It seems that all NASA mission patches for Shuttle flights use romanized names for Japanese astronauts, most Soyuz mission patches do as well (like Soyuz TMA-11M, TMA-17), and for the ISS mission patches, most use Japanese characters for their names (like Expedition 20), but apparently not all. Satoshi Furukawa even has his name done differently for two different ISS expeditions, the Expedition 28 mission patch is romanized, Expedition 29 is in Japanese characters. I would guess, then, that other than for the NASA shuttle mission patches, it's a personal preference, rather than some institutional rule. Does anyone know for sure?
MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Launch of Soyuz MS manned spacecraft, which is due to take a new expedition to the International Space Station, has been rescheduled for July 7 from June 24 due to control system flaws that may disrupt the ship's docking with the ISS, a source in the Russian aerospace industry told TASS on Wednesday."The launch has been rescheduled for July 7," he said. "The crew is expected to come to Baikonur (the Russian space center located is Kazakhstan TASS) on June 24.""Experts have established the ship will be rolling as it docks the ISS and they are unable to stop this rolling motion so far," the source said.The rescheduling of the Soyuz MS launch has necessitated postponement of the launch of the Progress MS cargo spacecraft, initially planned for July 7. Under the new schedule, it may take place on July 17, the source said.