"etaka" <etaka@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> 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.

The sumos tend to start their career under their real name, there is a
ceremony when they change.

> You also noted how foreigners are told they must inform city hall and
> immigration of changes to their sex.

I was joking, They just say "any change on line 1 2 ...".

> Are the handles we use online also "official" names to you?

No, they are nicknames...but you can use your official name as a nickname
too.

>Is "kuri" (Roman, all lowercase) the heading on your alien registration

No. That'd be all uppercase, anyway.

> and what
> your financial institutions use?

Yes, in several places they had not enough space in their computer for the
reading of  my whole name. I have opened all my accounts under my official
name, they added the reading.

> You are called "kuri-sama"

Yes, at UJF. At the post-office they used family-name-sama. At UFJ, they'd
call you Eric-sama in that agency or maybe Eri-sama if the last "kku" was
trimmed by their computer. I've heard them call other gaijins by their given
name. I asked them to use my family name since we've not kept the pigs
together and they refused saying gaijins must have their given name first.
So now, I read on their badge and call them "Tacchan" if they're called
Takako, etc. I rarely talk to them.

Kuri is a reading of the beginning of my given name.

>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

No

> or  financial documents?

Yes

> You know Koreans or Chinese with other than three names, or three
> kanji?

Chinese, many, it's common for people that are not Han or Christians.
Koreans few (only Zainichi with longer given name).

>That's very interesting. So why are three names/three kanji so
> common?

Ask them.

> So why can they have kanji characters and I not,

Because the kanji name is the one written on their passport !!!!

> 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?

That you can do too. As I said, their ARC is not "Tanaka". They ask people
to call them Tanaka, 90% of people they meet never see their IDs, and others
prefer "Tanaka". Many Japanese people (school teachers, employers...) ask
them to get a Japanese alias because they don't want to hear Korean/Chinese
names in their class or staff, and they want to avoid the rest of the group
knowing the person is un-Japanese. And not all of Zainichi dare insisting on
using their *ethnic* names. You know it's a weird country.

> My names also have valid Chinese characters.

Valid where ? Are they on your American passport ? If not, they are not
valid. Registering a hanko doesn't prove anything as you may register
several ones with different kanji. Your wife and kids "Takabayashi" kanji
are valid because it's registered on her koseki (?)  and her passport. If
you get the US administratioon to give you a passport with your name in
kanji, you'll be able to use the kanji.

>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.

It's not a "no kanji rule", but "same name as on your passport rule"

> I would not be allowed to call myself "Tanaka" at city hall or
> the licensing division,

They are not either (except if they manage it like Al).

Kuri