In newspaper articles, why is there no furigana for places such as schools, rivers, neighborhoods, festivals, parks, stations, etc.? All of those places have a specific reading and the average Japanese person isn’t familiar with all of them, so why is there no furigana?

9 comments

1. Same reason articles in English don’t usually include pronunciation keys for hard to pronounce names. It’s not necessary for understanding the article.

2. I think furigana is only required for kanji not on the list of 2000 or so kanji they’re required to learn in school.

3. For me, I don’t need to know the pronunciation of places when (eye) reading an article.

4. Compare it to British town names. You can guess at the pronunciation and with a little bit of experience you might be pretty close, but often it’s quite unpredictable. However it’s not super important when reading.

5. Newspaper articles usually name places that are famous throughout the country or they’re naming local places. Both of which the average Japanese person living in the area likely know.

6. You’ve gotten some reasonable answers but you don’t seem satisfied. Maybe you should contact the newspaper publishers and ask them directly.

7. Why do you assume they don’t know how to read those names? Worst case scenario: they misread the name

8. > The average Japanese person isn’t familiar with all of them

   Seems like a false assumption. They’re familiar with the names or able to infer the correct reading because of the familiarity of the parts, for the most part.

9. Once you know the system, most names can be read even for schools, rivers, places you have never seen. And even if you can’t read it out-loud (like some odd Hokkaido Ainu based names for example) you can still read something in your head. Newspapers aren’t textbooks, they aren’t intending to teach you something. They are just conveying news, and if you can’t quite read the place name (I can think of many English place names I can’t quite read, too) that doesn’t impact your ability to read the news.