TL;DR: could register katakana alias omitting middle name w/ employment certificate and payment slip
Since the legal alias (通称名) topic comes up every now and then I thought I'd add my own report to the list, in case it's of some use/provides some frame of reference for others. (Was happy about the existing ones myself beforehand.)
My case:
- Name: <LastName>, <FirstName> <MiddleName> /edited for clarity
- Registerd: <LastNameKatakana> <FirstNameKatakana> /edited for clarity
- Came to Japan in mid July (~2.5 months ago)
- Life in Osaka, Higashinari-Ku (東成区)
They required two pieces of “evidence” that I was already using the alias. Don't know the particulars, but Amazon shipments addressed at the alias wouldn't count. I used:
- An employment certificate (勤務証明書)
- A payment slip (受領証) for paying a phone bill at the konbini
Regarding (1): Right from the get go I arranged with my employer to go with my katakana alias for all business matters whenever possible. Unfortunately, they use some service provider for handling the health insurance stuff, and though their system could not register me without the middle name … so health insurance card wouldn't have my alias on it as I intended. Fortunately the employment certificate was possible w/o the middle name.
Regarding (2): There's a neat “if life gives you lemons” aspect to it. Just like some others here recently I ran into problems with IIJmio automatically using the katakana rendition of one's name for the credit card holder name, making my payments not go through and receiving a payment slip via post to pay at the konbini. The payment slip also only had my name in katakana on it (and w/o the middle name since I hadn't used that when registering at Yodobashi Camera). So … yay I guess? ^_^
Thats all … お役に立っていれば何よりです。( • ᴗ • )
by IllDepence