Japan mayor vows no name change for Charlotte the monkey

TOKYO — A Japanese zoo that caused a furor by naming a baby monkey after Britain’s Princess Charlotte has been told to stick to its guns by the local mayor after two days of fraught debate.

Mt Takasaki Wild Monkey Park in Oita was flooded with complaints after announcing Wednesday that the public had voted for a newborn macaque to be called Charlotte, just days after Britain’s royal family named its newest member.

With the story making headlines around the world on Thursday, the zoo offered an apology for any offense caused to the daughter of Prince William and his wife Kate.

More than 500 people got in touch with the monkey park over two days to voice an opinion on the name, with early correspondents urging them to drop it.

“Initially opinions were mostly complaints saying it is disrespectful to the British people, then voices supporting the name began to increase, with some saying it was okay because the baby monkey is cute,” an official in Oita, southwestern Japan, said.

As the controversy raged online, on television and in the newspapers, local officials even sought the opinion of the British embassy in Tokyo — who offered no comment — before Mayor Kiichiro Sato ended the confusion with a definitive ruling.

“I think the public gave it the very pretty name Charlotte, and I don’t think there is any problem with it, so we’ll go with Charlotte,” Sato told reporters.

Japanese society places great emphasis on not offending anybody in an effort to maintain “wa” or harmony. This frequently results in the kind of paralysis of the decision-making process — two days of debate — witnessed here.

Mt Takasaki Wild Monkey Park asks for suggestions for the name of the first macaque monkey born every year.

This year’s poll, in which 853 votes were recorded, saw a sudden surge of people suggesting “Charlotte” after the British princess was named earlier this week.

Complainants said it was disrespectful to name a monkey after a foreign royal, with some suggesting that Japanese people would be offended if a British zoo used the name of a member of Japan’s imperial family for one of its animals.

But commentators on the websites of major British newspapers suggested the locals were made of sterner stuff.

“Seriously, who cares? Name the next one George (the name of Charlotte’s elder brother). It’s of zero consequence to any of us,” wrote user Zeeeel on theguardian.com

It is not the first time an animal has been named after the issue of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge: during a royal tour of Australia last year, then-months-old baby Prince George visited Sydney’s Taronga Zoo to meet one of its bilbies — a kind of marsupial — that had been named in his honor.