The Intimacy of Names in Japan
I’ve been watching a few cheesy Japanese romance dramas (my guilty pleasure) and I noticed something bewildering: when a young Japanese couple starts dating and addressing each other by first name instead of last name, the dynamic of their relationship completely changes. In one particular drama, the boyfriend told his new girlfriend that she should call him by his first name, “Kotaro,” instead of his last name, “Taniguchi-san.” She blushed and said she wasn’t ready to take their relationship that far.