Ever considered naming a newborn baby Beetle or Sardine? How about Cancer or Dung, or even Who?
Those were a few of the 578 additional Japanese characters the Justice Ministry said Friday it might allow parents to use in names for children.
Like mothers and fathers in other countries, Japanese parents agonize over the naming of a child. With tens of thousands of Japanese characters — or kanji, based on Chinese ideograms — to choose from, the possibilities would seem limitless.
And that’s exactly what the government wants to avoid.
“The average person can only read and write between 2,000 to 3,000 characters. The government made the law because it would be too inconvenient not to be able to read people’s names,” Justice Ministry official Yoshikazu Nemura said.
Tokyo first imposed restrictions on names just after World War II ended. Periodically, the list has been revised to reflect changes in the lexicon.
Japanese law now restricts names to a list of 2,232 characters. A child whose name contains a banned character can’t be entered in the family register — an official document required for all Japanese nationals — until the name is changed.
The government, however, is reluctant, however, to approve names that signify evil or death.
Here is the full story. Thanks to Don Boudreaux for the pointer, also check out his new economics blog.
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