Kanagawa prefecture or Kanagawa Prefecture? [Update]

Notes from the YT Class:

I would like to start my class earlier if possible?
I would like to move my class up from 9:30 to 8:30 if possible.

Capitalization of Location Names in Japan:

Rule No. 1

Don't capitalize EVERY letter. 全大文字で書くの論理的な理由がありません。

For example, we don't write Paris as PARIS, New York as NEW YORK, or Baghdad as BAGHDAD. So, don't write Tokyo as TOKYO. Furthermore, city names are never written in all caps in Newsweek, the Washington Post, Japan Times, Nikkei Weekly, etc.

So, if you learned the strange habit of writing Tokyo as TOKYO from your teachers or professors, please stop it when communicating in English.

Japanese addresses consist of the following components:

都 (to) or 府 (fu): metropolis
県 (ken) or 道 (do): prefecture
市 (shi): city
郡 (gun): rural area
区 (ku): ward
町 (chou or machi): town
村 (mura): village
丁目 (chome): district
番地 (banchi) or 番 (ban): block

When including the name of a metropolis, prefecture, city, etc., in your English communication, the rules regarding the use of address components are not concrete. When I write, I prefer to consider what is easiest to understand for a reader not familiar with the Japanese language. I also look at how some international English publications (New York Times, Nikkei Weekly, Herald Review, etc.) use names of locations in Japan in their publications.

Here are some examples that I suggest to students at アンミ英会話教室：

Questionable → Preferred

• Kanto Region → Kanto region
• Chiba-ken → Chiba Prefecture
• Chiba prefecture → Chiba Prefecture
• Hiratsuka-shi → Hiratsuka
• Hiratsuka city → Hiratsuka
• Hiratsuka City → Hiratsuka
• Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken → Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
• Yokohama city, Kanagawa prefecture → Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
• Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture → Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture
• Suginami-ku, Tokyo-to → Suginami Ward, Tokyo
• Suginami Ward, Tokyo Metropolis → Suginami Ward, Tokyo
• Suginami ward, Tokyo metropolis → Suginami Ward, Tokyo
  

References:

1. CD-ビジネス技術 実用英語大辞典
2. The Nikkei Weekly
3. Newsweek
4. The Japan Times

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Updated November 23, 2008

Here are some more examples that are related to the topic of this post:

• Saitama Prefecture town of Kisai ("Prefecture capitalized; "town" not capitalized)
  
• The municipalities, which also include Kitakyushu City in Fukuoka Prefecture, Toyama City in Toyama Prefecture, Minamata City in Kumamoto Prefecture and two Hokkaido municipalities -- Obihiro City and the town of Shimokawa (Note that "City" is capitalized and included with the city name, which may have been done to clarify the fact that Shimokawa is not a "city" but a town. Otherwise, I would have dropped each "City".)
• Tokyo's Kabuto-cho
• Owani-cho, Aomori Prefecture
• Misasa-cho, Tottori Prefecture
• Kusatsu-cho, Gunma Prefecture
• Kamiyama-cho condo in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward
• the Kawasaki Minato-cho outlet
• Yurakucho and Otemachi areas
• in Koto Ward and Higashikurume, a city in western Tokyo
• Saitama's Omiya Ward
• Joyever Corp., 4-17 Takada-cho, Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture
• Kabuto-cho, Japan's center of stock exchange
• Unico Corp., 1-4-22 Nakakoyo-cho, Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture (Note that "-ku" is used for a mailing address as opposed to syntax in a sentence.
• Tokyo Metropolitan Government offices in Shinjuku district

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