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In a bizarre and transparently ineffective attempt to try and change the culture of Shibuya's central shopping district, the shopowners promotion association (商店街{しょうてんがい}振興{しんこう}組合{くみあい}) has changed the name of the main shopping road in front of the station from センター街{がい}(centre street) to バスケットボールストリート(basketball street).

Or, apparently, if you're as "hip" as the geriatric bureaucrats who came up with this, you would call it バスケ通{どお}り.

Anyway, in the article where I read about this, a pro basketball player attending the naming ceremony was quoted as follows:

千葉{ちば}ジェッツの石田{いしだ}剛規{たけのり}選手{せんしゅ}(29)は「この有名{ゆうめい}な通{どお}りにふさわしいプレーをしていかなければ」と語{かた}った。

I'm not sure on the reading of the guy's name. Anyway, my rough translation is:

"Ishida Takenori (29), of the Chiba Jets, said, "We have to play appropriately (in?/for?) this famous street."

I'm confused about the use of , because it seems that he is saying they, the basketball league, need to play appropriately in the street. Which would be kind of a weird thing to do. Despite the new name, I don't think anyone intends to actually play there.

It makes more sense to me, given the overall context, that he would be saying something more about how the league needs to set a good example for the street by playing appropriately in general, at their games. I'm not familiar with being used to mean "for" in this way, though.

So it seems from my (poor) understanding of grammar that his statement should mean play in the street, but from my understanding of the situation it should mean play for the street.

Is either guess correct? Am I wrong either way? What exactly is he saying?

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  • this seems awfully familiar to me since I tend to have problem in に/で for location of verb action.
    – Flaw
    Sep 30, 2011 at 2:24

1 Answer 1

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にふさわしい means 'amounts to' or 'deserves'. You can think of the as the counterpart to to of amounts to. My translation for the quotation part would be:

We have to keep on playing in such a way that this famous street deserves.

or more literary,

We have to keep on doing a play that this famous street deserves.

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