When Baby Names Cross the Line: Japan's Ban on "Glittery" Names

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Have you ever wondered if there are limits to what you can name your child? Dive into today's episode where we explore Japan's fascinating new law banning "kirakira" (shiny or glittery) baby names like Pikachu, Devil, Nike, and even Elsa! The Japanese government now gives local authorities power to reject names deemed too outrageous or difficult to pronounce, all to prevent potential negative impacts on children's futures.

The origin of this naming controversy dates back to 1994 when one couple sparked national outrage by naming their son "Akuma" (meaning devil). Despite the father's defense that "it is the best possible name," public backlash eventually forced a name change. This case launched a decades-long effort to regulate creative naming practices in Japan, similar to restrictions already in place in countries like New Zealand.

We also discuss former CNN journalist Chris Cillizza's peculiar claim of Tesla "vandalism" that turned out to be nothing more than a colorful note taped to his car reading "Musk is a Nazi." Cillizza expressed surprise that it wasn't a "MAGA person" behind the incident, challenging his own preconceptions about political divisions. Is this legitimate concern or possibly staged for attention in our increasingly polarized media landscape?

The episode wraps up with a thoughtful question about our daily media consumption habits: What do you listen to during your commute? Whether it's podcasts, music, talk radio, or simply enjoying the silence, our choices reflect our priorities in this information-saturated world. Share your preferences and join us Sunday for Brood Awakening where we'll continue exploring the quirky intersections of culture, politics, and everyday life.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello, good morning, happy Friday.
This might be one of theshortest episodes ever.
Maybe We'll see.
I only have one, maybe twostories to bring to you today
because I was late this morning.
Woke up late, woke up atinstead of 3, got up at 3.30.
Ooh, kind of put me back alittle bit, but I'm still
sitting here in the parking lot.
I'm not late for work, that'sfor sure.

(00:26):
Alright, first up is theresidents of this country are
forbidden from using these babynames.
It can't, I'm sorry.
It can have a negative impacton a child's future.
Mr sean's, I haven't read any.
I haven't even read the storyyet.
But mr sean's uh replied witheven the japanese know that
pokemon can bring a man down.
That's why they infected ourculture with it.
Amen, all right, let's see whatit says.
And I'm probably kind of.

(00:47):
I probably can't even pronouncethese names, so maybe they are
good to be banned.
They put the glitter in thegutter, what?
I have no idea what that means.
Japan has officially crackeddown on kirakira meaning shiny
or glittery baby names with anew law aimed at dimming the
dazzle of outlandish monikerslike Pikachu, prince and yes,

(01:10):
devil.
Well, who would want to nametheir kids that in the first
place, they have to actually puta ban on these names Among the
newly discouraged names.
Oh gosh, here's more.
What is wrong with these names?
Jewel, lovely Kitty, Elsa,prince, naruto, pikachu, of
course, nike, as in Nike, pew,as in Winnie the Pooh, purin, as

(01:34):
in Pudding, and Dia meaningDiamond, and Oshisama meaning
Prince, per the South ChinaMorning Post.
I thought we were talking aboutJapanese, yes, but we're
talking about okay, uh, thecrackdown.
Effective may 26 is part thecrackdown, that's the crackdown
of these names.
Oh, how dare you.

(01:55):
Effective may 26 is a part of arevision to the family register
act, giving local authoritiespower to reject any name they
deem too outrageous or tricky toto pronounce.
Originally reported by todaycom.
What I'm gonna name my baby?
Whatever the hell I want toname my baby, okay, but I'm not

(02:15):
a crazy person so I'm not goingto get out of hand with it.
Uh, so the crackdown effect?
I already read that.
Um, why?
Why is this happening?
To ensure names don't have anegative impact on a child's
future?
Blame it on one devilish dad,oh dear.
In 1994 look, that was such along time ago shiguro and ayaka

(02:36):
and sato sparked nationaloutrage when they named their
newborn son akuma, whichtranslate to devil.
According to the south chinamorning post, the decades-long
effort to ban Kirakira namesbegan with that headline-making
hell-raiser.
Ha ha Soto defended thediabolical decision at the time,

(02:59):
telling the Los Angeles Timesthere will only be one Japanese
person with this name.
If you hear it once, you'llnever forget the name.
It is the best possible name.
No, don't name your kid that.
But I don't think there shouldbe a ban on anything either.
Spoiler, it wasn't.
After officials initiallyapproved the name, public

(03:19):
backlash and a court battleforced the couple to swap it out
for something less infernal.
Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness.
They made their, changed theirbaby's name.
Still, sato wasn't donedreaming big.
He reportedly wanted to name afuture son Teyo, meaning emperor
, though he conceded he'd give adaughter an ordinary cute name

(03:43):
Sexist.
Now the Japanese government ismaking sure no one follows in
his fire footsteps.
And japan isn't the only nationreigning in the rogue
registrations, as the new yorkpost previously reported.
New zealand, of course newzealand, they are.
They are messed up, new zealand.

(04:03):
Go look into their newsy stuff,my goodness, especially over
covid, my goodness.
Uh also has a list of forbiddennames and it's royally strict.
So that's that for that.
All right, I want to uh, theother thing I wanted to talk
about.
I did a victory girls, but Ihave neglected my own blog and
oh, look, there's a bunch ofjoggers one, two, three, four,

(04:26):
five girls running, six girlsrunning jogging through here and
this is this is not.
This is so unlikely, you neversee this.
Okay, they must be staying atthe at the hotel over there at
Bridge Street, probably here forsomething.
All right, I know.
Okay, back to the Victor girls.
I have neglected my personalblog and Americanist for a while

(04:49):
.
I just felt like I got burntout.
I was writing a lot, so, but Iwrote yesterday for the Victory
Girls, because we do sign up andwrite for certain days.
So I had to this.
Chris Kaliza I donI-L-L-I-Z-Z-A.

(05:11):
He used to be a CNN person, buthe was laid off back.
You know, a few years ago hewas shown the door with a bunch
of other people when they hadthat big.
Remember, they had a big layoffa few years ago.
He was one of them, but nowhe's doing a YouTube channel.
He's been on YouTube for awhile.

(05:33):
Anyway, he went on and is makingthe rounds on social media that
his Tesla was vandalized.
And he says, he starts off bysaying he was afraid to get a
Tesla to begin with.
I guess this was before Elonbecame part of, you know,
created Doge and all this stuff.

(05:54):
This was before, probably,trump even became president.
He bought a Tesla and he wasafraid that when he bought the
Tesla in the first place, whenhe bought it years ago, whenever
that, he was afraid that it wasgoing to be the MAGA people
that gave him a hard time for it, you know, because electric.
Well, so he was surprised whenhe got this his car was

(06:15):
vandalized.
Now, when you hear vandalized,what do you think?
You probably think scratched,keyed, tires deflated, you know,
windshield busted in spraypaint, something like that.
No, no, no, I about died when Iwatched the video.
He pulls out this little signthat was decorated and cut out

(06:40):
like a flower bubble type thing,had colorized like coloring on
it and stuff, and it was ahandwritten note that said Musk
is a Nazi and it was simplytaped to his car.
That's what he calls vandalized.
Um, and he said he wassurprised that it wasn't a MAGA
person.
That you know how we'rebecoming politic, politics is

(07:04):
dividing us and it's becomingdumb and all this stuff.
Well, no shit, you started itso and now he's just surprised
and he, I think, and my wholeblog blog post here.
I think it was staged and Ithink that, uh, he's probably
trying to audition.
Remember, the left is lookingfor their Joe Rogan.

(07:27):
I think he's trying to auditionfor it.
That's what I think.
Anyway, you can go read thatover there at the Victor Girls.
It's called Chris Kaliza TeslaDrama Desperate for Clicks, not
Justice.
Okay, question of the day.
So I did my.

(07:47):
I was listening to my podcaston the way in my Father Mike
Bible in a Year and it finishedup an episode and then it just
stopped, and so sometimes itdoes that.
So I didn't want to stop andmess with the phone and try to
get the next episode to come onwhile I was driving.
So I drove the rest of the wayto work in silence.
It was kind of nice.

(08:08):
So my question to you is, whenyou drive in your car either
short trips, driving to work Idon't know if you you go to work
anymore, you might be retiredIf you're going to church, if
you're going to an appointmentor long trips, whatever what do
you listen to?
Do you listen to the radio Doyou listen to?
Is there even local radioanymore?
Do you listen to talk radio?
Do you listen to the news,music podcasts?

(08:30):
What do you listen to in yourcar?
All I gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
I guess this did.
I'd made it last a littlelonger than I thought it would.
Be all right, gotta go and Iwill be back on Monday, but the
gent and I will be back onSunday at our podcast called
brood awakening.
Hope to, uh, see you there, allright.

(08:50):
Well, not see you, but you knowwhat I mean.
All right, gotta go.
Love y'all bye.