...of any word “romanized” from a foreign alphabet – it all depends upon the transliteration system used. I’m only familiar with the Revised Hepburn method for transliterating – that said, it’s been five or six years since Japanese 111 and I can’t say it was my best subject.

You run into the same problems with other languages with non-Roman alphabets – Arabic is one, which is why you’ll sometimes see Osama or Usama used for Osama bin Laden’s name. None of them are technically more correct than any other.

Kosuke and Kousuke both seem close enough that I would probably accept both of them as being legitimate. Fukutome makes no sense to me, but the traveling Japanese media has probably spent more time studying Japanese than me.

“Oo” and “Ou” make exactly the same sound in Japanese, so while the “o” is not a long O, it’s basically the same sound.

Fukutome is also a very simple mistake. The Japanese alphabet is peculiar for a number of reasons, one of them being that by adding two small little lines (called a dakuten) towards the top of the character, you change the beginning consonant. It’s hard to explain over the internet, but here’s a link that shows a bit more what I’m talking about – http://www.magnifythelord.org/cma/Nihongo_files/image012.gif

Basically, the “do” in Japanese is written as a “to” with a dakuten towards the top of the character. So I can understand where the error came from!

(it’s kind of hard to explain languages over the internet)

said yesterday he had a cake in the club house that was spelled wrong. One of the radio guys said “Let me guess, they put a C in front of the K.” Then he went on to ask his fellow radio coworker if he took a slice of the cake that had the C in front of the K. The co-announcer said no, they spelled it F-U-K-O-D-O-M-E.

Don’t tell me I have to make a new sign….

since I didn’t pay attention to the Japanese language classes I went to, as a child. According to my dad, both Fukudome and Fukutome are acceptible. It is a regional thing. Fukudome is from Kagoshima, in southern Japan. In the Kagoshima area it is pronounced as Fukudome. In other areas, further north, Fukutome is the accepted pronounciation. My dad’s family is from the Kagoshima area. Our family name is in the same situation. In Kagoshima, it is pronounced as Sameshima. Further north, it becomes Samejima.

Regarding his first name, my dad recalls that Kosuke would be the more traditional translation. Kousuke may be a modern update of the name. Something like the name Karen becoming Karin.

By the way, I share the same middle name as Fukudome. It is Hiroshi. It transulates to honored one. Of course my brother ’s middle name is Toyoshi. He is the great one.

Kosuke Fukudome is Fukudome, not Fukutome. The kanji characters for Fukudome can be read either as Fukudome or Fukutome, but Kosuke is Fukudome. Nobody in any region is allowed to call him Fukutome. As holy mackerel says, most of this family name in Kagoshima area is spelled as Fukudome, and in other region Fukutome is majority, but you can NOT spell one particular person in different way. This famous commentator (who is known as our public enemy Tokyo Giants fan) is Fukutome. He will immediately make correction if he is called as Fukudome.

Kosuke/Kousuke/Kohsuke is very different – this is Japanese-to-Alphabet conversion issue. You can spell the same Japanese spell of his name either Kosuke or Kousuke or Kohsuke. Dome should be using one of them when he writes his name with alphabet (his official website uses “Kohsuke”), but he won’t be angry nor try to collect it if other person spells it in other way – it’s almost free. People in baseball industry tend to use Kohsuke with some admire for Sadaharu Oh (he start using OH on his back) by the way. Monthly Dragons magazine’s special issue for Dome farewell spells his name “Kousuke”.

That’s my 10 yen…

why would the Japanese media celebrate a Japanese player’s birthday with a cake written solely in English?

to my previous post. I oversimplified my dad’s explanation, in my haste to post my comments. Since my dad’s family is originally from the Kagoshima area, our family goes by the name Sameshima. Some of my dad’s cousins, elsewhere in Japan go by Samejima. The names would not be considered interchangable. The Sameshimas go by Sameshima. The Samejimas go by Samejima. From what I understand, it is just a regional thing.

According to my dad, Fukudome and Fukutome can be confused, but they are different, like with my family name. Have I confused everyone even more? Nothing like cultural differrences. Thanks again dragonfanatic for giving us the real Japanese perspective. I can only give the Japanese-American perspective, with very little on the Japanese side.

...Dome flashes some ironical smile on the cake as he is so used to be initially called as Fukutome by who don’t know him well, but it should not happen frequently in recent days after he became a star player….