ever wonder...?

ever wonder why japanese cars have american names? like, even in videos downloaded from kazaa, the narrator will be speaking all this crazy japanese, then you'll here the word skyline or nsx or something. anyone have an explaination for this?

well my guess is they use english for certain things; Like corporations, names for things used on an international level, and trademarks. You see a sign for say Pepsi in Japan it says Pepsi. You see most of the stickers in English, for example, Nismo.

it makes sense, would u rather call is the S15 or the (insert S in japanese here) Ichiban?

right, but pepsi is a us-based company. you'd think that a japanese based company would stick with their language :dunno:

lol oh my god. correct me if I'm wrong but, proper names are universal. if someone is speaking japenese then says "skyline" that doesnt mean the word skyline isnt a japanese word... in japan they are called skylines, they are called rx-7s, they are called nsx's, etc... They dont have seperate "japanese" words for them there... Just like yours or my name, they wouldnt make up a "japanese" word for Dayna, they would say "Dayna"...

Dayana-san :-p

lol oh my god. correct me if I'm wrong but, proper names are universal. if someone is speaking japenese then says "skyline" that doesnt mean the word skyline isnt a japanese word... in japan they are called skylines, they are called rx-7s, they are called nsx's, etc... They dont have seperate "japanese" words for them there... Just like yours or my name, they wouldnt make up a "japanese" word for Dayna, they would say "Dayna"...


Exactly. When I was in highschool, I took a year of Japanese, and they actually have 3 alphabets. The first two, "hiragana" and "kanji", are used with indigenous things to Japan. The last, "katakana", is used with foriegn objects, letters, people, places, etc. So when you see the testing of say a Skyline versus a Surpa on a Japanese track, you will hear him say "GT-R wa..." because the letters "GT-R" are not native to Japan.

sorry, only males get the "san" after the name.

females dont get a title of respect in japan.


lol i know it sounds sexist, but its true, i work at a sushi place and thats what they taught me...

What about dono? Hmm... dayna-dono.. ehhe

well there is a drink that is pronounce similar to cow-piss in japan. It is spelled karu pisu

oh about the "san" girls do get that. Most of the time they are "chan" if they are very close to them. Also, "chan" is for men too.

Oh and for american names or names/things that aren't japansese, they use the katakana system to get it as close to it. Like hamburger is hanbaagaa...

When I was In Japan I was told they use english names because there is no Kanji that means Skyline. the closest thing they would have to Skyline other then Hirigama is the Horizion I suppose. My wife (Who is a japanse national who has lived her whole life in Okinawa) says cause it doesn't sound cool in Japanese so they give them english names. Alot of songs now adays have english in them for this reason.

Okay time for a little history lesson:
When the Emperor Mieji was trying to modernize Japan in the 1870's he sent envoys all around the world. From what they learned, he based thier economy on the British, sorry not the U S. Hence the English names, driving on the left and so forth. They do have some Japanese names for products, but today it has more to do with marketing than anything else. Exotic or foriegn sounding names sell better.

Ok have a look at it like this. How many Americans do you know that are Bi-Lingual with any language what-so-ever? Not many. Outside of America they learn English at a young age so they can communicate. Now if Americans speak English and most other countries worth trading with also speak English... I think you're going to name your product in a language that they speak. Make sense? Also if you think about it I do believe America buys more Japanese cars than any other nation, therefore make things easier for the people you're selling to. Make sense?

if america buys more japanese cars than any other nation(not saying they don't or anything), why the hell they didn't bring the s15 or skyline or any other car here.....i mean like they should make it in production here for goodness sakes lol....oh well i know it not happening...

I soooooo doubt that it's emissions... it's the whole sour grapes thing about Japan having awesome, reliable, economic and CHEAP performance cars, and America not wanting to compete with that. Not to mention this is the gas guzzling country of SUVS and shat like that :(

if america buys more japanese cars than any other nation(not saying they don't or anything), why the hell they didn't bring the s15 or skyline or any other car here.....i mean like they should make it in production here for goodness sakes lol....oh well i know it not happening...

I Don't know how reliable this is but I went to the San Diego Auto show and had a 20 minute conversastion with the head Nissan guy at the show. He said theres considerable talk of bringing skylines to the states to fill the gap below the 350Z (the 20K zone) Only problem i Have is the new skylines look nothing like the 2003's they look like the infinity coupe(which looks darn near like the 350Z) the only good I see coming out of it is state side RB's

My understanding is the problem wasn't that Japanese cars sell over here it's that the 240 didn't sell at the numbers Nissan wanted so they stopped importing them.

what about in dragonballz when they call vegeta vegeta-san and goku , son goku?

what about in dragonballz when they call vegeta vegeta-san and goku , son goku?

wow... dragonballz... reliable source...

males use san ... i.e. Daniel-san

girls use chan...i.e. Akane-chan

but jackie chan is a guy...

wtf! lol...:)

His Last name is chan and he's chinese.

chan is used for girls or children Like my wife's name is Nozomi but when used with chan you shorten it to Nochan. Chan is like saying cute. San is used as a sign of respect when talking to someone older then you our of a higher importance. So you can call ladies San. San is like saying MR or Mrs. You call a woman that is a business owner Mammasan. Usually this is a bar/club owner or resturaunt.

well there is a drink that is pronounce similar to cow-piss in japan. It is spelled karu pisu

oh about the "san" girls do get that. Most of the time they are "chan" if they are very close to them. Also, "chan" is for men too.

Oh and for american names or names/things that aren't japansese, they use the katakana system to get it as close to it. Like hamburger is hanbaagaa...

yea, the japanese language is basically all consonants, like greek, so its hard for them to immitate some english words. chinese has a mixture of vowels, and consonants like in english, so its usually easier for chinese people to speak english than japanese people.

I got anime where girls call guys chan...it is like a closer relationship than being san. chan isn't just for girls it is to express the closeness of the relationship and to show feeling.