Japan urges return to traditional name order

TOKYO - Japan's Foreign Ministry wants the world to begin using the traditional order for Japanese names, with family names first.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would become Abe Shinzo, as he is known in Japan, ending the Westernized name order the country adopted for use with foreigners more than a century ago as a means of internationalization.

Family names also precede given names in China and South Korea, but both of those countries use that style internationally as well.