Govn't now lets Japanese call themselves George or Mary

[Taro Toporific]

Wo0T!
Rules on spelling Japanese names in passports to be eased
TOKYO Sept. 9 Kyodo -The Foreign Ministry plans to ease rules for Romanizing Japanese names in passports, ministry officials said Thursday.
Under the present system, for instance, people whose first name is ''Joji'' have their name spelled ''Joji'' in their passports according to the current Romanization method. But there are a growing number of cases in which such people would rather have their name spelled ''George''....

[samuraiwig]

[Taro Toporific]

'bout time too.
She figured "Rii" could be read in several ways - "Lee", "Rai", "Rie", etc.
..

Damn, right. "Rii" in my mind should be read as "REE" as in Reefer Madness and of course has nothing to do with a prefectly normal name like Lee.

Always felt sorry for Japanese students in the States with real bilingual names like Amy and Emily and who ended up registered in my classes with wacked Romanji names like Emi and Emiri.

See What personal names coincide between Japanese and other languages?

[Skankster]

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You guys r missing a very important point

People can now change their name.
This has been possible for a long time.

I new a guy named Koji. He got caught for drunk driving 4 times
He left back to japan and a year later came back with his name in the onyomi spelling. His passport now read some other un-pronouncable crap.

Within 2 weeks he got caught for drunk driving again.
This time he paid the ticket and fines with a lawyer... LA law enforcement had no idea it was the same person as Koji.

I think this is crap. Japanese is not even standardized in romaji... this only makes the Japanese more cnnfused.
but I guess its all part of cultural colonization.
Pretty soon Japan will be an pigin ingrish country.

[omae mona]

I new a guy named Koji. He got caught for drunk driving 4 times
He left back to japan and a year later came back with his name in the onyomi spelling. His passport now read some other un-pronouncable crap.

WTF? Are you claiming they let some dude with a name like "Yamada" get a passport that said "Sanden" or something like that instead? That's pretty far fetched.

[Skankster]

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Yamada's are a dime a dozen.

He changed his first name.

[American Oyaji]

Japanese is not even standardized in romaji.

You don't know much about the Japanese language do you?

[omae mona]

Skankster, when did this happen to your friend Koji? Recently or a long time ago? Like this year, or last year, or before?

[Oradea]

Pinch of salt

[maraboutslim]

This is absolutely stupid! I would tell "joji" that he is simply shit out of luck. His name is not George no matter what. You are either Japanese, or you aren't. Pick a nickname like all the other ex-pat japanese, but keep your own damn real name on your passport for pete's sake.

Maybe one of you gaijin should try registering your name, say "Thomas" as "takuya"(in katakana) or some such crap and see what happens.

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p.s. if you have half-japanese kids, give them two different names on their japanese and other country passports. that way they can assume a new identity if they ever have legal problems (but hope they aren't stupid ones like drunk driving).

[AssKissinger]

p.s. if you have half-japanese kids, give them two different names on their japanese and other country passports. that way they can assume a new identity if they ever have legal problems (but hope they aren't stupid ones like drunk driving).

That's smart. Could that help them keep two passports after they turn 20?

[maraboutslim]

That's smart. Could that help them keep two passports after they turn 20?

I'll let you know in 11 more years. Or maybe in 9 more years, because u.s. boys have that pesky military draft registration issue to deal with.

I did meet some 20-something, even 30-something Japanese/Americans that still had both passports back in the 90s. But maybe the systems are more crossreferenced now. Back then I swear the Japanese imigration office operated out of cardboard boxes with files in them. Remember that? If you didn't bring your appointment postcard with you, they couldn't help you because it had the number that told them where to go dig out your file!