Japanese Names of Chinese People and Their Readings

There have been many discussions about Japanese writing and reading Chinese personal names, names of places names, and other names. Based on these discussions, there is no doubt that inconsistency in the writing and reading of Chinese names of people and places in Chinese characters has been regarded as a problem. This pertains to the fact that, even though certain norms have been established, a degree of freedom is allowed to “respect customary practice,” and the use of multiple names for the same point or person is tolerated. As a member of the International Student Affairs Office at a university, I have seen the names of many international students and their hometowns. Not only are there various ways of reading their names, but there are also extremely inconsistent spellings. In this paper, I will discuss the current situation and raise some issues