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The story
During TBS’s live broadcast of the women’s volleyball final (Japan 0-3 China) at the ongoing Asian Games in Aichi/Nagoya, announcers read Chinese athletes’ names using Japanese readings of the kanji characters, sparking a wave of questions on X (formerly Twitter). Reading Wu Mengjie’s name as “Go Muketsu” and Chen Houyu’s as “Chin Kouu” drew comments along the lines of “think about the dignity of foreign athletes.” On 5ch, threads debated where to draw the line on name pronunciation — covering why Japanese media have long used Japanese on’yomi readings rather than Chinese pronunciations, consistency with how other countries’ figures (like Kim Jong-un) are read, and how Chinese media, in turn, pronounce Japanese names.
[Asian Games] “Think About the Dignity of Foreigners” — Unease Over Chinese Athletes’ Names Announced with Japanese Readings, Why?
<Aichi/Nagoya Asian Games: Women’s Volleyball: Japan 0-3 China> ◇22nd◇Final◇Komaki City Sports Park General Gymnasium
Following TBS’s live broadcast of the women’s volleyball final, questions have been piling up on X (formerly Twitter) over commentators reading Chinese athletes’ names with Japanese pronunciations.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Besides, China does the same thing in reverse, reading kanji names their own way
They should just be honest and call themselves Asahi Sports
Exactly, let's use pronunciations closer to their home country's
Like Xi Jinping — that'd make him 'Xi Chinpin'
Chinpin (sounds like crude Japanese slang, lol)
It's the other way around
Xi Jinping being read 'Shu Kinpei' [the Japanese on'yomi] isn't the problem
The real dark secret is that Kim Jong-un stopped being read as 'Kin Shou-on'
They caved to some petty pressure campaign and changed the reading
Do Chinese broadcasters read Japanese names the Japanese way, or the Chinese way? Which is it?
No way they'd use Japanese readings
We read it our way, you read it yours
That's the whole point of kanji
In China, Japanese names get read in Chinese pronunciation, don't they?
For reference, that's the kanji name for Jackie Chan
If that's the logic, just call everyone by surname only
Nope
Fukuhara Ai gets called 'Fu Yuan Ai' in China
Background and Key Points of the Debate
The practice of Japanese media rendering Chinese names with Japanese on’yomi readings of the kanji isn’t unique to TBS — it reflects a longstanding, general convention. Korean names, by contrast, switched to native-pronunciation readings (as in “Kim Jong-un”) after the Japanese and South Korean governments agreed in 1984 to use readings closer to the Korean pronunciation. That difference is exactly what fueled the thread’s complaint that it’s inconsistent to read Kim Jong-un’s name in Hangul-based pronunciation while reading Xi Jinping’s in on’yomi. No comparable agreement exists with China, and conversely, Chinese media also report Japanese names using Chinese readings of the kanji — so both sides simply use their own reading conventions. The thread split between those who saw this as a practical matter rooted in that history, and those who pushed back against the “dignity” framing itself. Comments consisting purely of discriminatory language or crude wordplay have been excluded from this article.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Asian Games] “Think about the dignity of foreigners” — Unease over TBS commentary on Chinese athletes’ names… Wu Mengjie called ‘Go Muketsu,’ Chen Houyu called ‘Chin Kouu’.”
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