"Al" <al@privacy.ne.jp> wrote in message

> everything else developed naturally from there. My Japanese name is on
> the front of my ARC, by the way, not the back.

In Osaka, at city halls and immigration offices, they have forms translated
in eigo/chinese/portuguese/you name it, they say your gaijin card must carry
the same names + number as your passport, and if you don't do all that they
want (tell them each time you change of passport/name/sex...), your risk a
fine and up to 6 months of jail.
The guys at Immig bent the rules for you. Good for you if they did you that
favor.

I have asked them politely to add katakana reading just after the
romaji.....and well, it seems that's not 100% impossible, but each time,
after giving phone calls during 15 minutes, they say that'd be a huge fuss
to find the civil servant that would take that responsability. I have it
easier to systematically show a business card with the gaijin card.

I wouldn't want an alias on my official card. At first I didn't care what
they'd decide to write on bankbooks or contracts. But for family reasons, I
had to send copies of documents to my country, and the contracts that didn't
carry my romaji name couldn't be used as legal documents. I had to ask the
ex-bosses to write certificates indicating my name in romaji. Now I check
they write at least the romaji.

Kuri