Thread:Dalmatia/@comment-25979511-20170718164015/@comment-27938131-20170719091821

I don't know how to explain it either:

Tom Tanaka: translation

田中 トム: japanese (田中 is in kanji, トム is katakana)

Tanaka Tomu: romaji, the pronunciation of 田中 トム

It's not a translation but phonetics because, as you said it, writing "Tom" in japanese is not possible.