Rodney Webster <rgw_news001@knot.mine.nu> wrote in message news:<rgw_news001-4406A4.23401213092004@news01.so-net.ne.jp>...
> In article <4145A304.E44476B@yahoo.co.jp>,
>  Eric Takabayashi <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
> 
> > My guess is they would render her name with a long vowel sound at the end, to
> > differentiate it. I have seen innocuous names and words on Japanese TV of
> > Okinawan or Chinese origin, with the same katakana rendering as the word.
> > Because it was not meant to be that word despite having perhaps the exact same
> > sound in Japanese, the words and names were permitted to be broadcast.
> 
> I studied Japanese in Saitama with a Chinese man whose name was 
> transliterated (?) by the Japanese as "Chin Kou".  This led to a rather 
> awkward introduction when I first entered the class and was confronted 
> by him pointing to himself and enthusiastically exclaiming "Penis!  
> Penis!"


Can't vouch for the truth of this, but I did hear that broadcasters at
the recent Athens Olympics refused to say British three-day eventer
Pippa Funnell's name on air, because "Pippa" is the Greek word for
"blow job"

(Could you even make that into a "three-day event" I wonder? But, I
digress...)