Japanese alphabetical order questions

[Inazuma]

I have been collecting games my whole life. I originally had all American games and had them in alphabetical order like most people have. Later on, I learned Japanese and switched to buying the Japanese versions of games. I also sold most of my American games and bought Japanese versions to replace them.

So right now my game collection is over 95% Japanese, but I still have everything in English alphabetical order. Being OCD, I have been wondering if it would make more sense to have them in Japanese alphabetical order. It would certainly make it easier to sort them because sometimes it is difficult to translate Japanese titles into English letters.

I have seen pictures and videos of Japanese game stores, so I know they sort their games in proper Japanese order (a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, etc.). I'm not sure about characters such as nya, byo, etc. Nya is written with a big ni followed by a small ya, so can I assume that it would go with the other games that begin with ni?

And one other thing I am not certain on are numbers. How would I sort a game that starts with a roman numeral? What about if that number is written in kanji or kana? It's a bit confusing.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

*edit*
http://japanese-lesson.com/resources/re ... tical.html

I found this website which helps a lot. It explains everything except numbers.

[MrPopo]

I'd say with numerals you can either put them at the start or the end. There really isn't a consistent pattern among people, so whichever seems to be more aesthetically pleasing to you.

[hashiriya1]

Nya is written with a big ni followed by a small ya, so can I assume that it would go with the other games that begin with ni?.

Yes.

And one other thing I am not certain on are numbers. How would I sort a game that starts with a roman numeral? What about if that number is written in kanji or kana? It's a bit confusing.

Games that begin with numbers are filed under whatever the first two letters of the number are. For example, if the first number of a title is "3", it would be filed under "Sa"

Of the hundreds of game shops I have been to in Japan, I would say 99% of them did it this way.

[hashiriya1]

One thing to keep in mind is that titles that begin with a letter are filed under the phonetic letter, not the actual letter itself. For example, "R-Type" would be filed under "A", not "R" and Japanese games that are only written with romaji are this way too. For example, the game "Vanquish" would be filed under "U", not "V". "SD Gundam" would be filed under "E", not "S", and so on....

[Inazuma]

Thanks Hashiriya. You said "3" would be sorted as if it was "san", but aren't many numbers pronounced in English? For example "3" could be "surii".

[hashiriya1]

Thanks Hashiriya. You said "3" would be sorted as if it was "san", but aren't many numbers pronounced in English? For example "3" could be "surii".

Yeah, it depends on the title of the game. Like the game "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is pronounced "Sangokushi" (三國志) so it obviously would be filed under "Sa", but a game that that starts with a "3" that is written out with numbers (not kanji, but actual numbers) would be filed under "Su", but it COULD be filed under "Sa" as well. An example of that is the game "1942". More often than not it is filed under "I" because of the first number is "ichi" even though when most Japanese gamers say the title, they say it in "English"

It can be confusing and inconsistent. It all boils down to your preference. I've seen it done differently and different places. I noticed it varied by the region of Japan I was in, but I can't say for sure that has some relation. The majority categorizes the number under its Japanese spelling, even if it is pronounced in English when the title is read.

[Breetai]

Hashiriya beat me to it. I'll just confirm what he's saying.

[Inazuma]

Thanks Hashiriya. You said "3" would be sorted as if it was "san", but aren't many numbers pronounced in English? For example "3" could be "surii".

Yeah, it depends on the title of the game. Like the game "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is pronounced "Sangokushi" (三國志) so it obviously would be filed under "Sa", but a game that that starts with a "3" that is written out with numbers (not kanji, but actual numbers) would be filed under "Su", but it COULD be filed under "Sa" as well. An example of that is the game "1942". More often than not it is filed under "I" because of the first number is "ichi" even though when most Japanese gamers say the title, they say it in "English"

It can be confusing and inconsistent. It all boils down to your preference. I've seen it done differently and different places. I noticed it varied by the region of Japan I was in, but I can't say for sure that has some relation. The majority categorizes the number under its Japanese spelling, even if it is pronounced in English when the title is read.

This is just the sort of thing I was hoping to hear (see bolded). I will do it that way. Thanks very much for explaining everything so well. (^_^)

[Bradtemple87]

Terrence saves the day