Does anybody have an official source or reference to law that says non-citizens cannot change their name in Japan?
I’m a resident but not a citizen of Japan. I want to change my name, and as a I understand I need to change it first in my home country, get a new passport, and then change my registered name in Japan. This name change is not related to marriage.
The problem is that my home country refuses to register name changes for non-residents unless you can prove that your country of residency (Japan) does not allow you to do the name change, and they require some kind of proof of this.
I applied for a name change in my home country, and as proof that I cannot change my name in Japan first I just sent some random unofficial website that says Japan only registers the name on your passport and that you have to change your name in the home country first, but they denied this saying it has to be an official source stating that Japan refuses to process my name change application.
Does anybody have suggestions for official sources (in English or Japanese) that state that non-citizens cannot change their name in Japan until they have changed it in their home country? Worst case I guess I could just go to city hall and ask them to write something explaining it.
12 comments
AFAIK, it’s not that Japan refuses to allow you to change your name, it’s that your name must match your passport (from which your residence card will be created). Since your passport is the domain of the issuing country, changing it has nothing to with Japan. So there is no “rule” or “law” forbidding it, they just don’t have a process for it at all.
I know a few people who have changed their names here, and they were either done by 1) naturalizing or 2) changing their name back in their country of origin, then updating their passport, then updating their names here.
So you need to follow up with your home country if there’s any way around their rule.
You should just be able to register a legal alias （通称）in Japan that you can amend to official Japanese ID like your driver’s license, my number card, etc. I think you can only do this once (unless do to name change related to marriage) though, so choose wisely.
But yeah, if you only want one name on your legal IDs here, you’ll have to legally change it in your country of citizenship. No idea what kind of Japanese document would prove this and fulfill the request by your home country though.
>The problem is that my home country refuses to register name changes for non-residents
If this is true, the only real option here is to temporarily relocate to your home country and fulfill their requirements.
~~Japan has no say in your name as you’re not a citizen of their country — you’re only a resident.~~
EDIT: Japan’s stance is that your name must match your passport.
>I could just go to city hall and ask them to write something explaining it.
They aren’t going to just write up a random document like this, sorry to say.
The issue isn’t with Japan but with your home country. I did this once for my kid and basically immigration mentioned that they will just ‘follow’ whatever name in our passport..
You could try visiting your local 法務局 and explain your case. Worst case, even if there’s no actual law or rule, as others already said, there’s a logic behind Japan not being able to change your name, you could nicely ask if they can whip up some document explaining that.
Alternatively, ask your consulate for advice.
You could ask a notary public in Japan to write you a letter stating the fact a foreigner cannot change their name in Japan and have them stamp it officially. They can even put an apostille on it making it even more official for the purpose of communicating something to a foreign government.
What is your home country? I feel like it’s a cliff hanger.
what? Your country ppl are stupid? There is nothin Japan can do about your name change.
This doesn’t make any sense, I’d be guessing that the offical you talked to from your home country has a deep misunderstanding of how things work. It’s certainly possible a government may refuse to change the name of a non-resident but allowing the change wouldn’t hinged on getting proof of non-existense of a non-existent process. Are you sure they just don’t want documentation that you have a reason to change names? For example, if someone gets married overseas, the home country would want documentation of the marriage to use to change the name.
Japan allows name changes but in our case the name must match the passport. If you have some mistake with the katakana spelling of your name on your insurance card or nenkin, that can easily be changed however.
I was poking around just now and didn’t see anything particularly clear. The law for changing a name just says you need to go to family court, so I suspect you’d need to look up specific case precedent to find something specific.
The Alien Registration Act though does repeatedly state that you need a passport to register, so conceptually you’d need to register the name that appears in the passport. I’m not sure if that would be cut & dry enough for your countries name change requirements.
Perhaps you could reach out to your countries embassy in Japan and ask for their assistance or advice in how to proceed? Presumably they’d be vaguely familiar with the requirements on both sides and should be able to help you navigate the requirements.
You are not a Japanese citizen, Japan has no power over your name, thus nobody can really change anything.