TOKYO — By now, President Trump and Japan’s prime minister are on a first-name basis.

But that could soon become more complicated. In Japan, a first name means something different: The Japanese refer to themselves with the surname first, then the given name. And Japan’s foreign minister says it is time for the Western world to respect his country’s tradition and render Japanese names in that order in English.

So the man Westerners know as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be called Abe Shinzo.

The foreign minister, Taro Kono (or Kono Taro, if you please), issued his request to foreign media outlets during a news conference on Tuesday.

“As many news organizations write Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in,” Mr. Kono said, noting that the surname-first template was followed for other Asian leaders, “it is desirable for Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s name to be written in a similar manner.”

Since opening to the West a century and a half ago, the Japanese have accepted that Westerners would refer to them not as they refer to themselves — surname first, then given name — but in reverse order.