Hyphenated surnames

[Methid]

First of all, forgive me if this has been answered in a previous thread, I tried searching similar threads but have not found a solution to our predicament. My wife (Japanese) and I (American) got married this past September and my wife wanted to hyphenate her last name with mine. When we got married, we were told we had to go to family court to do that and so my wife kept her maiden name at the time. We then eventually attempted to go to the family court, and they said that because we got married in Japan, that it was impossible to hyphenate her name. I tried researching Japanese law to support that but I could not find anything. Does anybody here know how or if I can get my wife's surname hyphenated with my own? Thank you all in advance

 

[Mike Cash]

Japanese bureaucracy provides for two names, which may be written with kanji, hiragana, or katakana (or any combination thereof) as you see fit. Foreign characters are not permitted. Neither are punctuation marks.

She can have the name smushed all together on official documents (山田スミス or スミス山田 for example) and in daily life and casual use write it however she darned well pleases (山田-スミス or スミス・山田 for example).

This is also the standard practice followed but hose of us with children we wish to have two given names (first and middle names), except that the smushing together happens in the given name box instead of the family name box.

I bought surname hyphenating was mostly a European thing...

 

[Methid]

Japanese bureaucracy provides for two names, which may be written with kanji, hiragana, or katakana (or any combination thereof) as you see fit. Foreign characters are not permitted. Neither are punctuation marks.

She can have the name smushed all together on official documents (山田スミス or スミス山田 for example) and in daily life and casual use write it however she darned well pleases (山田-スミス or スミス・山田 for example).

This is also the standard practice followed but hose of us with children we wish to have two given names (first and middle names), except that the smushing together happens in the given name box instead of the family name box.

I bought surname hyphenating was mostly a European thing...

Thank you very much for the reply! I should expand that the actual physical hyphen is not what's important, just the combination of our names so that's pretty much what we were expecting. For some reason though it was the family court who did not allow her to change her name. Is there some reason for this? Maybe we talked to the wrong guy who did not like combining the idea of combining a Japanese name with a foreign one so gave us some bad gouge. Would going back and trying again help us? Or is there another person we can talk to?

Yeah I don't know many people personally who hyphenate their names, My wife just didn't want to give up her Japanese surname while still living Japan to make things easier so we thought this would be the best solution and make everyone happy

 

[Mike Cash]

It may be that she is allowed to change her name to yours but not to something different.

I doubt very seriously the guy at the court was being capricious or applying his personal preferences.

There is the option of taking your name on official stuff and then continuing to use her name in daily life...which one day you're more than likely to find out she has been doing anyway without telling you about it.

If you're not going to be here permanently, I'd just let her have her way for the time being. She is going to get sick and tired of explaining a hyphenated name and may get resentful. I don't think it would be the everybody-is-happy compromise you think it might be. If she's not enthused over it, I would expect resentment and non-use to ensue.

 

[Mike Cash]

According to this site, you can do it...just not with the punctuation. Call or visit the court and try it again.

Google 国際結婚 苗字 変更 複合性 and get more info than you can shake a stick at.

Be sure she WANTS to do this. I'm saying that out of consideration for YOU more than for her.

 

[Methid]

It may be that she is allowed to change her name to yours but not to something different.

I doubt very seriously the guy at the court was being capricious or applying his personal preferences.

There is the option of taking your name on official stuff and then continuing to use her name in daily life...which one day you're more than likely to find out she has been doing anyway without telling you about it.

If you're not going to be here permanently, I'd just let her have her way for the time being. She is going to get sick and tired of explaining a hyphenated name and may get resentful. I don't think it would be the everybody-is-happy compromise you think it might be. If she's not enthused over it, I would expect resentment and non-use to ensue.

Thank you so much again for the info. I wasn't sure if she would still be able to use her name normally if she took mine legally. I'll have to discuss this with her again and see what she wants, I wouldn't want her to feel forced into accepting my name if she really doesn't want to. We had already decided about how we wanted to change her name, but if she can still use her maiden name regardless of what is on her Koseki than we might go with her taking my name.

And thank you for the site! I do appreciate the concern, I will make sure we both absolutely want this or we won't do it at all. Again, thank you for all of this information, it's been a huge help!

 

[Mike Cash]

You could use her name informally while legally keeping your own, as far as that goes. And it can even have quasi-official status, as you can formally register it as an alias (通称). Mine is my name in katakana, so I can do all sorts of official stuff in Japanese script instead of the alphabet and having to remember which I used where and for what. Since it listed on my juuminhyou and my gaijin card it is"official".

 

[Glenski]

She has 6 months from the time you registered your marriage to decide whether to change her surname to yours, with a simple process in city hall or a ward office. My wife waited nearly all that time just because she didn't want to change her driver's license or credit card immediately. No problems with that. And, we got married in Japan, too.

September is less than 6 months ago, so you shouldn't have any different problem, except that you want special consideration: a hyphenated (or complex) surname. Can't help you there much except to reiterate the above. I know a couple of people (American women married to Japanese men) that have managed it, but maybe the idea is different. What your wife uses in regular life EXCEPT for signing formal documents like bank statements or insurance papers should make no difference. That is, she should be able to use her maiden name. That also includes what she calls herself in any work situation.

 

[Mike Cash]

It may be helpful to clarity what you mean by saying you got married in September. Americans typically think of the date of their wedding ceremony as the day they got married, while in Japan the date of the ceremony is meaningless. You're considered married from the date you went down to city hall and did the paperwork. So if you two did that bit more than six months ago then you're going to have to go through the court.