What isn’t in a name?
Speaking at a press conference on October 7, Toshihiro Kitamura, press secretary for Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addressed the latest piece of diplomatic friction between the governments of Japan and China. Yes, Kitamura confirmed, his department has lodged a formal complaint with China’s Ministry of Foreign affairs, over a Chinese diplomat referring to Japanese prime minster Sanae Takaichi as Sanae Takaichi.
On September 30, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun was speaking at a regularly scheduled press conference in Hong Kong, during which the topic of potential changes to Japan’s defense policies came up. As a representative of the Chinese government, Guo is predictably opposed to any changes that would allow Japan to adopt a more proactive stance in maintaining its borders or offering military aid to its allies, such as Taiwan. In criticizing such potential changes, Guo said “In February of this year, Sanae Takaichi reiterated that she was committed to upholding the Three Non-nuclear Principles,” a set of tenets adopted by Japan’s parliament in the early 1970s.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs took issue with Guo’s statement, but not because of something he said. The complaint is over what Guo didn’t say, as he didn’t preface his mention of the Japanese head of state with her title, prime minister.
“Even when speaking from different perspectives, showing respect towards the leader of a nation is a matter of obvious etiquette in international protocol,” said Kitamaura in explaining the complaint that the Japanese ministry has lodged.
Local news outlets in Hong Kong reportedly noted that referring to a head of state without their title, as Guo did, is unusual in Chinese. Likewise, in Japanese, much like in English, it’s customary for diplomats to include their counterparts’ official titles when speaking publicly about them. This is something that many Japanese people would be especially conscious of, since in Japanese titles are used not only in politics, but also in many workplaces (in many companies, employees are more likely to call their boss “Section Chief Tanaka” than “Mr. Tanaka”). Even in social settings, the Japanese language has a number of suffixes, -san being the most famous, that are added as a sign of courteousness. Speaking of someone without using any sort of title or suffix, a practice called yobisute is often seen as a deliberate and arguably crude way of referring to someone, since it implies a kind of flippant familiarity that’s really only appropriate for certain very close personal relationships, such as immediate family members.
The exact contents of the Japanese ministry’s message to the Chinese ministry haven’t been made public, and the Japanese government doesn’t appear to be demanding any sort of restitution for the breach of etiquette. With the two countries not getting along very well these days, it’s not surprising that their representatives aren’t in the most forgiving mood over perceived slights, but hopefully this issue can be resolved as amicably as that time the Pokémon Center made the mistake of calling Nicole Fujita Nicole Fujita.
Source: Sankei Shimbun via Jin, Tele Asa News, Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun
Top image: Pakutaso
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