etaka <etaka@yahoo.com> wrote:
[...]
> How did you get them to use the name you wanted on official documents?

I got myself a hanko, went to the city office to have it registered, and
everything else developed naturally from there. My Japanese name is on
the front of my ARC, by the way, not the back.

> I hate the way local officials, as if they were in on it together,
> insist on rendering my three names in all caps, last name first with no
> comma, as if it were some twisted Japanese romaji name, or in katakana
> also last name first.

Interesting. I just give people (including officials who don't know me)
my card and they write my name the way it's written there. I've never
had any dispute over that...

> Also, they claim that as I am a foreigner, I
> cannot use kanji, but they see no problem using kanji for my last name
> in my wife and children's names.

Foreigners can't use kanji? Obviously i am having some difficulty
believing that. Even those who DO know my non-Japanese name
(immigration) _address_ me using my Japanese name... that would be more
natural, and i made it easy for them. :-)

Maybe if i was 18 things could have gone less smoothly, but at my age
(older than Declan) people don't seem to be inclined to argue with me
and my decidedly friendly and polite manners. As i said, i tend to look
for the ways that work best for me. ;-)

On the other hand, i am sure one cannot generalize one way or the other
from all this information: Japan is a case-by-case country.

Regards: Al (you can call me Fred, if you like)

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