Nihon Keizai Shimbun Cuts It Short

[Mulboyne]

Nation: Japan's business daily goes easy on ear for foreigners
The newspaper may be the bible for Japanese business leaders, but the Nihon Keizai Shimbun is apparently too much of a mouthful for foreigners. The newspaper announced Monday it will change its English name from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc. to the Nikkei Inc. -- the abbreviated form which also gives its name to Tokyo's key stock index. "Probably it's too difficult for foreigners to pronounce the long syllables of 'the Nihon Keizai Shimbun'," explained company spokesman Seiichiro Mishina. The newspaper, whose name translates from Japanese as "the Japan Economic Daily," already publishes the English-language "Nikkei Weekly". The newspaper conducted a survey and found that its Japanese name "has not penetrated at all over the years into people overseas, while 'Nikkei' is widely known, partly due to the benchmark index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange the Nikkei-225," Mishina said.

The Nikkei has never really tried to call itself the Nihon Keizai Shimbun in English so whether or not foreigners can pronounce is really not the issue.

[omae mona]

Nation: Japan's business daily goes easy on ear for foreignersThe newspaper conducted a survey and found that its Japanese name "has not penetrated at all over the years into people overseas, while 'Nikkei' is widely known, partly due to the benchmark index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange the Nikkei-225," Mishina said.

Indeed. For example, it penetrated right through to an overseas boss of mine a few years back. He oversaw a portfolio of futures and options on the index which he pronounced the "Nicky 225". This is really going to help.

[Mulboyne]

...which he pronounced the "Nicky 225".

I know an economist who specializes in Japan who still calls the index the "Nick-eye" after 30 years in the business. Then again. foreign employees and customers of Sony and Nikon routinely refer to them as "Soe-knee" and "Nigh-Kon" and no-one has ever put them right to the point that they have almost supplanted the real pronunciations.

In the Nikkei's case, since they gave up calling themselves the "Japan Economic Journal" they have always used "Nikkei" for all practical purposes overseas just as the Financial Times uses "FT" for its branding and indices.