At Hokuroku, we are currently progressing with translating past content into English.

 

For example, we recently completed the English translation of the product Rappa Slim listed on the Hokuriku Catalog e-commerce site (feel free to shop).

Related: Discover the Timeless Elegance of a Post-War Engraved Vase, Re-Evaluated Abroad [Hokuriku Catalog]

Someone asked me about English usage during this process, and I thought I’d share it with you.

 

Both Hokuroku and Rappa Slim are written entirely in uppercase letters in the Japanese article. When trying to give a distinctive feel to a proper noun written in the alphabet, it’s a common practice in Japan to write everything in uppercase.

 

For example, we are not talking about abbreviations like BMW (Bayerische Motorenwerke), NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), or IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd), but rather about names like YAMAHA, FUJITSU, and TOYOTA.

 

When translating or writing proper nouns that use uppercase letters, Japanese people typically try to keep them in their original form, like below:

 

An editorial member of HOKUROKU met RAPPA SLIM at a gallery.

 

However, when everything is written in uppercase like this, you know that English-language editors tend to dislike it, and it often gets revised. In other words, they’ll usually ask to change it to Hokuroku and Rappa Slim.

 

As you know, there are several reasons for this:

1. Brand names are typically written in title case (capitalizing the first letter of important words), such as New York Times, National Geographic, and Harvard University.
2. Readability: Writing in ALL CAPS can make text harder to read and feel unnatural to English-speaking audiences. In some cases, it may even be seen as an unnecessary form of emphasis.
3. Media guidelines: Many media outlets prohibit ALL CAPS, with a rule that only the first letter of proper nouns should be capitalized.

Some English-language media outlets even include in their guidelines (which are distributed to staff) that “Japanese proper nouns are often written in uppercase, but should be corrected to title case as needed.” 

 

If you read news articles from wire services around the world, you’ll notice the following style:

“Sony hikes profit forecast on strong gaming business” (AFP article featured in Japan Today)

You see, SONY is not used, but Sony.

 

So, if you were involved in PR for companies in the Hokuriku region as a foreign staff member, there may be things that Japanese staff are unaware of, so please feel free to make corrections and teach them how things are typically done.

 

That’s the point. I hope you find this useful.

 

Thank you for reading, and best wishes for this week. It’s spring! Although my hay fever is terrible, I’m looking forward to the cherry blossoms.

 

Masayoshi Sakamoto

Editor-in-Chief