The Japanese embassy reported that official Tokyo has been using the new name for Riga since the beginning of April.
“Perhaps some of you already know, but after changes in the Law on Diplomatic Missions Abroad, since April 1, the spelling of the name of the capital of Latvia in Japanese, out of respect for the Latvian language and culture, has been changed from 「リガ」 to 「リーガ」,” the Embassy of Japan in Latvia reported.
What do these characters mean?
Was: Riga – 「リガ」— the standard translation of the word Riga.
Is now: Rīga / Riiга (with a long 'i') – 「リーガ」 — the variant with the elongated vowel 'i', that is Rīga.
In other words, in the designation of Riga, the Japanese have finally switched from English to Latvian. The embassy did not specify why they waited so long.
Now we just have to wait for the Japanese to finally start calling Latvia Latvia. Currently, in Japanese, “Latvia” is read as RATOBIA.
