Al のメッセージ:
> etaka <etaka@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > Al wrote:
> >
> > > Foreigners can't use kanji? Obviously i am having some difficulty
> > > believing that.
> >
> > I love it when people suggest things that happen to me do not happen.
>
> Hi, try again. :-) It sounds like you've interpreted my comments in a
> way exaactly opposite to what they were intended to mean...

Really? If not to cast skepticism on my comments or make light of the
experiences of myself or those of any others plainly posting they are
not allowed to use their desired rendition of name, just what is your
intention?

> As a foreigner who has been using kanji for his name for years, i am
> entitled to consider the information about supposedly existing "rules"
> suspect. :-)

Then perhaps you would like to explain the names used on ALL of my
official documents, as well as maybe six postal savings and bank
account books, or the experiences of any others in this thread and
elsewhere who have posted to the effect that (non-Asian) foreigners get
katakana used for their names/aren't allowed to use kanji. I certainly
did not ask these people to write my name that way, and in fact gave
them the given kanji for my name when writing out any forms. And unlike
in your case, my name does have valid kanji which I was born with. I
simply am not permitted to use them. BTW, ALL my hanko are my name(s)
in kanji.

> My newsreader can't display Japanese characters - did you write that
> "Yasumoto Ken" would not be acceptable in Kanji to anybody?

No. But his experience certainly does not surprise me.

> > What do you need, some scans of my documents to show you how Japanese
> > tell me my own Japanese names should be written?
>
> I don't need the scans (if you mean for the purpose of convincing me),
> but i would certainly be interested in knowing how you would want to
> write your name yourself, since i couldn't read your comment to that
> effect.

In English, on English forms, my name is Eric Takabayashi, though my
passport and US driver's license put last name first. When using
Japanese, I want my name written in the proper, given kanji like a
Japanese person's name: TAKA BAYASHI KEN JI (High Forest Healthy
Child). One reason I try to pass as a Japanese in Japan is to AVOID
discrimination, but attempts to use my GIVEN kanji name in any legal or
official capacity as at city hall, in a financial institution, or
perhaps on a contract, only results in some more, with me being told
precisely what I posted: (if not some lame excuse that they merely want
to stick to the name precisely as it is on my alien registration or
Japanese driver's license), THEY claim kanji names are not for
foreigners*. Don't tell me I am not being told so.

*Unless one is perhaps Chinese or a Korean from the peninsula.

> > Then perhaps in your many years in Japan you've noticed foreigners on
> > TV or in print have their names rendered in katakana, as when Kane
> > Kosugi appears, unless the person happens to be Chinese or much less
> > commonly, a Korean from the peninsula. Even Japanese characters in
> > foreign fiction or movies may get the katakana treatment.
>
> I think i understand what you are getting it, but as it happens, i don't
> watch TV or movies and don't know who Kane Kosugi is, but i see that the
> names of local (and very non-foreign) people running for office in the
> elections are written in katakana on their posters, so i would't know

Never seen Japanese people using katakana for their entire name in such
a context. Can't recall local election posters using katakani for rubi
either. Of course, many elderly women have katakana given names like
"Chie" or "Sae" for some reason.

> what to make of it if i ever saw Kane Kosugi's name written in kana on
> TV... But i don't think the habits of the entertainment industry have
> any bearing on the question why someone would object to you writing the
> name you alredy have in kanji, or using an adopted Japanese name and
> write that in kanji.

It's not about entertainment. The way media, particularly reputable
news, renders a person's name, is revealing, as when foreigners of
Japanese ancestry with Japanese names such as Kosugi or Yamaguchi, have
their names put into katakana. For example: I am curious how former
Peruvian President Fujimori had his name rendered in the news prior to
being recognized as a Japanese citizen. A Yahoo! search suggests his
name before being *publicly* recognized as a citizen (he was officially
registered as a Japanese at birth by his father at the Consulate) was
of course, in katakana. (A stranger question is why people continue to
use that katakana name when they know he is legally a citizen. Because
he also holds Peruvian citizenship? Because he cannot speak Japanese?
Because it's how he was registered or what he asked for? Simply because
it's how they've always known him? Because he is not "really" Japanese,
except to keep him from being deported to face prosecution back in
Peru?)