Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan/Archive/November 2007

message: The name AEON (eikaiwa) should not be capitalized, as it is not an acronym like GEOS is. Chris 02:54, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It should not have the Japanese word eikaiwa in the name, either. Like Nova (English teaching company), it should be renamed in English. So too should the article Eikaiwa.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fg2 (talk • contribs) 04:31, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, all of the other ones except Nova are named "eikaiwa", and as eikaiwa is a unique concept not covered by the awkward naming, and as all other such companies are named as eikaiwa in article names, I would vote in the other direction. Chris 04:39, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

text: With respect, it's like manga ≠ comics precisely, anime ≠ cartoons precisely, and sushi would become awkward as fish and rice and seaweed hors d'oeuvres. Some things Japanese just need to use Japanese terms. Domo, Chris 04:46, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, we had an edit conflict. I had said that I'm glad we agree on the capitalization. I don't plan to push for renaming the articles. As for sushi, if you'd caught me an hour or two earlier I might have been tempted to indulge! Fg2 04:56, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

text: Of course "AEON" should be "Aeon". And why stop there? As "GEOS" isn't pronounced ジー・イー・オウ・エス or similar, I'd make that "Geos" too. -- Hoary 05:19, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: GEOS is an acronym. Regardless of its pronunciation, full caps is appropriate. NASA isn't pronounced N-A-S-A. Douggers 05:52, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: But "Fiat" isn't written "FIAT". From today's paper: "Being a Nasa website, this is geared to astronomy." And: "Azerbaijan, which has a partnership deal with Nato, has been rumoured as a potential launching pad for US strikes..." -- Hoary 06:24, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Then feel free to make all the changes to NASA and NATO, for consistency throughout Wikipedia. Douggers 06:44, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

text: UK usage (as in those links) is to lowercase pronounceable acronyms.  American usage is not to do so. Jpatokal 11:37, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: ???  and  .Oda Mari (talk) 07:19, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

text: I tend to agree with the above user, even if he does put his point a bit roughly, and even if the original discussion was not regarding this. "Eikaiwa" in an English encyclopedia seems like pushing it. Sure, I know what it means, and you guys know what it means, and the weeaboos and the freeloaders on the Japanese' kokusaika angst know what it means, but does your average Joe Smith know what it means? TomorrowTime 21:48, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, "eikaiwa" should not be allowed as an explanatory article suffix.  -Amake 22:28, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree; and, since some eikaiwa teach Korean, French, etc, maybe they should be titled "Aeon (language school)" or something else which does not seem to imply that they only deal in English. Neier 22:56, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree both that "eikaiwa" should not be used, and that "language school" rather than "English school" is a good way to resolve the problem.  "English school" is a bit vague in my mind at least, in the sense that "English school" can mean more than "English as-a-Second/Foreign-Language School" ... I would actually prefer a more literal translation of eikaiwa "English Conversation School" to "English School" if "Language School" is not deemed acceptable.  But given that "Language School" is more natural in English than "English school" (in my mind at least), and often these schools teach more than just English, I like "Language School" as a solution to the problem. CES 11:51, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Capitalization

message: FYI, :Category:Junji Ito is up for deletion at WP:CFD. 132.205.99.122 19:39, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Junji Ito 

message: Based on the #Capitalization section above, I opened up a Category for Discussion entry regarding .  Please add your thoughts. Neier 11:02, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eikaiwa redux 

message: I recently wrote an article about gastroenterologist and author Hiromi Shinya.  While his invention of the device used to remove polyps during colonoscopy, status as one of the world's preeminent gastroenterologists, and authorship of a book that sold 2 million copies in Japan make him highly notable, there is a dearth of information on him in English.  I managed to find enough to write an article, but would benefit greatly from some research in Japanese, if anyone is willing to do it.  I just think some more about his upbringing and his authorship of Japanese books would be good.  I already covered his development of colonoscopy rather extensively.  Please let me know if I am going about asking for help in the wrong way.  --Nik-renshaw 03:55, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I appreciate the correction of my Japanese place names and the addition of Japanese characters for his name.  Really, if anyone has the time, all I'm really asking is for descriptions of his successful books in Japan, and possibly the response from critics.  Or, at the very least, that information for Living without Disease: A Miracle Enzyme Determines Life (病気にならない生き方 ミラクル・エンザイムが寿命を決める).  Would it make sense for me to try to get in touch with someone on Japanese Wikipedia with knowledge of English?  Any help whatsoever is appreciated.  Nik-renshaw 22:16, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hiromi Shinya 

message: An attempt to rename the article Tomonobu Imamichi was blocked. Can an administrator rename it?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fg2 (talk • contribs) 12:00, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:28, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks! Fg2 21:46, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tomonubu Imamichi 

message: Japanese militarism, Japanese nationalism, Japanese fascism, Japanese imperialism, Japanese expansionism, Militarism-Socialism in Showa Japan, Japanese military-political doctrines in the Showa period, Xenophobia in Showa Japan, etc. etc. Certain anti-Japan pov-pushing ediors seem to be trying their best to demonize wartime Japan by creating all these sophomoric original research essays on wartime Japan. This is utterly ridiculous. --61.198.218.24 14:54, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that many of them could be merged into each other. Perhaps it would be a good to make a list here of articles that would be likely candidates for merging. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:50, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I agree completely. I would like recommend adding the following articles. These also appear to be largely redundant original research with some systematic bias, and should be merged into one of the survivors of the above list.  
*Japanese nationalism: ideological development from the 1920s to 1945
*Japanese nationalist thinking in the Meiji era
Also, all of the following articles have similar issues: they are redundant, appear to be plagiarized from some unnamed source (which I assume to be non-English due to the wording and number of grammatical mistakes), and contain unreferenced, unsupported original research. 
*Empire of Japan (economic and financial data)
*Empire of Japan (foreign commerce and shipping)
*Empire of Japan (additional economic and financial data)
*Economy of the Japanese Empire in World War II
*Japanese finances before and during WWII
*Natural resources controlled by the Japanese Empire after 1937
*Demographics of Imperial Japan
*Transportation in the Empire of Japan
*Japanese agriculture before WWII
Most appear to have been uploaded by two anon accounts (200.46.215.172 and 200.46.176.159), which I suspect may be the same person, and which now appear to be inactive. I would suggest that these nine articles could be merged into 1-2 articles, with the unsupported and redundant portions deleted unless someone can come forth with source information for this data. --MChew 14:21, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge all the wartime Japanese this and that articles into one for god's sake 

message: I put the  template on three articles by the same author: Red ball, Red Ball's 19th Anniversary and Plaza des balons rojos. If anyone has further information, it will be greatly appreciated. Fg2 04:38, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The last one now has a speedy deletion template for being nonsense based in part on the sentence "The square cost 1 million quillion gazillion Yen to make and is said to be the ugliest Plaza in the world apart from the Plaza de Caca." The second one got the same template on the basis of the claim that the game was invented prior to the birth of the inventor ("The game was created by Henry Charles Garlick Baker (what a weird name) in the year 1988 although he was born in 1993."). Fg2 05:13, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Someone has a strange sense of humor. Konamaiki 05:14, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: They've all been deleted as nonsense and blatant vandalism. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:26, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. BTW, I discovered them in the automatically generated list of new Japan-related articles on the Project page. Fg2 05:33, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, that list does have its uses. (^_^) ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:50, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hoaxes? Red Ball 

message: Someone added this to the Azuchi-Momoyama period article... Can anyone verify these claims? It's just that for some reason I'm very skeptical about ancient Swiss-Japanese interaction... --ざくら木 18:39, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I... I thought early Western medicine came to Japan exclusively via Rangaku... I mean, wasn't Dejima pretty much the only direct window to the West during sakoku? (read: add my doubt to the veracity of this bit of info). TomorrowTime 19:17, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I can't find one shred of evidence to support this, so I reverted it as vandalism. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:21, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

text: A Google search for "Chapuisat agreement" (including the quotation marks) gives no results. A search for "Chapuisat agreement anatomy hideyoshi" (this time without the marks) gives only one result, and it's irrelevant (it looks like some kind of a spell-check dictionary). Hideyoshi was before sakoku but I've never heard of contact with the Swiss during his time. Fg2 22:23, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Chapuisat agreement"... 何？ 

message: Hello everybody. I stumbled in :Category:Articles needing Japanese script or text... Although I have tried to add kanji in lead text in a disambiguation page named "Sanae", it has the variety of very many kanji notations. Which way should I choose?
# typical notation only — Probably it is subjective.
# including everything — Many information which is not common is published. Please see about "さなえ" (Sanae) in this page. At least, there are 50 patterns. :)
# only the kanji in subordinate articles — The information which is not common may be published.
Please give me advice. Thanks. --Nightshadow28 16:15, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: As far as dag pages, like the one for the name Eiko go, I think it's a bit too optimistic to ask for kanji, IMO - the kanji in the personal name read "Eiko" can be written differently for every single name. Are we expected to write out every single one? Same thing for Sanae... TomorrowTime 19:57, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:Category:Articles needing Japanese script or text]] 

message: We're having what I think is an important discussion here, about the best way to translate 術 in a martial arts context, particuarly as it relates to devising a brief but also accurate definition of the word jujutsu, but this will certainly implicate all of the articles about "-jutsu" martial arts.  Probably the more people proficient in Japanese that are participating the better. Thanks, Bradford44 17:08, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've always thought of it as something akin to "form", "style", or "method". ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:32, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Discussion about best way to translate "jutsu"

message: Can someone who knows the subject give Yoshida family artists and Yoshida Family Artists a proper merge? Chris 06:02, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: merge

message: I added the following to the US-VISIT page...
On November 20th, 2007, Japan will be instituting an immigration and border management system almost identical to the US-VISIT system. All foreign nationals (who don't fall under the 5 exemptions) will have both index-fingerprints scanned and a facial photo taken before entering the country. Those who refuse to comply will be denied entry into Japan and forced to leave.Website of the Japanese Immigration Bureau: Poster regarding new immigration procedures
Many people, including human rights groups and foreign residents in Japan, are voicing protest over the invasion of privacy and the violation of human rights this type of system embodies.
Any suggestions?
Yaki-gaijin 01:02, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: ... Et tu, Brutus? Sigh... TomorrowTime 07:04, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

text: "Many people ... are voicing protest" needs a reference; without one, it sounds like it means one person (you). I'm sure the statement is true, so it'll be easy to come up with a reference and add credibility. Fg2 10:19, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

text: Hm... Doesn't seem to show up on any relevant pages, such as this one , for instance. I'd venture to say there probably is no fancy acronym name for the whole thing... (Unless it's JP-VISIT, since the whole thing seems to be an exact copy of the US paranoia measure anyway :) TomorrowTime 07:48, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Japan's new immigration system

message: We have articles with a variety of titles: Nene (person), Yodo-Dono, Lady Kasuga, Tokugawa Masako, Nōhime. Any suggestions for how to unify article titles? Fg2 10:11, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm afraid that your suspicion probably is right that there could probably be no some standard uniform naming convention. The problem is that, most of the time, we don't know the real names of those historically important Japanese women, and so they are only known by some nicknames, pen names, etc. I can add: Murasaki shikibu, Hojo Masako, Ioe no Iratsume to the list given above. Of course, I too would love to hear if anyone has a good idea. (By the way, this is a topic we need to cover in Japanese name or something) --- Taku 10:55, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: That may be right. Still, we might be able to unify some of these: Yodo-Dono (a name having a hyphen followed by a Japanese title with a capital letter), Nōhime (a name with no hyphen followed by a Japanese title with a lowercase letter), Lady Kasuga (an English title followed by a name), Tokugawa Masako (a birth surname followed by a given name: Hojo Masako follows this pattern) and Nene (a name alone). Fg2 11:43, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Ok, first of all, if the real names of the women (e.g., Tokugawa Masako) are known, then that would be easy: they can be handled just like male figures. The same goes for members of royal families; the matter is simply whether to use princess or prince, emperor or empress. The second patter would be X-hime; e.g., nohime, tokuhime. We can keep going with this sort of analysis, but I'm not sure what is the goal, because this is simply what is currently done. I mean, tell me, what is a concrete problem to solve, for example? -- 22:11, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: For one, including Japanese honorific suffixes in the English language is an anachronism and should be avoided in an encyclopedia, IMO. I mean, it's not like the Mexican president's page has him down as 'Senor Calderon', is it? So, my suggestion would be to at least move Yodo-dono to Lady Yodo. TomorrowTime 00:29, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Naming articles on historical ladies 

message: I don't understand this edit. I asked it to the editor and his reply was this. I think Japanese archaeologists try to find out what Jomon people ate from middens, don't they? And Japanese preference in short grain rice to long grain rice is a prejudice?  I'd like to hear others' comments. Oda Mari (talk) 13:58, 12 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Japanese cuisine 

message: A certain user keeps replacing existing (stub) articles with long, half-translated swaths of text from the Japanese Wikipedia that ignore all English MOS conventions.  I've asked this user to stop, but without success.  What is the proper procedure for these kinds of things?  -Amake 12:38, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If the translations are decently correct, I'd mark them as needing cleanup and refs. If you can, normalizing the English would be good, too. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:16, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

text: I know you were trying to be polite, but it might be useful to give an example here. I really don't find any of the stray Japanese text in the new version productive. It's nice to have a bit more history, but we don't need kanji for place names that are already found on linked pages, either. The article has been turned from a usable stub into something opaque to non-Japanese speakers, with only a minimal increase in usefulness to people who are Japanese-literate. I'd recommend that he add things he's already translated, and leave the untranslated Japanese text out. With or without translation, it's unsourced, after all. Dekimasuよ! 07:09, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

text: It seems other users have been concerned about this as well. Dekimasuよ! 07:12, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

text: This addition appears to be fixable (i.e., we can copyedit it), but I don't see why he changed the whole order of the top of the page in addition to adding his history - in particular, the attempt to open the article with a hierarchy of links instead of an opening sentence isn't very productive. Dekimasuよ! 07:16, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The additions I think look fairly clearly automated, as they're a near copy of the Japanese formatting and looks like an automatic translation of the text.  If this overwrites what has already been written in clear English we should do something about it, but it could also be an effective tool.  And I think I've seen some of these in the past.  Saves time if you're planning on translating it anyway.  I may have a look at some of the edits.  Don't worry about this too much, just go through and do a quick line by line removal of the Japanese if you're uncomfortable with it. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 07:26, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Or put it in a comment -- readers don't see it, but it's convenient for editors.  I would not encourage putting untranslated Japanese, or machine-translated passages in multiple articles; work on one at a time and only use machine translation en route to a more polished English article. But for what's already there, if it's good, keep it; if it's not yet ready for the public consider hiding it in a comment. Fg2 08:17, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Half-translated articles 

message: I've removed a PROD template and PROD seconding template from this. The reason for the PROD: it had been poorly referenced for 10 months. But it wasn't "poorly" referenced; it wasn't referenced at all. Still, the article appeared to be intelligently composed; chucking it out too quickly seemed a waste. However, I'm too busy to search for references (and frankly the story doesn't interest me to the point where I'd want to search for them). Somebody else can take over. -- Hoary 06:54, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Apparently, this book discusses it, but I don't have access to it. If anyone lives near a major public library in Japan, it might be easy to find the relevant material. Fg2 07:43, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Affair of the four abandoned children of Sugamo]]

message: OS-tan, the article on unofficial Microsoft OS mascots from 2ch/2chan has been mentioned as requiring sources from the last AfD. Note that the article has been itself quoted as a source by Wired Magazine. -- 132.205.99.122 (talk) 20:22, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  OS-tan 

message: No offense to the fine people who compile Wiktionary, but I use alternative dictionaries. At the same time, I've felt sorry for Wiktionary when I've seen how much putative dictionary material (much of it ostensibly Japanese-related) that I think is very dubious is sent there from here rather than simply being deleted.
Today I've made my very first edit there.
Am I just a timewasting kibitzer or do others here agree about this sort of thing? -- Hoary (talk) 03:36, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: According Wiktionary, it now contains"Wikisaurus, a category that serves as a thesaurus, including lists of slang words." So, Eihongo, in this case, seems to belong there. (Note that I have zero knowledge on the inclusion criterion, if any, used there). More generally speaking, I think I'm probably not alone in thinking that wiktionary isn't quite working; thinking, not claiming. Theoretically speaking, the wiki-style collaborative system, which works unbelievably well here, may not be suitable for building of a dictionary. Since I never though wikipedia would work, I could well be wrong, though. -- Taku (talk) 03:49, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: transwikiing (Why bother?)

message: In looking at the automatically generated list of new Japan-related articles, I found the following:
*Japan foreign marriage
*Konpa in Japan
*Sexual Minorities in Japan
*Takarazuka Theater
*Japanese blue collar workers
Does anyone have any opinions on these? Fg2 (talk) 04:01, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: They are problematic would be my opinion, I guess. They have to be handled on a case-by-case basis, since the articles have referenced text and we can use them to start from scratch, for instance. I guess, the problem is actually in the article titles, rather than in the text itself which is not in a tone we use here. For example, "Japan foreign marriage" seems grammatically, umm, incorrect? "Konpa in Japan" not good one since there is no konpa in other countries (by the way, it should be compa or something since コンパ is a contraction of companionship, as far as I know.) -- Taku (talk) 09:28, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

text: Takarazuka Theater is in the middle of a merge discussion. Please participate here. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:59, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There's Gokon. Merge? Oda Mari (talk) 19:17, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Technically, the two are different because, as I understand, Gokon is a contraction of godo-konpa, godo meaning combination or union, as in godo-enshu (joint exercise). So, linguistically, it makes more sense to merge Gokon into konpa. On the other hand, gokon may be more popular as both word and practice. And so the merger in the other way around might reflect the reality better.  -- Taku (talk) 23:21, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some new articles 

message: My soujourn to get to Japan continues apace. Might you know where I can get my name put properly into Katakana, like a website or something? It would help me to learn if I could write my own name. Thank you all! Chris (talk) 17:57, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Not sure about any generators, but your name in katakana is クリス. Unless you're looking for 金鉄バッファロー. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:02, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: 近鉄バッファロー. Oda Mari (talk) 18:38, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

text: Thank you both! Chris (talk) 18:47, 17 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: kana generator?

message: I updated the project template to include all the different taskforces. Here's the documentation:
The  project banner template should be added (not subst:ed) to the talk page of every article within the scope of the project.  While the template does not require any additional parameters, it has a number of optional ones that add various extra features to the banner.
=== Usage ===
The full syntax is as follows:

* small – "yes" if the banner should be rendered in its miniature size; this should be used sparingly and only on crowded talk pages for the time being.
* nested – "yes" when the template is nested inside 
* class – a rating of the article's quality; see the assessment department for more details. Categories and Templates are automatically assessed by this template. Options are:
:* FA for articles which are Featured
:* A for articles which are A-Class
:* GA for articles which are Good Articles
:* B for articles which are B-Class
:* Start for articles which are Start-Class
:* Stub for articles which are Stubs
:* List for articles which are Lists
:* Dab for articles which are Disambiguation articles
:* NA for articles which are Not Articles (such as project articles).
* importance – Top, High, Mid, Low. Descriptions of the options can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan#Article assessment.
* tf: To be used if the article falls under a specific task force. Options are:
:* Baseball
:* Car
:* Districts and municipalites
:* Gaijin tarento
:* Military history
:* Music
:* Mythology
:* Owarai
:* Photo
:* Prefectures
:* Royalty and nobility
:* Shinto
:* Update
To avoid needlessly cluttering up talk pages, it is usually appropriate to remove any unused parameters from the template.
Please let me know if you have any questions. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:26, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Project template updated 

message: The full syntax is as follows:

* small – "yes" if the banner should be rendered in its miniature size; this should be used sparingly and only on crowded talk pages for the time being.
* nested – "yes" when the template is nested inside 
* class – a rating of the article's quality; see the assessment department for more details. Categories and Templates are automatically assessed by this template. Options are:
:* FA for articles which are Featured
:* A for articles which are A-Class
:* GA for articles which are Good Articles
:* B for articles which are B-Class
:* Start for articles which are Start-Class
:* Stub for articles which are Stubs
:* List for articles which are Lists
:* Dab for articles which are Disambiguation articles
:* NA for articles which are Not Articles (such as project articles).
* importance – Top, High, Mid, Low. Descriptions of the options can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan#Article assessment.
* tf: To be used if the article falls under a specific task force. Options are:
:* Baseball
:* Car
:* Districts and municipalites
:* Gaijin tarento
:* Military history
:* Music
:* Mythology
:* Owarai
:* Photo
:* Prefectures
:* Royalty and nobility
:* Shinto
:* Update
To avoid needlessly cluttering up talk pages, it is usually appropriate to remove any unused parameters from the template.
|}
Please let me know if you have any questions. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:26, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Usage 

message: Can anyone help copyedit the Kimi ga Yo article? I want to send this to Good Article candidates eventually. Thanks. Gruntbrat (talk) 06:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kimi ga Yo copyedit 

message: An IP user vandalized , as a result of which another user removed the template from Hiroshima. I've added the template to my watchlist and would welcome others' doing the same. Fg2 (talk) 08:07, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Template vandalism: Hiroshima 

message: As a member of WikiProject Christianity, I submitted the article Prayer to a peer review. One comment I got was that it was short on Japanese prayer, more specifically Shinto.
I wrote a stub about Shinto prayer within the article, which was based on what I read in the articles Ema (Shinto) and Omikuji. I would be grateful if anyone could expand on the few lines I wrote. Thanks in advance. --Blanchardb-MeMyEarsMyMouth-timed 17:33, 19 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prayer in Shinto 

message: User:AjaxSmack has asked for input on the Bushi article, which is in a forlorn state. He is wondering about merging it to Samurai or Bushido, or if it should just be transferred to Wiktionary. I have given him my input, the brunt of which is here:
Bushi is a fairly long and complex article on the Japanese Wikipedia, which goes to great lengths to distinguish between different kinds of soldier; bushi seems to be the most all-encompassing term, and the 武士 category on the JA Wiki includes most of the main articles on these different things (e.g. Ji-samurai, Samurai, Kokujin). I think it's clear that the page shouldn't be merged into Bushido, but it's understandable to want to merge it into Samurai, given that English fails to distinguish between the terms. Ideally, the article could be fleshed out. The key sentence for defining the term seems to be this one: よく言われるように貴族に仕える存在として認識された武士を侍と呼んだと言うよりもむしろ、上層武士を除く大多数の武士が侍身分の一角を形成したと言った方が正確であろう。It basically says that although "samurai" is often used to mean "bushi who were in the service of noblemen", in actuality, almost all bushi (except for the most affluent) served in that role at some point. There are various incongruities and overlap that make me confused here (ashigaru aren't samurai, but are they bushi?), so I'd rather ask others as well.
I'm sure someone here has better knowledge of these intricacies than I do; can we have more feedback? Dekimasuよ! 14:10, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I see your point.  My opinion is that we shouldn't merge it, because if we can make our articles line up with those on the ja Wikipedia, then it can make it easier in the future if someone wants to translate.  So I might put a translate tag on the article. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 15:02, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Bushi]] 

message: I just thought I'd let you know that there doesn't seem to be any input on traditional constellations (excepting Mediterranean and European ones) at the Constellation wikiproject. There should be, considering these are still in use. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Astronomy/Constellations Task Force 132.205.99.122 (talk) 23:27, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  traditional Constellations 

message: Please come participate in the discussion. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:33, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge discussion: [[Geesha girls]] → [[Geisha]]  

message: Have you seen Wikipedia:The Core Contest? It's a two-week drive to improve certain articles. There's a cash prize for the winners. The articles to be improved are listed here. Several are Japan-related topics, including Akira Kurosawa, History of Japan, Japanese yen, and Tokyo. Expect activity in some of these articles. Good luck to all participants! Fg2 (talk) 01:36, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The contest ends on December 9. Fg2 (talk) 01:06, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article Improvement Contest 

message: Can a few of you add Template:Japanese ethnicity to your watchlists? We have a persistent vandal with a dynamic IP address who likes to remove sourced numbers related to Latin America and Germany (the same user has been vandalizing certain other Japan-related pages as well). Dekimasuよ! 06:25, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. Fg2 (talk) 07:12, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: As the template is only used in Japanese people, I would like suggest to subst: it to Japanese people, which is likely to be watched by many people. --Kusunose (talk) 07:54, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I just placed it on Japanese diaspora as it makes sense to have it there, too. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:45, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

text: I have semi-protected the template as the only people messing with it are anon IPs. This will prevent IPs and new users from vandalizing it. I feel it is justified with the amount of vandalism over the last few days. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:20, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The persistent vandal has now registered as "Jae1205", which I have now sock-puppet tagged. Chris (talk) 07:04, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Can you watchlist this? 

message: 東北大學 is up for deletion or merging at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/東北大學. 132.205.99.122 (talk) 22:20, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you. It's a disambiguation page for people who type the exact kanji into the search box. The article on the university in Japan is not part of this deletion vote. Fg2 (talk) 23:24, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

text: P.S. I've added it to Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Japan. Fg2 (talk) 23:26, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  東北大學 

message: I have put the Tetsuji Takechi article up for GA review in the "Film and Cinema" section, but perhaps someone at this project would be interested in reviewing it also. Regards. Dekkappai (talk) 19:00, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Japan-related GA

message: This page is up for deletion - I've tried to make it more presentable but it needs the attention of a Japanese speaker. Paularblaster (talk) 00:07, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for the heads up. I'll do it within 24 hours. -- Hoary (talk) 05:51, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Naitō Tadayuki]] 

message: The New York Public Library Digital Gallery has a number of excellent photos of Japan taken during the 19th century.  For instance see here.  I've been in touch with their head of permissions, who assures me that any images taken before 1923 are in the public domain and can be placed on Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia.  He only requests that we link back to the original image and link back to the NYPL site, which I've done for a number of images.  For instance, see this great 19th century shot of central Kobe.
Of course, a note of permission is also required, which I'll attach here.  Be sure to attach this to any images you upload, and it might be polite to mention the source in the caption for the photo.  Hopefully we can find some great old images to add to Japan articles! -- Exitmoose (talk) 02:14, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Permission is great! I'd seen their site some time ago and while I loved the site, it didn't seem to grant permission, so I avoided uploading any of their photos. Thanks for seeking and receiving permission, and thanks to Thomas Lisanti and the New York Public Library for granting it! Fg2 (talk) 11:03, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've used some of their images before (see this, by Antonio Beato, this, by Felice Beato), uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. NYPL images are very sharp and often come with the bonus of fairly accurate dates, descriptions, original titles, etc. Uploading to the Commons necessitates the provision of a link to the source and appropriate credit, so all is in order with pre-1923 images almost automatically. Pinkville (talk) 03:40, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

text: I should add that two more sources of pre-1923 images are The Nagasaki University Library (though trickier to link to - ask me if you need help) and Terry Bennett's Old Japan (Bennett is a very friendly and helpful supplier of information and images). Again, because these photos are pre-1923 they are in the public domain and can be used, but always citing the source and providing a link to the source. Pinkville (talk) 03:46, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: 19th century Japan photos

message: What does she end her sentences with in the Japanese version? I paid a visit to the official Domo-kun website - The character "Tashanna," according to the English page, ends her sentences with "y"s. Now, as for the Japanese page (The character is Ta-chan in Japanese), what does she end her sentences with? When getting to the Japanese page, double click on the splash screen and the profiles of Domo-kun, Ta-chan, and Usajii (Mr. Usaji in English) appear. WhisperToMe (talk) 05:35, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: She ends her sentences with chi. Chi from itachi. The Japanese page says it's itachi accent (いたち訛り)/ weasel accent. You can hear her voice there. Oda Mari (talk) 05:54, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What is the romanization of "いたち訛り" ? WhisperToMe (talk) 01:13, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Itachi namari. Oda Mari (talk) 05:06, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

text: P.S. On the official page, they don't use kanji for 訛り. It written as いたちなまり. Oda Mari (talk) 06:30, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Tashanna of Domo-kun

message: User:Koavf made some hundreds of well-intentioned edits in which he put macrons on "Shinto," turning it from English (see OED and M-W) to Japanese. He and I have discussed it amicably and agreed to work on undoing the edits. But first, I thought I'd ask administrators if you have a screen that makes it easier than visiting each page's history, clicking the previous version, editing and saving? It would save a thousand clicks if you have that sort of capability. Best regards, Fg2 (talk) 11:00, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, we have the rollback button which lets us undo an edit (or series of edits) with one click. It looks like Koavf is fixing all his edits, though. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:06, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. If it's easy for an administrator I was hoping to save him some work (and I had agreed to join in). But he's fast with AWB and I'm busy so maybe he'll beat me to the punch. Thanks for letting me know. Fg2 (talk) 02:37, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Administrator question regarding Shinto 

message: Actually this regards two. What are the Japanese names of:
* The bear that is friends with Domo-kun - The English name is "A Little Bear"
* The pixie flower twins that only Domo can see - The English names are "Hee" and "Haw"
WhisperToMe (talk) 01:12, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The bear is Kumanoko/くまのこ, meaning a cub in Japanese. くま is bear and こ is child. The flower twins are Hanaichi/花一(Flower One) and Hananiji/花二 (Flower Two). Oda Mari (talk) 06:28, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thank you, Mari Oda (if that is your name)/Oda Mari (if that is a pseudonym) :) WhisperToMe (talk) 07:55, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I do believe it's a pseudonym. I've never seen the show, but is the second twin perhaps 花次, "second" in the sense that 次郎 is a common name for a second son? LordAmeth 11:32, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, LordAmeth. Please take a look at here. I replied to the user directly and added correction, info. etc. Oda Mari (talk) 14:17, 1 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Another Domo-kun character question

message: Hello all. I'm looking for infomation of Flag of Japan when Japan was occupied by GHQ. A few days ago, I've found a contribution by User:Heat5959 about the flag of Allied Occupied Japan (  ) at Occupation of Japan. Although I had interest attracted and investigated, yet I have not made it clear. I have found facts so far have mentioned on talk page. If there are people who have the more detailed knowledge about this flag, please join discussion.--W/mint-Talk- 15:07, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: According to , this flag was only used on Japanese civil ships. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 03:11, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Was this flag the National flag of Japan truly? 

message: We have conducting a straw poll about this issue at Talk:Occupation of Japan#Flag issue: straw poll, not RfC. Could you participate in a straw poll for flag image of infobox?--W/mint-Talk- 11:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: straw poll

message: I'm helping translate some stuff for an article at the Anime wikiproject, but I'm having trouble with one katakana word and was wondering if someone could give me some insight.  I've searched all over my dictionaries and haven't found a single reference to it.  The word is モヤツ.  Any help would be appreciated.  Also, if this really doesn't belong here I apologize... Zemalia 13:43, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You sure that isn't モヤシ, aka beansprout? Jpatokal 16:42, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Answered. That was an adverb 'もやっと'. Oda Mari (talk) 18:34, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need help with some translation...