Fukushima in hiragana


It may be a stupid question, but will a Japanese person understand if I write
'Fukushima' in hiragana?

Thanks




It’s ambiguous as there are many homophones in Japanese. If you refer to
Fukushima-shi (the city) or Fukushima-ken (the prefecture) they should
understand but the kanji would be more specific. It’s 福島 in this case.

There are multiple kanji with the same sound. For example 福 (blessing) and 服
(clothing) are both read as ふく. Using kanji in writing resolves this ambiguity
(a reader cannot ask for clarification, a listener can).

If you really cannot use the kanji, for nouns I would use katakana so that it
is clear that it is not a grammatical particle or okurigana. Katakana is not
used exclusively for foreign words but also Japanese words with rare kanji,
especially names for birds, plants, and fish. For example ウ for 鵜, クジラ for 鯨,
シロイヌナズナ for 白犬薺.

