The Agency for Cultural Affairs decided that as of 2020 onwards, names written in the Roman alphabet would have the surname put before the first name. The convention in Japanese is that the surname comes first. However, when writing their name in the Roman alphabet or when greeting others in English, the majority of Japanese adopt the Western custom of using their first name followed by their surname. To avoid confusion when using the traditional Japanese order, it is recommended that the surname is written in all caps or that a comma is placed after the surname.