Is the kanji used in a name part of official legal record? Like for contracts and birth certificates and such?
I was wondering about this because I was born in the USA, but most of my family was born in Japan. So they have “official” documents with their Kanji names on them, but I dont have any for mine. If I wanted to move to Japan, or had a kid who wanted to move to Japan, and use the same Kanji in our family for first and last name, would it really count? Or does it need to be “registered” or something?
Just curious about this hypothetical, thanks.
3 comments
It would depend on what is registered with the government as your official name, same as with most situations.
Do you have Koseki戸籍? If your family registered you with Japanese government you have an entry in the family registration. Automatically you get the family name, which I assume is written with kanji, although it does not have to be in kanji as I understand it.
Currently living in Japan with an American name.
I have a hanko with kanji, buts not registered so there are only certain docs I can sign with it.
My Zairyu, My Number, Health insurance, and all else has my name listed in Katakana. It’s much easier to write (and trust me, if you come to Japan you’ll be filing out A LOT of forms and writing your name A LOT). I did it this way to make it a quicker process.