Thread by @patio11

This is, for better or worse, a thing.

A related thing: many Japanese folks will solicitously use first names for foreigners on an assumption this is what they/we want; that is a tough assumption to correct politely.

https://twitter.com/dwvcd/status/1328833187556982784

I try to be pretty solicitous here, but between my inner thoughts and Twitter, I did not spend six years in the salt mines to get first named during a business card exchange. And almost never a -san!

This salaryman is shocked at the state of the new generation.

I still have a deep appreciation for the boss of my boss at my salaryman job, who called me “Patrick” to the entire company during my ceremonial swearing in then paused for a moment, corrected himself, and said: “I apologize, that was clearly inappropriate. McKenzie-san”

I never asked him why, but I assume the math went “I think it is deeply unlikely that most Americans would care what I call them at an ultimately meaningless ritual foreign to them but *this* American has tried very hard to become a Japanese salaryman so Oh Shit Bayes Theorem.”