Introducing honoured guests
July 21, 2015 10:04 AM Subscribe
I am responsible for introducing (in English) a number of honoured guests from Japan at an event in Canada. I am looking for the appropriate English honorifics (His Excellency, Her Honour, etc) for some specific government officials, as well as some general honorifics.
The event is to celebrate a historical relationship between a Japanese region and a Canadian region, and attending from Japan will be:
A Vice Governor of a Japanese prefecture
Some traditional drummers
A Speaker of a prefectural assembly
A Vice mayor
A president of a national association
Googling gives me the standard suffixes (-san, etc) but I am looking for the appropriate formal title. For my local mayor I would say, "His Worship, Mayor Lastname." What do I say for the examples above?
The event is to celebrate a historical relationship between a Japanese region and a Canadian region, and attending from Japan will be:
A Vice Governor of a Japanese prefecture
Some traditional drummers
A Speaker of a prefectural assembly
A Vice mayor
A president of a national association
Googling gives me the standard suffixes (-san, etc) but I am looking for the appropriate formal title. For my local mayor I would say, "His Worship, Mayor Lastname." What do I say for the examples above?
If the mayor of an American city were to attend, how would that person be introduced - as "His Worship, Mayor Bob" or "The Honorable Mayor Bob"? ("the honorable" is the generic style for elected officials in the US). Use the same convention here, which I suspect would be to use the guest's own protocol i.e. "The Honorable Mayor Bob".
Japanese does not use styles of office except in royal and religious contexts, so I think simply using the title e.g. Vice-fGovernor Tanabe or Mr. Tanabe is most appropriate.
And of course, you could always ask the delegation's handler(s), "what is the preferred term of address?"
posted by Tanizaki at 10:28 AM on July 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Japanese does not use styles of office except in royal and religious contexts, so I think simply using the title e.g. Vice-fGovernor Tanabe or Mr. Tanabe is most appropriate.
And of course, you could always ask the delegation's handler(s), "what is the preferred term of address?"
posted by Tanizaki at 10:28 AM on July 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Call the Japanese Embassy's Information and Culture Centre? That's one of their remits.
posted by holgate at 10:31 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by holgate at 10:31 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Can you provide the Japanese versions you have found and see if that will get you more helpful feedback?
I don't speak Japanese but my son reads a lot of anime which was often written in Japanese to begin with. He has read up a fair amount on the translation process and we have discussed cases where a form of address was translated as "Mistress" with unfortunate connotations when it probably should have been translated as something like "Yes ma'am!"
From what I gather, forms of address in Japanese often carry a lot of implied information, such as who is older, that simply does not happen in English and this creates significant translation problems in fictional works. So I am thinking that if you know the proper Japanese terms, getting fluent Japanese speakers to provide commentary on the honorifics might help you come up with the best approximation in English.
posted by Michele in California at 10:42 AM on July 21, 2015
I don't speak Japanese but my son reads a lot of anime which was often written in Japanese to begin with. He has read up a fair amount on the translation process and we have discussed cases where a form of address was translated as "Mistress" with unfortunate connotations when it probably should have been translated as something like "Yes ma'am!"
From what I gather, forms of address in Japanese often carry a lot of implied information, such as who is older, that simply does not happen in English and this creates significant translation problems in fictional works. So I am thinking that if you know the proper Japanese terms, getting fluent Japanese speakers to provide commentary on the honorifics might help you come up with the best approximation in English.
posted by Michele in California at 10:42 AM on July 21, 2015
I would also like to see the Japanese versions.
Calling the Information and Culture Centre might work, but if I think of my colleagues there, they'd probably not know either. Incidentally, I work for a Japanese embassy, and usually, people without titles like Vice President or Minister etc. are just Mr. or Ms.
Edit: It would be great if you could really practice pronouncing their names, though. And how to see something lile konnichiwa correctly.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 11:23 AM on July 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
Calling the Information and Culture Centre might work, but if I think of my colleagues there, they'd probably not know either. Incidentally, I work for a Japanese embassy, and usually, people without titles like Vice President or Minister etc. are just Mr. or Ms.
Edit: It would be great if you could really practice pronouncing their names, though. And how to see something lile konnichiwa correctly.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 11:23 AM on July 21, 2015 [4 favorites]
Skip "aisatsu" such as "konnichiwa" which is informal and totally inappropriate for this sort of situation.
posted by Nevin at 11:44 AM on July 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Nevin at 11:44 AM on July 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Speaking as an American who's lived in Japan for a couple years, the Japanese are not expecting you to use Japanese terms and formalities etc. because it is not appropriate for the situation. I.e. you are not Japanese or someone expected to know Japanese, you are introducing them using English to people who are mostly native English speakers, and the event is in Canada. Trying to learn the Japanese way of doing this in a few days would be near impossible and totally unnecessary.
So just 1) call them Mr./Ms. [full name in Western order], [title]. Mr Youchi Masuzoe, Mayor of Tokyo. 2) pronounce the Japanese person and city names correctly. That's all you need to do.
posted by banishedimmortal at 7:43 PM on July 21, 2015
So just 1) call them Mr./Ms. [full name in Western order], [title]. Mr Youchi Masuzoe, Mayor of Tokyo. 2) pronounce the Japanese person and city names correctly. That's all you need to do.
posted by banishedimmortal at 7:43 PM on July 21, 2015
Oh, of course konnochiwa is crap in that situation. A lot of Japanese people would be happy if you somewhat mastered it and arigatou gozaimasu anyway.
posted by LoonyLovegood at 11:42 PM on July 21, 2015
posted by LoonyLovegood at 11:42 PM on July 21, 2015
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For protocol reasons, it's probably safest to use their professional title.
If you check out Hansard in British Columbia, the mayor of Morioka, Victoria's sister city, is addressed in the Legislature as "Mr." (ctrl+f Morioka)
I'm a JE translator and have been closely connected to Japan for the last twenty years, and have worked in government in international trade for a time, so being as simple as possible while recognizing their actual office, would be my approach to protocol.
It's more embarrassing to use potentially inappropriate protocol.
posted by Nevin at 10:19 AM on July 21, 2015 [5 favorites]