New rules have come in on the pronunciation of kanji – those are the Chinese characters used as one of the three forms of Japanese writing. The change is designed to prevent unofficial pronunciations of the kanji characters. In recent times, these unusual interpretations of the characters have allowed people to call their kids names seen as strange or silly by the authorities. And our first headline is about this. It's from The Guardian in the UK. Japan introduces rules to put outlandish baby names to bed.
And that headline again from The Guardian, Japan introduces rules to put outlandish baby names to bed. First of all, the word 'outlandish'. Now that describes something strange or unusual, such as calling your child Pikachu. But we're interested in this expression 'put something to bed'. Because we're talking about babies, but I can sense that this is some kind of joke. OK, but hang on before we get to the joke.
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