Preferred writing of name for Japanese names

justlili

With families that have Japanese ancestors and relatives in both Japan and English-speaking countries it would be nice to be able to choose a preferred written name. There are three, Kanji, Katakana and Romanized. I have relatives in Japan who can and would prefer to have the Kanji but my own children and myself included cannot read kanji. I see a need to have all three available but just as you can choose a preferred spouse could we have a preferred written form of their name?

I am having the greatest difficulty when I am tagging people in photographs. My mother-in-law's name only comes up in Kanji but her sister comes up in Romanized letters.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I was all set to comment that this already exists, in the form of the "Show Romanized Script" slider under Settings - Account, but I see that it behaves Very Strangely: it only applies to the current profile, not to any of its relatives.

So I would revise your suggestion to read "please apply the Show Romanized Script option to everyone, not just to the profile I'm currently viewing."

Alan E. Brown

In the person page, what you are asking for should already be possible, and indeed it works that way partially. In your screen shot, it is clear that Mori Kansuke's name is shown in Roman script, as is his son Ryouichi. But his wife Saki's name is shown in Kanji.

There's a setting in the Account section for "Show Romanized Script"; you must have that turned on, because otherwise all the names would appear in Kanji. It appears that there is a bug in the way some of the names are shown on the person page, which currently causes spouses and parents to be shown in Kanji, even when that setting is turned on. Children and the person of focus are shown correctly. Names in the various tree views also seem to correctly apply that setting and show names in Roman script.

I've entered a ticket to have this reviewed.

As for memories, I don't see any evidence that it has ever honored the "Show Romanized Script" setting. That's unfortunate. It would certainly be good if that setting were honored in that context as well.

justlili

thank you for your help.