kuri wrote:

> You're talking about people on TV ? Since when do they give their real name
> ? Why would they ?

Some may feel like it sometimes, like "Maikeru". Other times, reporters
will give it out, as in the Hanada sumo family stories. Other times,
some biographical info as on a fan site or in a magazine sidebar may
give their real names. Such revelation is probably not always welcome.

> You don't think Namie Amuro, Matsuda Seiko, Kimura
> Takuya, etc...are these people's official name ? At least, those 3 aren't.
> So why wouldn't  foreigners also decide on artist names ?

Apparently, Matsuda's real name is "Noriko" something, because she said
so herself when asked what her dentist husband calls her. My point was
even Japanese have names, probably the names they were born with or got
when they were adopted or married, that they have to stick to for
official records. That's what I mean by official names, not by the
names we know them as. The current head of the Futagoyama sumo stable
is "Hanada Koji", not "Takanohana Oyakata" or anything else he has gone
by while growing up or during his career. I doubt the family
registrations, driving licenses or passports of rising kabuki stars
keep up with their namings, either.

You also noted how foreigners are told they must inform city hall and
immigration of changes to their sex. For Japanese, the recognized right
to do so is brand new, because they had not been allowed to do so
despite any procedures they had undergone or their current outward
appearance, with serious consequences for many.

Are the handles we use online also "official" names to you? Is "kuri"
(Roman, all lowercase) the heading on your alien registration and what
your financial institutions use? You are called "kuri-sama" the way
people at Al's bank call him by his made up kanji name? You think I am
allowed to use "etaka" to refer to myself on any official, legal or
financial documents?

> > Maybe he copied the name as it appears on his US passport for his ARC,
> > if any, or, as has been suggested by myself and others in other cases,
> > the Japanese stuck to the name as it appears in his passport no matter
> > what he may have chosen for himself. I have seen the ARC of a Korean
> > man (successful construction company owner and karate instructor, not
> > stereotypical pachinko parlor or restaurant operator) who is for some
> > reason allowed to pass with a Japanese name of at least four kanji (I
> > do not know why Chinese or Korean names seem to have three. Anybody?).
>
> They don't *have to*, that's a question of family (many have 1 character for
> their name, a few have more)
> and fashion (of shorter given names).

You know Koreans or Chinese with other than three names, or three
kanji? That's very interesting. So why are three names/three kanji so
common? I really can't recall seeing any other way (except when
slapping on western names or aliases to get "Bruce Lee", "Stephen
Chow", "Jet Li", "Vivian Hsu" or "Faye Wong").

> I have seen several Zainichi Koreans' cards and these persons are not more
> allowed than you to use kanji freely. I mean their card has "hanzi" like on
> their passport, for instance Kim Chunmee, while that person uses "Tanaka
> Yumi" as Japanese alias, and would find it useful to have the kanji of
> Tanaka and the exact Yumi (as the Chunmee is ressembling) on driving
> license, etc.

So why can they have kanji characters and I not, and some are allowed
to use things which are not in fact, their real names, as when going by
a Japanese alias, as when a Kim becomes a Tanaka? My names also have
valid Chinese characters. They are Japanese names, in fact, written and
read exactly the same as the common Japanese reading. But the "no
kanji" rule is not applied so strictly to Chinese or Koreans, just like
I wrote. I would not be allowed to call myself "Tanaka" at city hall or
the licensing division, any more than I would be allowed to use kanji
for my actual given names.