I see a lot of how to get your Japanese name and the rules, but also there are differences on how people transliterate their name depending on pronunciation and especially for names with ‘R’.
Take for example Roberto can be “Roberuto” or “Robaato” (both of these also appear in different name converter websites). My question is that can we choose how we transliterate our names? Or does Japan choose how?
Context: I am filling up a form and it might need my japanese name. I don’t have a japanese name yet since I haven’t moved into Japan, but I need to make sure that the Japanese name I put there would eventually be the Japanese name I have when I move there soon.
ありがとうございました
1 comment
You can generally choose but, in many situations, you have to make sure someone doesn’t choose for you first. For example, make sure you tell your company your preferred transliteration else they may just choose themselves and, if you’re on employee health insurance, that katakana will appear on your card rather than your preferred one. It can be a pain to change after the fact.
> I need to make sure that the Japanese name I put there would eventually be the Japanese name I have when I move there soon.
At the highest level, Japan doesn’t choose anything since your legal name in Japan is what is in your passport. Unless explicitly stated it needs to be in kana/kanji, you should generally put your name in romaji on forms with your preferred katana in the furigana/kana section if present.