PSA: Slight pitfall/warning regarding legal alias (通称名)

> If you ~~die in the game~~ lose Japanese residence, you ~~die in real life~~ lose your Japanese name.

If you have ever registered a legal alias (通称名) in Japan, you were probably warned that “you can only have one and if you have it removed you can never get it back.” This is true in the general case, but there are several caveats to this.

One caveat that I had never seen anyone ever mention, and which took me by surprise recently, is that **if you lose Japanese residency (在留資格) you lose your alias** and also **you do not automatically regain the alias upon regaining Japanese residency**. This could potentially cause massive headaches for people who have things like bank accounts registered under their alias (although as of recently you are not supposed to have a bank account if you are not a resident).

In my case, I had to reapply for the alias, but was able to skip the excessive alias registration requirements for my new residence by **obtaining a “Record of Deletion from Certificate of Residence” (除票) which lists the alias from the previous residence government office (役所), and applying for a new alias at my new residence government office, using the 除票 as evidence of use**. Check with your new residence government office as your requirements may be different.

In my case it was a 20 min train ride across Tokyo and I was able to re-register my alias very smoothly, but if you lived in Hokkaido with an alias, lose Japanese residence, and then move to Okinawa, this could potentially become a large issue for you. It may be possible to obtain a 除票 as you move out, which then you should store in a safe place until you re-obtain Japanese residency.

I hope this is helpful for someone at some point.

Best,

gambs (aka 小泉八雲)