Japanese client name display

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

I recently was speaking with a Japanese friend of mine, and we got onto the topic of how he decided his character's name.

Being an english player, and playing on an english client, I naturally assumed that the first name displayed for me was what he considered to be his character's first name. After speaking with him though, I realized that the first name displayed for me, was actually what he considered to be his surname, and I had been calling him by the wrong name all along.

I know that traditionally in Japan, you usually say your surname before your given name. So it made sense that his surname would be displayed first for him. However, it was quite confusing for me, being from America where we naturally say the given name first, followed by the surname.

The situation led me to make this post as I am now curious as to how the japanese client name selection is set up. When making a new character on the japanese client, does it ask you to input the surname first, and then the given name, as per japanese tradition ? If so, this would account for my friend's surname being displayed first on my client. Unfortunately this would mean that I've confused every japanese players' surname for their given name. If this is not the case, and the japanese client asks you to input the given name first, as it does on the english client, then it would seem my friend chose to input the surname first anyway, and he just chose to follow Japanese tradition on his own.

So which is it ? Surname first or second in Japan ? Have I mistaken every japanese players' identity ? Are Japanese players getting my name confused too?