I’ve got a a surname made of two words [Surname1 Surname2], and I’m wondering how this impacts both how people refer to me and how much annoyance I’ll have dealing with official paperwork.
From a little research I’ve gathered:
– People usually refer to you by [Surname]-san
– What’s on your passport is your official name
– Middle names suck in Japan because the systems are not equipped to handle them
Unfortunately, Indonesian passports do not separate given name and surname, so I just have “[Given] [Surname1] [Surname2]” under a name field. This has led to multiple systems (in other countries) registering my first Surname as a middle name, which is what I’m concerned with.
My questions are:
– Would I be able to clarify the double surname situation when I sign up for my residency card, to make sure they don’t treat it as a middle name?
– How do people refer to me? I’ve had people use either surname in different countries, but I’m curious how it’s culturally handled in Japan. Using the full surname seems like it would be inconvenient.
– Once I do have documentation showing that I have a two word surname, would I still encounter the middle name problem that many others have encountered, due to my passport name?
– What do I do with auto-scan systems? For example, the MySOS application has me scan my passport to obtain information, so I’m not sure how it splits up my name, and sometimes auto scan systems don’t let me adjust the fields. Is this a common system in Japan?
– How would this work on my hanko? I can’t imagine it even fits my first surname in katakana (it’s kinda long) let alone both surnames.
– Anyone else experienced this and can give any other insights with potential issues I’ll encounter?
Thanks in advance!