First of all, it’s tough to argue that a pun which spells out the phrase, “bei jing huan ying ni” is ANY more easily understood by non-Chinese than one that spells out “レッツスノー” is to non-Japanese. I mean, I’m pretty well versed in Chinese characters by virtue of my Japanese study, and the Chinese pun made absolutely no sense to me. If it makes no sense to me, then to which non-Chinese, never-been-to-China people will it make sense?

But my main point is this: Japanese has katakana, and Chinese does not, which I think explains the naming differences. Look at “America.” The Japanese can write it “アメリカ” or “米国,” the second being similar to the way the Chinese came up with their name for America. The katakana term, アメリカ is less confusing, more accurate and more respectful of the name that Americans themselves apply to their homeland. It is also more common in everyday Japanese. With katakana, the Japanese at least TRY to get those foreign names right, if sometimes they fail miserably (but it must be pointed out that the Japanese katakana system is great for helping people pronounce places they’re not sure about. For example, I was wondering exactly how to pronounce Brugges, and Bruxelles, the other day on my trip to Belgium, and while visiting a Belgian tourist shop, it was the Japanese guide book I saw, not the Spanish, English, or French ones, and certainly not the Chinese, that cleared up all the pronounciations perfectly…but that’s not terribly relevant). It also represents a certain willingness by the Japanese to alter their own language to respectfully incorporate new words. However you may interpret it, it’s simply a matter of Japanese taking advantage of the convenience of a writing system that had existed well before foreigners began turning up on their shores.

The bottom line is, the Japanese, like the Chinese, already have enough ways built into their culture and language to exclude outsiders. They don’t need to do so by foisting foreign-sounding names on foreign things. They can do that simply because they have katakana. So why change my name, アンドリュウ, to something like 太郎, for no good reason? アンドリュウ, like アメリカ, and レッツスノー, does just fine.