Japanese name origin: Kinkisharyo (rail vehicles manufacturer)

Factual Questions
1

Call-out to those who speak Japanese: What does the name ‘Kinkisharyo’ mean?

This is the manufacturer of rail rolling stock, including light rail vehicles used in Los Angeles. Wikipedia gives the Japanese script for their full name as “近畿車輛株式会社”, and some fiddling with Google Translate suggests this is the ‘Kinki Vehicles Company’. I can’t get a clear meaning on what ‘Kinki’ is, though. A proper name? There’s a hint it might mean ‘Capital Region’, but that’s not clear.

The company’s history website doesn’t explain where the name came from either, despite listing that they adopted the name in 1945. Note that they seem to use ‘Kinki Sharyo’ in Japan, and ‘Kinkisharyo’ in the US.

2

My wild guess is that the name refers to the Kinki/Kansai region, something like “neighbourhood of the capital.”

ETA if the name were, say, “California Vehicles Company,” I would not expect an explanation on the web site, either.

3

It is the name of the region:

Just means the company is from Osaka, not Tokyo.

4

Dad’s a native speaker. He confirms that Kinki refers to a region that encompasses Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto and others.

5

Just to add, it does mean capital region - where “capital” is the location of the emperor’s palace, not necessarily the center of political power. The actual ruling government moved to Edo (now Tokyo) in the 17th century, but the Emperor (a figurehead by that time) remained in the Kyoto area until the 19th century.

6

Thanks, all! Seems pretty clear :slight_smile:

7

There’s also a University in the area that used to go by Kinki University. For academic seriousness reasons in English, they changed their preferred English name recently to Kindai, short for Kinki Daigaku (Daigaku meaning university or college), the full Japanese name.

8

And we cannot forget those Kinki Kids.