Originally Posted by
Spire
Shimano is written as シマノ (katakana, not kanji) in all the company literature.
However the man who started the company's name was Shimano written as 島野.
Shimano is actually half way decent. ... Some Japanese companies use different names for different products. Yoshigai uses like Gran Compe or Dia Compe ... I dunno how these people keep track of names at all. I think you gotta have uber memory and remember everything. ... I am totally unqualified to be a Japanese.