances, or which are otherwise clearly negative. Which almost certainly eliminates names like "Akuma" from the running. That said, Weekly Playboy points out that it's only fair to state that plenty of Japanese given names are quirky enough, even before the new law goes into effect next May. Certain names are based on historical precedents, such as "Asuka." Originally a village in Nara Prefecture it is used to name an historical era from the late 7th to early 8th century, and written with characters meaning "flying bird." Another example would be "Satsuki," the old name for the fifth lunar month and written with characters normally read gogatsu (May). Or take "Kazuko." Written with the character wa in heiwa (peace) and ko (child), between 1926 and 1957 it was Japan's most popular name given to baby girls. The reason why a character normally read wa came to be read kazu is obscured in the mists of time. Linguists have advanced several theories, but no one knows for sure. Some say it might be derived from the word for number (also kazu), or possibly a corruption of a verb with a similar sound, such as katsu (to win). Japanese language scholar Hiroyuki Sasahara, professor at Waseda University, tells the magazine the widespread use of given names using two characters dates back to the 8th century CE and follows a long-established naming practice in China. Japanese, however, adopt nonstandard variants in which a kanji used to name a child may be pronounced not according to its dictionary reading, but based on its root meaning, opening up a whole new can of worms. For instance, the character dai or okii, meaning "big," can be arbitrarily assigned such readings as Hiroshi, Takashi, Takeshi, Hajime, Masaru, Yutaka and numerous others. Before deciding on a child's name, some prospective parents consult fortune tellers. "That was basically modern-day style of fortune telling that first appeared during the Showa period (1926-1989)," Sasahara explains. Appealing to common sense, he encourages parents to read up on the Japanese language, kanji, and names, and make efforts to conceive how their child's name would be perceived by society. "Because names have historical and social implications, I think parents have a responsibility to consider how a child's name will be accepted by society," he asserts. Sasahara thinks the flashy name phenomenon has been enabled to some degree by the increased trend toward nuclear families, as such households lack an elderly relative who can offer sensible guidance and advice. That said, the article concludes, the names that Japanese choose for their progeny will play a role in determining whether or not their language will have a rich future. And that's reason enough to take the process seriously. © Japan Today
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Even Yoko Taro says it was "more dangerous," and other devs tried to stop him, but Danganronpa's creator insisted on having 100 endings in his absurd new RPG
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Nier Automata's effortlessly eccentric director Yoko Taro has said he originally made games with multiple endings at a time when short games were out of fashion. Now? He reckons making games with 100 endings, like Danganronpa creator's new game, is a risky move. In the latest issue of Famitsu Magazine, the Nier mastermind sat down for a chat with Danganronpa's Kazutaka Kodaka and 999 director Koutarou Uchikoshi, who recently teamed up to release strategy RPG The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, a dangerous high school-set game that has seemingly countless routes to complete. Nier Automata's 26 routes were a major deal when the game first released – even though most of them were joke endings. But Taro explains in quotes translated by Redditor ComunCoutinho and Google Translate that he only added multiple routes to his Drakengard series for the extra replayability. You see, for most of the 2000s, a game's length was somewhat used to measure whether it was worth the price. In 2025, with dozens of games competing for our time every single month, a 500-hour epic doesn't seem as appealing. "In the current year, making something with 100 different routes and endings is the more dangerous play," Taro tells the developers of The Hundred Line, which has roughly 100 routes and endings. That's not an idea that put the developers off, though. Uchikoshi apparently created a flowchart containing all 100 routes to show Kodaka how rash his initial idea was, but seeing everything physically laid out apparently got the famed visual novel maestro more motivated to do it. Kodaka is at least aware of the gamble he took. He recently said that he'd love to port The Hundred Line to more consoles, but the studio is still "on the brink of going under," which isn't a surprise considering the team ended up with a lot of debt trying to create the ambitious genre-bending hybrid in the first place. Yoko Taro says Nier: Automata has so many endings because "Square Enix told us" to "add more content"
Al Bawaba
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Bawaba
NieR's Yoko Taro: AI will make all game creators unemployed in 50 years
Published April 30th, 2025 - 10:57 GMT ALBAWABA - Japanese director Yoko Taro, best known for working on titles such as NieR: Automata, sparked widespread concern on social media after predicting that AI (artificial intelligence) will cause game developers to lose their jobs. In an interview with Famitsu, Yoko Taro and other famous Japanese game directors, such as Kotaro Uchikoshi, were asked about the future of adventure games. Both Taro and Uchikoshi raised AI as a subject of concern, as reported by IGN. While Uchikoshi still expressed his interest in creating new games, he feared AI-generated games would become more mainstream. Additionally, the director added that AI still struggles with "brilliant writing" and lacks creativity, which humans still excel at. On the contrary, NieR's Yoko Taro predicted that AI might take over game creators' jobs in 50 years. ＡＩ予想。補足すると、・ＡＩで一般の人が全員クリエイターになる。・クリエイターでは食えなくなる。・でも作りたい人は食えなくても作る。 という感じなんだけど、僕の未来予想はほとんど外れるので気にしないでいいです。 — yokotaro (@yokotaro) April 30, 2025 In a new post on Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter), Taro responded to IGN's post about him claiming that AI will "turn ordinary people to creators" and that it will not be possible to make a living as a creator in the future. Moreover, he did add that all these predictions should be taken with a grain of salt since they "are almost always wrong so don't worry about it." Many artists already fear AI taking over their jobs across various art forms such as drawing, music, voice acting, and many more professions. Several also take to social media daily to protest against the creation of AI-generated content. ChatGPT recently sparked outrage after one of its users generated himself alongside his family in Hayao Miyazaki's iconic studio Ghibli art style. Many artists called the trend "disrespectful" to Miyazaki's career as a beloved artist and director. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
