Use official English titles for Japanese TV shows

Under the current guidelines, most works in the database use official English titles as their main title, except that Japanese TV programmes are required to use romanised titles.

I’m curious as to what the reason is for this, and questioning of the wisdom of it.

I can only guess the decision was made years ago, when few Japanese TV programmes were available on demand in the West under their official English titles. It seems to unfair to the increasing number that are available as such because if the official title is relegated to Also Known As: that makes which title one needs to search for to watch the programme less obvious.

Also, there are several ways Japanese can be romanised, and many ways the romanisation can be spaced, punctuated and capitalised, but as there’s usually only one official English title it would be easier to reach consensus on what should be the main title.

The exception also ignores that many more Japanese TV programmes than those available on on demand in the Western play on Southeast Asian TV channels like GEM, Red and WAKUWAKU JAPAN subbed in English and under thier official English titles and in the West on JSTV, NHK WORLD PREMIUM and TV JAPAN  under English titles (whether or not the programmes are English-subbed).

Lastly, even if a Japanese TV programme doesn’t have official English subs and hasn’t played on TV under an official English title, they still often have an official English title which they’re promoted under for selling them outside Japan, and it’s easy to find this out from the Japan Program Catalog or the original network’s own catalogue.

Though I’d like to know the reason for the decision first, were up to me I’d recommend using the below rules for choosing the main title of Japanese productions:

1. If the production has been shown with English subtitles on demand (most frequently on Apple TV, AsianCrush, Crunchyroll, dLibrary Japan, HBO GO, Hulu, Netflix, NHK WORLD–JAPAN, Prime Video, Viki or Viu), on disc (Blu-ray.com can help with finding international releases), on linear TV (such as on GEM, JSTV, NHK WORLD PREMIUM, Red, TV JAPAN or WAKUWAKU JAPAN) or at a festival, use the title it was played under. If there are different titles across these, give preference to those used by VOD services and in Northern America, and include others as AKAs.
2. If the production hasn’t been shown with English subtitles but has been shown raw on demand or on linear TV under an official English title, use the title it was shown under as such.
3. If the production has been shown neither with English subtitles nor under an official English title, use the title it’s promoted under for international sales. To find this out:
   1. Go to the website of the programme’s original network or the top-billed executive production company of a movie (which is often a TV network).
   2. Look for a link to the “English” or “International” version of the site at the top or bottom of the home page and click it.
   3. Look for a link to “Program/Content Catalog/Finder/Guide/Sales”, “For Buyers”, “International Buyers” or similar, and click it. Or click these links to those for the major networks NHK, TV Asahi (find their TV also at ABC International), Fuji TV (find their TV also at FCC), Nippon TV, TBS, TV TOKYO and WOWOW, and the movie studios GAGA, Nikkatsu, Shochiku, Toei and TOHO.
   4. Alternatively, search by the Japanese title or names of lead staff or cast in JFDB for movies or Japan Program Catalog and JACC for TV and movies (though, as these have less on them than the networks’ own catalogues, I recommend going to the network’s site if you know what the network is).
4. If no official English title can be identified, use a romanisation of the Japanese title (for consistency, there should be rules for what system should be used and how the romanisation should be spaced and capitalised, but that requires other threads to discuss).

If one’s going to be using official English titles provided by Japanese companies, there needs to also be a rule about stylisation of Roman-character titles.

If it was up to me, I would make the rule that if the title is stylised with the same non-standard capitalisation, spacing and/or punctuation very consistently across official sources (such as the international sales agent’s own site and accounts on others, JFDB, Japan Program Catalog, JACC, TV networks’ sites and/or VOD sites and apps), retain this stylisation on MDL (and, if the spacing or punctuation is non-standard, include a standardised version as an aka). But if the stylisation is not consistent across the large majority of these, use standard English title capitalisation, spacing and punctuation.

What is “very consistently” and “the large majority” can be subjective and might require discussion in some cases. E.g., MOTHER is stylised in all caps on GAGA’s sales site, their upload of an English-subbed trailer, English-language Netflix, its Japanese poster and in Netflix’s logo for it. Its festival poster, in contrast, stylises the title as mother, but though logos on posters, title cards and VOD services can provide further confirmation, they should not be considered adequate evidence on their own. And JFDB has it as Mother, but, as a tertiary source, that shouldn't carry as much weight as the secondary one of the sales agent.

[Edit: I learnt through an rejection message that MDL has a rule of always using standard capitalisation and punctuation for official English titles, not the official stylisation. That’s fine, but it should be mentioned in the rules, if that’s the case. And it means this movie has its title incorrectly stylised at the time of writing.]

All of the above is merely my suggestions as a user, and a recently-joined one at that, though one who’s got to know some things about the topic. If the rule was changed, there would be a whole lot of TV programmes which would need to have their titles changed to fit the new rule. But they wouldn’t all need to be changed right away; it can be left till someone interested enough in an existing programmes takes the time to do it for that one. And it would be no problem to begin applying the new rule with new entries: it would bring Japanese TV in line with all other content, which would make things much less confusing.