My spouse and I are getting divorced, but are trying to get our child’s Japanese Passport first. Currently child has mothers family name in Japan and my family name on my home country documents. My spouse says we should put my family name on child’s Japanese passport to avoid any issues when going through the airport, but I want to put her family name so that our child keeps full Japanese name for in Japan.
Q1. Would there be any issues going through the airport if my child’s family name doesn’t match mine?
While looking through the sub for similar situations I found the below thread. OP says to put Japanese family name on child’s Passport, but in the comments, people are saying it’s possible to put both names, e.g. Tanaka (Smith), Taro.
Q2. Is this possible? And would it mitigate any potential issues? What’s the best way to put my child’s name on Japanese passport when getting divorced?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/u0k4dl/which_name_and_passport_to_use_when_flying_with/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
4 comments
I don’t have much information for you, but I do know that it is possible to use the parentheses like you did with Tanaka (Smith), Taro because I have seen it on a Japanese passport.
Your spouse has the right idea, to avoid troubles add your family name in parentheses (passport application has field to fill that). It should match yours. Bring your passport as proof.
I read it can cause troubles internationally otherwise. While in Japan passport is not used. So no need to worry about affecting your child Japanese name
Yes, you can put your child’s name in parentheses which is quite common for Japanese spouses who take on their foreign partner’s last name. This allows for using the nee name in Japan and the new name in the host country.
It does has some downsides as some some automated immigration systems and some travel agents can have difficulties. For example, your child’s plane ticket would not have the parentheses which sometimes flummoxes people when they try to match it to the name on the passport. But all-in-all, just minor annoyances.
> but I want to put her family name so that our child keeps full Japanese name for in Japan.
Do what you think is best, prob the parentheses option, but you don’t actually need this afaik. The passport name is in romaji and is otherwise useless as ID inside Japan, being the only officially issued ID in non-Japanese characters. Maybe if your kid gets a credit card then it would need to match, but also just when they go abroad?