The two katakana samples I’ve chosen are: フジトランスコーポレーション
and ストロベリーグミ.
The Fujitrans Corporation
is an international company based in Japan that primarily deals with
Import/Export and Freight Handling. There are three reasons why Fujitrans would
spell its name in katakana rather than hiragana: “-trans” & “Corporation” are
loanwords, international appeal, and savvy marketing techniques.
Given all
possible English words to borrow, the two specific words chosen “-trans” and “corporation”
are the most immediate to the needs of Fujitrans for accessibility. “Trans”
obviously stands for transportation which is one of the services provided by the
international shipping company. “Corporation” is used simply because Fujitrans is
a corporation by definition.
To give the title
of the company an international feel, English words are transcribed into
Japanese Katakana. Primarily because Fujitrans deals with shipping internationally,
there needs to be a presence that foreigners could readily connect with. The usage
of the katakana characters denotes an existing relationship overseas with the
wider world back in Japan.
These specific
terms are used of all possible combinations of words, English or Japanese,
(and word-fragments in the case of “–trans”) because of a branding strategy by
Fujitrans. An article in the Japan Times Online on Japanese company names
highlights their mixed usage of katakana, hiragana, kanji, romaji, and English.
All of these companies aim to utilize an almost discreet force in their very
name that focuses on convenience and simplicity. This discreet force works both
in the Japanese and International (Primarily English-speaking) domains. The
names of these companies are limited to goals of convenience and simplicity so
that any potential client would know the products of the company quickly and
clearly. Katakana is not only considered more modern but also cleaner and
simpler to write and understand.
My second katakana sample choice (ストロベリーグミ) is interesting in that there is
a Japanese word for strawberry already: いちご. As one of the textbook explanations we were given states: the
use of loanwords has the effect of making a concept or product more attractive
(with its foreignness). Modernization appeals to younger generations. When
marketing "Strawberry Gummy" candies, the youth are, most likely,
Kusagai Company's target consumers. If we look at the Kasugai website we can see how
all of their flavors are written in katakana and are English derived rather
than written in Hiragana with the Japanese words.
Comparing Kasugai’s product with
another company’s product, The Japanese word いちご is used on the strawberry flavored Pocky. Perhaps the Glico Company
(those who produce Pocky) chose to write in hiragana and use the Japanese word
for strawberry to make a closer association to Japan. This is most likely
because Pocky is unlike anything we have overseas (at least not like anything
here in the US) but we definitely know what gummies are.
