Registering my marriage and changing my name?

If anybody can help us figure this out we�fd be truly grateful! ...

I married my now husband in Tokyo in September 2018 (He is a Japanese National and I am British), and then shortly after flew back to the UK so I can deliver our child. When we married at our local city hall in Japan, we were not given any kind of documentation as proof of marriage such as a marriage certificate. Now that I�fm back in the UK, I�fd like to legally change my surname and documents to my new married name, but how can I do this without documentation as proof of marriage?

Do we need to also register the marriage in the UK, or do we just need an official document from Japan?

Thank you in advance if you can help!

This question is not about Japan, it's about the procedures for changing one's name in the UK.

Ask the UK authorities.

Your documentation is in Japan, get the Japan documents. They are accepted in other countries like US or UK.
As for the UK process - no idea, this is a Japan forum.

Your husband should be able to obtain an official copy of his "koseki" - family register - which will show his marriage to you. This should serve as the official document certifying to your marriage in Japan.

This is one thread (though a bit old) where I wrote out what I knew then:
https://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+84873
The Embassy's links seem to have been updated since then.

So far I know that the UK recognizes Japanese marriage, but I don't know how that might be in terms of any procedures (any registration, changing name, etc).

Now that I�fm back in the UK, I�fd like to legally change my surname and documents to my new married name, but how can I do this without documentation as proof of marriage?

Perhaps two additional points:
- you don't need an extract of the family registry as you can just get a certificate from city-hall. For the people I have helped get married in Japan there is a bland one and a fancy one, and the cost is not so high. If you didn't need or request a copy at the time, they wouldn't have given you one.
- second, there is a difference between convention in many western countries of adopting a spouse's surname and the "need" to legally change your name. Many people simply adopt a new name without legally registering it - most of the married people I know didn't submit any changes to places like "Births Deaths and Marriages" (normally it would be a division of a Justice department).

I think you need to confirm that, if the marriage is not registered in UK, what happens to your new baby ?
is there any problem to register your baby in UK to get baby's UK nationality ?
can you register the father's name in baby's birth certificate in UK ?

in Japan, it is simple.
if you were a Japanese woman and get a baby without registering the marriage, a baby will be registered as no father. a new baby has no right to get a real father's inheritance. (need legal procedure to do that.) that means , if not legally married, you lead your baby to be in unstable legal situation.

https://www.gov.uk/marriage-abroad/y/japan/opposite_sex


You need to arrange and get marriage certification in Japan which your husband can do