... But his mother is Canadian...
That actually explains a lot.
In order to have a person's name registered in Japan it has to be written in Japanese, that means Hiragana, Katakana or Chinese characters. Names written in Latin letters are not allowed.
Therefore mixed couples often choose first names for their children that work in both languages. For example children of a German and a Japanese partner often choose Kai or Karin. Both are understood in German as names and can easily be written in Japanese, even with Chinese characters.
The parents of Koga obviously wanted their son named Max and they chose the Chinese character æ„” which fits the meaning. To write the reading of that name in a Japanese syllable alphabet it has to be slightly altered to Makkusu. (The "u" after the double k is not pronounced anyway.) So his name is registered in Japan as æ„” to be read as ăŸăŁăă.
Apart from the official registration in Japan one is free to choose a "handle" name. And he can, of course, use "Max" even for registration in FIS.
Another example is the Judoka Matthew/MashĂ» Baker. He has an American father, but was raised in Japan.
The parents chose "Matthew". If you transcribe this to the Japanese syllable system it becomes "MashĂ»".
So he too has "two" names.
Ok danke fĂŒr die Infos
Mal angenommen er gewinnt in der Zukunft ein Springen zusammen mit einem anderen Max aus Europa, dann wĂŒrde der eine in Hiragana und der andere in Katakana geschrieben werden oder? :ueberleg:
Tja wenn zwei den gleichen Vornamen haben ist das noch lange nicht dasselbe
:
In japanischen Zeitungen wĂŒrde der EuropĂ€er mit Katakana geschrieben, Kogas Name aber mit dem chinesischen Zeichen (wobei der japanische Leser dann aber wissen mĂŒsste, dass das Makkusu gelesen werden soll. Sehen kann man das nicht. )