Wife's Japanese Passport Name

[underhill]

Fairly off-topic, but I'm guessing somebody here has had this problem and hopefully someone has solved it.

Let's pretend my name is JOHN SMITH and my wife's maiden name was MAI SUZUKI.

After marriage, my wife legal name, in the West, is now MAI SUZUKI SMITH, where SUZUKI is a MIDDLE name, not a SURNAME.

However, due to the way her name was updated in Japan (not updating the Koseki), her passport lists her last name as

FirstName: MAI
Last Name: SUZKUI (SMITH)

Yes, with the brackets.

This causes a problem every single time we fly, because the name doesn't match what's on the ticket... forget using the checkin kiosks, it gets rejected... sometimes the checkin staff don't even know how to fix it in the system, and a manager needs to be called.

The last we flew the name on the ticket was

FirstName: MAI
LastName: SUZIKISMITH

Which is what airline staff told us to do. But this still causes problem. Calling the airline doesn't help because they don't much about Japanese passports.

Anyone had this problem and found a solution? (Short of a legal name change, which is becoming a very real option...)

[RetireJapan]

Sounds like getting the Japanese registration fixed might solve the problem. That passport seems to be assuming that both Smith and Suzuki are surnames.

[TunaSki]

Fairly off-topic, but I'm guessing somebody here has had this problem and hopefully someone has solved it.

After marriage, my wife legal name, in the West, is now MAI SUZUKI SMITH, where SUZUKI is a MIDDLE name, not a SURNAME.

Is your wife a dual national? If not, she doesn’t have a legal name in “the west” as she has no identity there. If she has a visa for “the west” then the legal name on her immigration status should be Her legal name is just what is on her Koseki.

So if she wants to use Mai Suzuki Smith without brackets, she has to update her Koseki to Mai SuzukiSmith (no space) and then get that on the Japanese passport.

[underhill]

Is your wife a dual national? If not, she doesn’t have a legal name in “the west” as she has no identity there.

No, that's not quite right. When you marry in the US you can legally change your name at the same time. Since we married in the US, her name was legally changed at that time. We have numerous immigration documents from multiple countries that accept the marriage document as proof of name change, as well as bank accounts, driving licenses, tax returns, etc, and that's how her name is listed everywhere in the world, except Japan.

Oddly, Japan is the one country in the world that does not permit married couples to have different surnames... ironic! It seems Japan does acknowledge the name change - somewhat - by placing the (SMITH) in brackets. It doesn't cause any issues, except checking in to the airport...

[RetireJapan]

Oddly, Japan is the one country in the world that does not permit married couples to have different surnames... ironic! It seems Japan does acknowledge the name change - somewhat - by placing the (SMITH) in brackets. It doesn't cause any issues, except checking in to the airport...

Married couples can have different surnames as long as one partner is non-Japanese.

[adamu]

Anyone had this problem and found a solution? (Short of a legal name change, which is becoming a very real option...)

Two people suggested solutions, which you dismissed. What would you consider an acceptable resolution?

[TunaSki]

Is your wife a dual national? If not, she doesn’t have a legal name in “the west” as she has no identity there.

No, that's not quite right. When you marry in the US you can legally change your name at the same time. Since we married in the US, her name was legally changed at that time. We have numerous immigration documents from multiple countries that accept the marriage document as proof of name change, as well as bank accounts, driving licenses, tax returns, etc, and that's how her name is listed everywhere in the world, except Japan.

Oddly, Japan is the one country in the world that does not permit married couples to have different surnames... ironic! It seems Japan does acknowledge the name change - somewhat - by placing the (SMITH) in brackets. It doesn't cause any issues, except checking in to the airport...

Well if your wife got married in the US then she was supposed to register it to Japan: https://www.la.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/m02_04_02.htm

But the point still stands, as a non-US National, your wife’s legal name in US is whatever it is in Japan (on the Koseki). If she “updated” her name in the US after marriage then she was supposed to do it Japan side


Japan allows Japanese who marry foreigners to have a different name.

[captainspoke]

...
Oddly, Japan is the one country in the world that does not permit married couples to have different surnames
...

...
Japan allows Japanese who marry foreigners to have a different name.

Yes, my wife and I married in 1988, and we both kept our respective surnames. So I'm still SMITH, and always have been, she's still TANAKA, and always has been.

[underhill]

Two people suggested solutions, which you dismissed. What would you consider an acceptable resolution?

That's a bizarre comment, the only suggestion I got was a name change, which I'd already said was an option, and not a preferred one.

The other person commented that my wife's name has not been legally changed, which is not correct, nor a solution. You can easily Google this, you can change your name in the US as a non-US citizen. And yes, the Japanese Authorities were notified about the chance, which is why SMITH appears on the surname field. The problem is Japan doesn't "Fully" complete the name change without updating the Koseki entry, which is not required, so we're in this bizarre situation where she has two names on the passport.

Anyway, the answer I was looking for was how to enter the surname on the airline ticket so that it passes the automated checkin. We've been told - by airline staff - to use SMITH as last name, SUZUKI as middle name (didn't work), or SUZUKISMITH (doesn't work). Possibly the correct answer is SUZUKI then, since the name in Japan is still primarly SUZUKI.

I was hoping somebody might have actually tried a scenario that works.

[adamu]

Two people suggested solutions, which you dismissed. What would you consider an acceptable resolution?

That's a bizarre comment, the only suggestion I got was a name change, which I'd already said was an option, and not a preferred one.

The answer I was looking for was how to enter the surname on the airline ticket so that it passes the automated checkin.

I was hoping somebody might have actually tried a scenario that works.

Got it. Was just clarifying as I think most people's mind wonders to "change the name on the passport" which will resolve the issue universally, rather than trying to get it to work at each company, which may be different for every company and even different systems within the same company, similar to the middle name issues foreigners experience.