Why are company names Toyota and Honda written in katakana even though they are not foreign words?

5 comments

1. So that non-Japanese can read them, silly! 🙂 /s

   [Serious answer here.](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/31078/why-is-toyota-typically-written-in-katakana-%E3%83%88%E3%83%A8%E3%82%BF)

2. Katakana is not used exclusively for foreign words. It is also used for emphasis. It should also be noted that it’s original use wasn’t even for foreign words.

3. It depends on the company and their branding strategy. I used to work in Fuji Xerox (a joint venture between Fujifilm and Xerox Corp, which has now broken up and is now fully Fujifilm again) and their official name was 富士ゼロックス株式会社. So the Fuji part was in Kanji and the Xerox part was in katakana.

4. Katakana (as well as Latin letters) give the *future/hi-tech/scientific* signal;
   with Chinese companies you can likewise see the use of pinyin/latin letters being used for a similar purpose

5. Easier to read in small text fonts for one.

   also, companies that want to do international business usually stick with katakana