Names look simple until you translate them. Order flips, honorific suffixes have no clean English match, and getting either wrong reads as either cold or careless.
Family name first
Japanese puts the family name before the given name. The translator Aiko Tanaka is Tanaka Aiko in Japanese order. For decades, English-language media flipped Japanese names into Western order, so the prime minister and the baseball player appeared given-name first.
That convention shifted. Since 2020 the Japanese government has asked that officials' names keep Japanese order in English, written Yamada Taro, sometimes with the family name in capitals, YAMADA Taro, to mark which is which. So you now see both orders in the wild, and the safest move when it matters is to confirm rather than assume.
The suffix problem
Japanese attaches a suffix to names that carries relationship and respect. There is no single English equivalent, and dropping it changes the tone.
The common ones
neutral and polite, like Mr or Ms but used for any gender, and with first or last names
more formal than -san, for customers and in writing
for younger men or juniors, also between male friends
affectionate, for children, close friends, pets
Note that -san is not Mr. You cannot stack them. "Mr. Tanaka-san" is wrong twice over. And -san attaches to a first name too: calling someone Aiko-san is polite and normal, where English "Ms. Aiko" sounds off.
Roles used as titles
Some suffixes are job or status words doing the work of a title.
teacher, doctor, or any respected expert, used after the name
a senior at school or work, someone ahead of you
A teacher named Tanaka is Tanaka-sensei, and you can address them as just Sensei, with no name at all. English has no everyday equivalent for senpai, which is why it usually gets borrowed or rephrased as "my senior".
How to handle them in English
For general text, convert to Western order and drop the suffix: Tanaka Aiko becomes Aiko Tanaka. For fiction, subtitles, or anything where the relationship matters, many translators keep the suffix and trust the reader, which is now common in manga and anime. Pick one approach and hold it consistent across the whole piece.
Try a sentence in the translator and compare it with the examples above.
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