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.

73votes

If I remember rightly (though someone can correct me if I'm wrong) the original reason for keeping them as romanised back in the day was because it was just easier to find them by the romanised titles as they're more commonly known by them.

Back then there wasn't a huge international market as Japan never has really cared about having  an international market all that much (especially with dramas), so fans were often the ones who translated the titles meaning the majority knew it by the fan translated name over the English one. So J-drama titles stayed with fan translated romanised titles more often than not as people more commonly knew it by that name, not the English name. Meanwhile for other countries it's always been more common for fans to know the dramas by their English titles, not the native one, so they were added by their English names. 

Of course nowadays there's more English titles being used as the international market is growing, but in general it's still more common to find most j-dramas by their romanised titles rather than their English titles even to this day.

The VOD services I mentioned all use official English titles rather than transliterations, except for a few cases – and, even then, they use a specific transliteration, out of the many that are possible for the same Japanese text. E.g., dLibrary Japan titles 新参者 as SHINZANMONO, 野ブタ。をプロデュース as NOBUTA WO PRODUCE and 侠飯〜おとこめし〜 as Otokomeshi (not Otoko Meshi, as it currently is on MDL).

Pirates and bootleggers might still largely use romanisations – so if MDL uses romanised titles as the primary ones for J-dramas, that could be inadvertently leading people to those rather than official releases when there are ones with English subs, in a way it doesn't for TV from anywhere else. That’s what most bothers me about the current rule.

I can also add evidence that MDL users find this inconsistentcy confusing because the entries for I Don’t Love You Yet and A Stranger in Shanghai curently have their official English titles entered as their main titles, in contradiction of the rules (and they weren’t entered by me).

One more point is that the “Buy on Amazon” links are of little use use if the main title is not the official English one because if the programme is on Prime Video on Amazon.com it will be under its official English title, not a transliteration.

I'm also for using official English titles for thai dramas and movies as well. 

 emmagucci:

I'm also for using official English titles for thai dramas and movies as well. 

That is the current rule:

For Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Taiwanese, and Thai shows and films, stick with the official English names given by the producers […]

The only reason a Thai production should have a romanised title is if it doesn’t have any official English one at all. Otherwise it should be changed to an English title that it’s been officially released with.

It’s only Japanese TV shows that are the exception.

 Safe for Weebs:
It's only Japanese TV shows that are the exception.

Thank you, that is correct.

 Safe for Weebs:

That is the current rule:

For Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Taiwanese, and Thai shows and films, stick with the official English names given by the producers […]

The only reason a Thai production should have a romanised title is if it doesn't have any official English one at all. Otherwise it should be changed to an English title that it's been officially released with.

It's only Japanese TV shows that are the exception.

There are a bunch of titles to change then- 

 emmagucci:

There are a bunch of titles to change then- 

But I don’t think that should be a reason against removing this exception. It will mean that new shows have English titles while most older ones will have romanised titles unless someone has taken the time to update them. However, if consistency is the issue, keeping the current rules will continue to make things inconsistent and confusing by making Japanese TV inconsistent with everything else.

And, even at most, it won’t mean changing 70 years of Japanese TV because other than a few old tokusatsu shows with Western releases only relatively recent programmes even have official English titles, and much fewer are available with English subtitles. It’s that last category that should be prioritised because they’re what the change in rules will make easier to find on VOD services, to recognise in lists and search results and to have discussions about.

Or maybe you were referring to the titles of Thai productions? Anyway, it prompted me to think of a response to a possible objection.

It wasn't an objection, but an observation of the fact that many thai dramas on MDL still don't have English title (despite having an ENG official title). And I don't get why we should make an exception for J-titles. That's elitist at best and racist at worse. 

I don’t think the exception is all that, personally, just very outdated considering the availability of Japanese shows internationally in 2021.

Yes please!!

I personally think that long Japanese titles in romaji are off-putting to newcomers, while Korean dramas are always in English thus more appealing. I think there should be exceptions such as Hana Yori Dango since those are classics but you get my point.

 Ceki:

Yes please!!

I personally think that long Japanese titles in romaji are off-putting to newcomers, while Korean dramas are always in English thus more appealing. I think there should be exceptions such as Hana Yori Dango since those are classics but you get my point.

Cases like that might come under the same “Goblin”-type exception there currently is for everything but Japanese TV (that particular series is marketed by TBS as BOYS OVER FLOWERS, but I remember reading it was broadcast in Southeast Asia as Hana yori dango; if that’s the case, those could both count as official titles).

And most shows older than the mid-2010s (most in general if we include factual and variety shows and low-budget local dramas) will still have to to use romanised titles because it becomes increasing difficult to find official English titles for older ones. But, for shows available internationally under English titles and new ones advertised under them on network’s catalogues to be potentially licensed internationally, the current rules are unfairly making J-dramas less easy to discover than those from the other countries MDL covers.

Nippon Golden Network (NGN) is another handy source for official English titles, as they broadcast many popular Japanese dramas, movies and variety shows with English subtitles and under English titles (or an official romanisation of the title) in the US states of Hawaii and California.