The story
Japan has changed the law to stop people naming their babies things like Pikachu and Kitty.
New rules have come in on the pronunciation of ‘kanji’, the Chinese characters used as one of the three forms of Japanese writing.
The change is designed to prevent unofficial pronunciations of the kanji characters. In recent times, these unusual interpretations of the characters have allowed people to call their children names which are seen as strange or silly by the authorities.
News headlines
Japan introduces rules to put outlandish baby names to bed
The Guardian
You can’t call your baby that… Japan limits the choice of baby names to stop “flashy” ones
Euro Weekly
Don’t do it: Japan takes aim at baby names like ‘Nike’ with new rules on kanji readings
South China Morning Post
Key words and phrases
put something to bed
deal with a problem successfully
- The company put to bed threats of strikes by offering workers a big pay rise.
flashy
describes something expensive or designed to attract attention
- The singer arrived at the awards ceremony in a flashy car.
take aim at something
try to deal with an issue; criticise something.
- She took aim at her rival for the job promotion by pointing out all his weaknesses.