I think I got fucked up by the residence officials, my name on the residence card is as follows:
First Name Middle1 Middle2 Last Name (They filled it in and I didn’t realize the mess I’m in for.)
Everywhere I apply, they want my First Name to be input as my Last Name and Middle1 Middle2 Last Name to be put as my First Name.
What’s worse is that my bank account is opened with the same name format, my insurance etc…
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Should I just use my real first name as my last name to register for phone plans / anything that needs my residence card as id?
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Is my father’s name (Middle Name 1) my first name now?
8 comments
Your fault for having two middle names
I think they copy what you wrote on the application for the residence card.
And the application clearly says family name first. They also ask you to check if everything is ok when you receive it, you didn’t say anything then?
Oof. One middle name is bad enough in Japan. My advice is to get rid of the middle names in your home country’s passport if you can, then get a new residence card. Otherwise you’ll have to talk it through with the immigration office to get a residence card exactly how you want it. Even then they might not change it and insist it has to match the passport, and match how they want to interpret it from the passport.
They didn’t fuck you over, Japan is just paralyzed at how to properly handle middle names because Japanese people don’t have them.
Go to immigration with your passport ASAP to get the residence card corrected. Make sure you get the old one back (with a hole punched through) so you can have both on hand to correct everything.
Register an alias at city hall with just the first and last names, omitting middle names, and you can use that on most things.
It’s a hassle, but just do it the way every place asks you to. You’re going to end up writing it one way at some place and they’ll just ask you to write it in a different order.
One thing you can do right now is register your name in katakana, in Japanese order, as an “alias” with your city hall.
So if your full name is Harold Edward Daniel Johnson, you’ll register something like ジョンソン ハロルド. Then get a *juminhyo* printed out that has this on it. Then get that put on your insurance card, bank cards, et cetera (basically everywhere except the residence card, which can only have Roman letters on it).
Get your utilities (which do not require ID to set up) registered as ジョンソン ハロルド too; their databases will handle this *much* better than a long string of *romaji*. You can use utility bills as (a very weak form of) ID when signing things like phone contracts.
You still want to get the residence card to have your surname first, then your given name, then your middle name(s), as that’s how those cards are supposed to go. (Sympathies on having to possible go by the wrong name: I have my father’s name as my middle name too.)
Just go with it bud. Who cares what name you use, it`s all foreign to Japanese. hahaha
You should go the the immigration office and get your name corrected ASAP. Otherwise you’ll have a cascade of issues in the short/mid term snowballing from that initial mistake. Thais will be especially bad at the bank or any financial institution you have to deal with.