So I have a recently logged a bunch of soundtrack music from Japanese visual novels, and I am stuck with a problem and need some help from Japanese speakers:
Recording https://musicbrainz.org/recording/b39b5939-bfa2-4aae-a57e-077208020ef6 and https://musicbrainz.org/recording/2a9c1a0f-d233-4dd9-bdad-e8d67a058fbd is technically the same song (the former being the Japanese release and the latter being the Chinese release), but they have distinct artist attributes.
From what I can tell, the two different artists are technically the same person, but the Japanese release is released under a pseudonym that is only reserved for R18 works (even though the song itself is all-age, the vanilla release of the game is rated as R, and that’s why this pseudonym is used), while the Chinese release uses the usual name for all-age works (since the game itself is censored to be all-age).
Usually, IIRC, the operation is to merge artists and then merge the recordings. However, AFAIK, correlating a R18-only pseudonym and the real name is highly impolite and offensive in Japanese culture. I double checked both Japanese and Chinese Wikipedia, and they have separate entries for the R18 pseudonym that had no mentions of the real name. I’ve also asked some of my friends who are knowledgeable about this subject, and was told that even if who is behind the pseudonym is well-known, correlating them is still considered offensive in Japanese culture.
Therefore, I would like some input on how to handle this issue before doing anything. Shall I merge them? And if I do merge them, what about artist attributes?
Thank you.