I’m having a mahjong tournament broadcast running in the background, and I noticed that the commentators use the male competitors last/family names, but for the female competitor they use her first name.
I would have expected everyone to be referred to by last name. Is this arrangement standard, or is this just an exception?
I think I’ve seen videos on youtube where all four competitors were women, and they did use last names…
Is it possible the female competitor is from a country where it’s traditional to use the first name?
Given that her name is 二階堂 亜樹, I doubt it.
Might be a case of double standards. As you know, women and men usually don’t get treated the same way in Japan, so it might be that. 
Some people get to be known a certain way, so it could just be as simple as that.
Yeah, I know there are at least some tarento that go by their given name. Fujimoto Chiaki (who was married to Shozo Endo) is just called Chiaki. Could just be a similar situation.
So, it seems that her sister is also a professional Mahjong player, so it seems this is to differentiate the two.
Seems you were right, @Leebo.
Yeah, I bet that’s it. I read a lot of official court opinions, and often in cases where several parties have the same last name (families suing each other, etc.) they drop the last name for clarity and brevity. There is always a footnote the first time that explains that and explicitly says “no disrespect is intended”. Seems like a similar thing.
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