Japan Doesn’t Want to Call Georgia ‘Georgia’

Japan has refused a request by Georgian authorities to change the official name of Georgia in Japanese, reports the Russian-based Itar-Tass news agency, citing its source in the Central and Caucasus department of Japan’s foreign ministry.

Tbilisi has sough to have the country’s name in Japanese analogous to its English-language version: “Georgia.” Probably the issue lies in its written version, since the name is heard as “Georgia” when spoken, reports Itar-Tass.

Georgia has officially appealed to other countries as well with similar requests. The South Caucasus state was also turned down by Lithuania (the state language commission, having examined the issue, concluded that changing the traditional name of Georgia in the Lithuanian language is unnecessary). On the contrary, South Korea met the request.

It should be noted that it is the English-language version of the name (“Georgia”) and not the Georgian-language version (“Sakartvelo”) that is being offered as an alternative to the Russian-language version (“Gruziya”).