English names with honorifics

[Toritoribe]

Then...what do you call him?

Most likely John-san, judging from the tone of the self-introduction. John-sama is also possible depending on the situation, though.

 

[nice gaijin]

No. How the driver addresses the person isn't detrimental. I was just curious what he would call him. Then it just kind of blew up into all this about whether or not he would actually say anything, whether it was business/family, etc. It wasn't something that was suppose to be taken so serious.

Who said anything about being detrimental? What inspired this sudden curiosity? Am I at least right that this is for some kind of creative endeavor? Nobody pulls a name like "Atryne Savage" out of their *** without making something up.

All those discussions about whether the driver would say anything or what his connection was to the listener is RELEVANT to how he would speak and act towards that person.

This question is worded with those things taken into consideration. My setting is present, the individuals are present. The "social norms that drive how Japanese people speak to each other" is more or less what I'm asking about. That's not something I would really know unless I was accustom to it.

You haven't exactly set the scene for us to give you any sort of meaningful answer, so unless you reformulate your question, you'll have to be satisfied with "it depends."

 

[Troncoso]

You said:

It's unlikely the plot hinges on how the driver refers to the main character.

I'm just saying you're right. It's not a big deal. Atryne Savage is actually out of the air. I go by Atryne online sometimes, and Savage...well, now that I put more thought to it, I wish I would have gone with something else. But, you're right, this scenario is fictional.

What more of a scene do you want? An American lands in a Japanese airport where he finds the taxi driver he had prepared before hand. Do I need to say it's like a love scene or a man coming home after several years? I don't know what's missing. This isn't for business, or family, or anything. He's simply visiting and he interacts with a taxi driver.

I settled for "it depends" a while ago. Since then, this has just been a mere conversation really.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

Don't forget the 5 minute pronunciation practice from a bewildered Japanese person if the name has any sounds which are alien to the language. My first name is Seth...

I have no idea how Atryne is pronounced but it looks suspiciously difficult.

 

[Mike Cash]

If you have to ask about this sort of thing and you're going to be covering Smith's adventures and interactions in Japan, then you're probably going to have so much wrong and/or implausible stuff included that what the taxi driver does or does not call Smith is going to be on par with a fart in a hurricane, so why worry about it?

Any chance we could get to see the piece when it is finished? We sometimes get requests like yours and I don't recall any of them ever once coming back to say they were finished or how we could obtain it.

 

[nice gaijin]

since the arrangement you've created in your setting is unlikely (nobody arranges a taxi to pick them up at an airport...)

even if the driver knew the guy's name (as in, had it written on a placard or something), he would probably just refer to him as "okyakusama," revered customer. From a taxi driver's perspective, this probably conveys the most amount of respect with the least amount of effort

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I'm a bit lost by this taxi driver placard thing. I think somehow a private car company/limo service is getting confused with a taxi.

In my experience, taxi drivers only get out of the car to put things in the trunk. I don't think one would be standing around with a placard.

I suspect that, in the absence of someone here actually having experience ordering a cab in advance, it's not done. I'd expect that they would refer you to a car service. I'm certainly no expert, but I haven't found most Japanese companies to be especially flexible. Generally this is what they do, and no matter how similar this other thing is, it's not what they do.

 

[Mike Cash]

I can't even recall the last time I saw a marked ハイヤー (car service) car in Tokyo. Except for the ones contracted to companies (by taxi companies) to haul their executives around, you never see them anymore.

 

[nekojita]

I find the line between the two is blurred (sometimes because the same company runs both sides of the business). Or it may be my sloppy wording The site I got the original picture from is from a company called "Tokyo Taxis" (literally just googled tokyo airport taxi out of curiosity), so if someone overseas was to try and find an "airport taxi" to book in advance, that's probably where they'd end up.

Probably OP should do what I did but in more detail - just try to plan out the trip as if you were taking it yourself, see what information is available in English, figure out which hotel he might stay at, how he's going to get from one (plot relevant) place to another. And just have everyone call him Mr Smith, because you can't assume a reader in English knows or cares about honorifics.

 

[Mike Cash]

There is (or was) a clear distinction in the rules governing the operations of taxi and hired cars. Chief difference being that hired cars were (are?) forbidden to stop for hails or operate out of cab stands. You had to phone for one to get one.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I think nekojita's idea of calling around and planning it out makes the most sense. At least if OP wants to capture any real flavor.

 

[nekojita]

I am sure you guys are right about the legal/licensing differences. But unless the car is signifcantly nicer/pricier than a standard taxi, if I googled airport taxi to find it I'm going to call it a taxi when someone asks me how I'm getting from the airport to my hotel. Just presume John Smith is as ignorant as my good self.