Family Register with FG name?

[GomiGirl]

Question for the married FG blokes I guess.

If you are a foreign male with a Japanese wife who is head of the family register, can the wife use her FG name?

Mainly this is related to the legal name of any children. A friend wants to have her and her kids name registered as the fathers family name.

When you get passports for the kids, can you get the Japanese passport with the foreign name?

[halfnip]

Question for the married FG blokes I guess.

If you are a foreign male with a Japanese wife who is head of the family register, can the wife use her FG name?

Mainly this is related to the legal name of any children. A friend wants to have her and her kids name registered as the fathers family name.

When you get passports for the kids, can you get the Japanese passport with the foreign name?

In short, yes. This is exactly what the wifey and I did. She changed her name to reflect my FG name and our daughter is registered with my FG name. A wise individual on this board told me that the trick to working around the Japanese passport bit was to get the foreign passport first, then the Japanese one. This forces them to match the name on the foreign passport, so both names are the same.

I know a lot of people that just go all out on the names having both FG and Japanese names on them, therefore eliminating any issues with them saying "your name is different" or missing a name here and there.

Hope this helps...

[GomiGirl]

Halfnip - this is good news. So the koseki head is the J-wife and she has your FG name. Was it hard for her to change her name? Ward office?

Am thinking they need to do this before any kids are born.

[halfnip]

Halfnip - this is good news. So the koseki head is the J-wife and she has your FG name. Was it hard for her to change her name? Ward office?

Am thinking they need to do this before any kids are born.

GG--Yes, this needs to be done before the birth and is done at the local ward office. It's really easy since they should have the marriage papers if you friend filed their marriage at the ward office. She can then change her name on her Japanese passport to FG status as well (it's really just a stamp until the passport expires).

[ttjereth]

Halfnip - this is good news. So the koseki head is the J-wife and she has your FG name. Was it hard for her to change her name? Ward office?

Am thinking they need to do this before any kids are born.

It's easy to change the wife's last name, just fill out a form and pay a fee and you're done.

The only difficult parts are 1. then going through and changing everything else with the wife's name on it, 2. having everyone ask your name 3 or 4 times or think your wife is a foreigner because of her name and 3. every job my wife has had since we were married has had her use her maiden name "so as not to confuse customers/clients/etc."

[AssKissinger]

Was it hard for her to change her name?

My wife says it becomes more complicated if it's not completed within the first six months after the official wedding day.

[Greji]

My wife says it becomes more complicated if it's not completed within the first six months after the official wedding day.

This sounds reasonably correct. What the wife is doing is establishing a new family register. So she exits her previous family and makes her own. The assumption is that there is a time limit for this. If she waits a length of time, there are probably restrictions because of establishing it with the foreign name. This probably dates to the time when foreign names were not allowed and all foreigners and mainly, Zainichi Koreans were required to even have a Japanese name to register for a gaiji toroku, as well as a naturalized koseki.

I would imagine if you wanted to fight this time factor you could win, as there are no restrictions precluding a Japanese from leaving their family's register and starting their own family register under their own Japanese name at any given time.

It is not infrequently done by second and third daughters and sons who are not going to another family as a yomeisan, or a mukou. I assume this is done because not being able to be the first son or daughter of their family, or the gaining family to carry on the lineage, they feel that their own family registry is doing the same thing and since it does not effect their honkei lineage is acceptable to all.

[FG Lurker]

If you are a foreign male with a Japanese wife who is head of the family register, can the wife use her FG name?

Yes, no problem at all. The name will be written in katakana though so make sure the ward office gets it right. They fucked it up when creating ours and I had to get extremely angry with the guy before he would fix it.

Mainly this is related to the legal name of any children. A friend wants to have her and her kids name registered as the fathers family name.

The kids will also be registered with the same katakana last name.

When you get passports for the kids, can you get the Japanese passport with the foreign name?

Yes, and so can his wife. Take the husband/father's passport when getting the other family passports done and they will then use the correct spelling of his last name (not the romanized Japanese) for his wife and kids' passports. For example, if you don't take along the husband's passport then the wife will end up with "Sumisu". If you do take it along she can get Smith.

For the kids first names if you want the non-Japanese romanized spelling then you have to get the non-Japanese passport made first with the correct spelling. Then show this to the j-passport office and they will use the correct spelling. Otherwise it will end up being the romanized version of the kid's Japanese name.

[GomiGirl]

Thanks guys - this is all great stuff.

I think they are looking at Kanji names for first names. Or names that make sense in kanji and in English. Am thinking that the wife is wanting to help keep the name alive as the father is the last male in the family with the original family name that is likely to have kids. The others all had girls I think.

[halfnip]

Thanks guys - this is all great stuff.

I think they are looking at Kanji names for first names. Or names that make sense in kanji and in English. Am thinking that the wife is wanting to help keep the name alive as the father is the last male in the family with the original family name that is likely to have kids. The others all had girls I think.

Exactly like me.. You're friend will get a kick out of the expression on peoples face when saying the kids name 3-4 times wondering if that really is their name. Try throwing in an FG middle name and you have yourself a party!

[unkosando]

Very helpful thread!

My wife and I just had a baby last week!

In my case, I am on my wife's koseki. She still has her Japanese name but in her passport it has her Japanese name and my last name in parenthesis.

Since the baby is already born I guess it's too late to change her koseki to an FG name?


Also I think Greji mentioned in another thread that his kids have all names in both passports. (First name, Middle name, Japanese last name, and FG last name.) What's the consensus on this?

Oh also add in to the mix that we are neither living in Japan or the US right now.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[amdg]

[GomiGirl]

My wife and I just had a baby last week!

Congrats!! Got photos? What flavour of baby did you have - boy/girl?

[james]

[Greji]

Very helpful thread!

My wife and I just had a baby last week!

In my case, I am on my wife's koseki. She still has her Japanese name but in her passport it has her Japanese name and my last name in parenthesis.

Since the baby is already born I guess it's too late to change her koseki to an FG name?


Also I think Greji mentioned in another thread that his kids have all names in both passports. (First name, Middle name, Japanese last name, and FG last name.) What's the consensus on this?

Oh also add in to the mix that we are neither living in Japan or the US right now.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

They do that on the new J-passports by putting the FG name in parens. Assuming you are a US citizen, when you register the birth and apply for the SSAN number, etc., you can include the Japanese name as a middle name. It makes for a longer name, but can be convenient in the future explaining duo-citizenship to block heads at various government windows on both sides of the Pacific.

You will need proof of birth at registration for whatever country and since most hospitals don't provide a Birth Certificate. You have to request one and some will give you one in English now days. If not, you will have to have it translated along with the koseki (in some cases the koseki alone will suffice), but if you just have the FG name added as a middle name on the FG passport, or included in parens, it can help.

You do not need to do this, but I have found it extremely difficult because even Japanese officials who are not dealing with this regularly, have the same wrong, or misconceptions of what duo-nationality is, or means, as do most J-people. This way does save a lot of stupid explanations and/or incidents later on.
FWIW

[American Oyaji]

My wife changed her name to mine and everything in her name carries my last name. (She didn't even change it after we got divorced. She still uses my last name.) Kids J-passports have my last name as that is THEIR name. In fact, she registered the hanko I had registered as mine, as her own now. Her official stamp is katakana.

[unkosando]

Congrats!! Got photos? What flavour of baby did you have - boy/girl?

We had a boy! He weighed 3.04 kg.

[Greji]

We had a boy! He weighed 3.04 kg.

Congratulations! Good looking Lad there!

[james]

We had a boy! He weighed 3.04 kg.

congratulations! have you guys decided on a name?

[halfnip]

We had a boy! He weighed 3.04 kg.

Omedetou! Babies popping out left and right these days... We had our first in December and I have 4 other friends expecting this year already. The year of the rat indeed...

[unkosando]

Thanks Everyone!:cheers:

congratulations! have you guys decided on a name?

His name is Jake. We are still deciding on his Japanese name.

[unkosando]

Another Koseki question.

Can my kid have a middle name registered on the koseki?
Also I think it's too late to change my wife's koseki to our FG last name. If I don't change her name the kid's last name will be her Japanese last name on the Koseki?

Thanks in advance.

[halfnip]

Another Koseki question.

Can my kid have a middle name registered on the koseki?
Also I think it's too late to change my wife's koseki to our FG last name. If I don't change her name the kid's last name will be her Japanese last name on the Koseki?

Thanks in advance.

He sure can! My daughter has First Middle Last registered. It looks strange since in Japan they use LastName Firstname, so it looks like LastName FirstName MiddleName, but it's official! Hope this helps...

[American Oyaji]

My oldest has First, Middle, Last AND his number registered.

I'm the IV. He's the V. They translate it 五世　though. I'm not sure about the second kanji, but I know it's the proper one on the papers.

[unkosando]

This is great info! Thanks for the help.
Now I get to argue with my wife and actually say I am right this time!


Oh wait... What about using my son's FG last name on my wife's koseki that is registered with her Japanese last name? Any thoughts?

[halfnip]

This is great info! Thanks for the help.
Now I get to argue with my wife and actually say I am right this time!


Oh wait... What about using my son's FG last name on my wife's koseki that is registered with her Japanese last name? Any thoughts?

I *think* this is possible. When you go to the yakusho to register your son's birth, you will report him with his FG name, correct? And if your wife still has her Japanese name registered, your son will be on her koseki with the FG name because that's how you reported his birth... I hope this makes sense. Again, I am 99% sure, but you might want to confirm.