This entire article is a bunch of "controversy"-raising bullshit for the sake of writing something about "ineffable Japan."
This is like asking whether people like to say "US" or "USA" or "U.S." or "U.S.A." or "the U.S." or "the U.S.A." and asking if the government plans to legislate something to make people say the same thing.
Edit: For their comparison of company names, imagine someone trying to write an article on the basis that "US Airways" and "American Airlines" use different names for one entity.
> Either way, one thing is certain. The name of this country is simply two or three pictograms that legally could be verbally interpreted any way you want, be it Nihon, Nippon, Jippon, Japan, Hinomoto, Yamato, Wa, or Zipangu.
This is bullshit. It's two kanji (which are closer to being ideograms than pictograms in that they're not actual depictions of something) that are read one of two ways. 日本 cannot be read "Jippon" by any stretch of the imagination. "Yamato" and "Wa" are completely different kanji.
Indeed the article has a very orientalist tone. In comparison, the wikipedia article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Japan has similar content but at least the Nihon vs Nippon section discussed the actual phonetics and not just the corresponding romanizations (surely most educated people are aware that romanizations are imperfect representations that obscure the underlying phonetics)
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 14.6 ms ] threadThis is like asking whether people like to say "US" or "USA" or "U.S." or "U.S.A." or "the U.S." or "the U.S.A." and asking if the government plans to legislate something to make people say the same thing.
Edit: For their comparison of company names, imagine someone trying to write an article on the basis that "US Airways" and "American Airlines" use different names for one entity.
> Either way, one thing is certain. The name of this country is simply two or three pictograms that legally could be verbally interpreted any way you want, be it Nihon, Nippon, Jippon, Japan, Hinomoto, Yamato, Wa, or Zipangu.
This is bullshit. It's two kanji (which are closer to being ideograms than pictograms in that they're not actual depictions of something) that are read one of two ways. 日本 cannot be read "Jippon" by any stretch of the imagination. "Yamato" and "Wa" are completely different kanji.