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Seppuku is also known as harakiri (???, "cutting the belly"), a term more widely familiar outside Japan, and which is written with the same in kanji as seppuku, but in reverse order with an okurigana. In Japanese, the more formal seppuku, a Chinese on'yomi reading, is typically used in writing, while harakiri, a native kun'yomi reading, is used in speech. Ross by Text-Enhance" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku">notes,

"It is commonly pointed out that hara-kiri is a vulgarism, but this is a misunderstanding. Hara-kiri is a Japanese reading or Kun-yomi of the characters; as it became customary to prefer Chinese readings in official announcements, only the term seppuku was ever used in writing. So hara-kiri is a spoken term and seppuku a written term for the same act."[2]

The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara (?? or ???, the kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or tsuifuku (??, the on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual.

Thank Wili