Japanese Names in Chinese Languages
In Chinese speaking communities, Japanese names are considered in the form of Chinese characters, but not pronunciation. When referring to a Japanese person, the characters in his name will be spoken as in the Chinese language used. For example, in a Mandarin speech, 山田 太郎 (Yamada Tarō) will become "Shāntián Tàiláng", while 鳩山 由紀夫 (Hatoyama Yukio) will become "Jiūshān Yóujìfū". As a result, a Japanese person without adequate knowledge of Chinese would not understand their name when it is spoken in Chinese.
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