Hello there.
Me (foreign national) and wife (Japanese national) married almost two years ago and decided to keep our last names. However, we’re now expecting a baby and we’re thinking on changing my wife last name to mine, which would require asking permission to family court.
However, according to the family court information on name change ([https://www.courts.go.jp/saiban/syurui/syurui\_kazi/kazi\_06\_19/index.html](https://www.courts.go.jp/saiban/syurui/syurui_kazi/kazi_06_19/index.html)) , a very special reason (やむを得ない事情) is required for the change to be approved.
Could anyone that has gone through the family court route give us information on the reason you stated for the name change?
I’ve searched through several posts here but didn’t find anything relevant.
Thanks a lot.
7 comments
Are you going to live in Japan for a long time? If yes, don’t bother your kids with your foreign name and let them use your wife’s name. They can still use your name on their foreign passport and when living overseas.
We went through the family court system before my son was born. My wife explained that while she had originally intended to keep her family name for professional purposes we now felt that it would be simpler for everyone if I shared a family name with our children.
We had a single sit down meeting with someone who I assume was a judge and that was that.
I have been told “special reason” can just be marriage and it will be approved. Not sure about truth of that but I would assume it’s true.
I changed my name to combine our surname. She changed her name to reflect it because marriage. Didn’t require anything extraordinary.
やむを得ない事情 is just standard boilerplate. It doesn’t have to be a “very special reason”, it just has to have an, er, *reasonable* reason you can explain and which isn’t totally bonkers.
◯ “I am afraid my child will have a rough time if the parents have different surnames”
◯ “In the event we move to my spouse’s country, having different surnames may cause legal difficulties”
✕ “I hate my surname”
See?
In Japan, saying you want to have the same family name as your child would be considered a very compelling reason.
We went through family courts for the exact same reason. IIRC my wife just wrote she wanted all of our family members to have the same last name (me, my wife, and our to-be born child) so that we could have a more 安定 life.
It went through without a hitch!