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Registering Japanese born baby in Australia 2020/5/4 01:05
Hi,

Firstly long time reader first time poster. Thank you for having this community it has helped me multiple occasions.

The question I have is linked to registering my son's birth in Australia. I am an Australian and my wife is Japanese. My son was born in Japan and we have registered him under my wife's Koseki Tohon which uses her family surname. When we were married she did not change her surname to mine, but we do plan to at a later stage. So we currently have differnt surnames.

The issue we have is my son's birth certificate and Koseki Tohon has my wife's surname and we want him to use my surname in Australia.

As I understand it, the Australian government / embassy will require a translated Koseki Tohon and this my son's surname is not the same as mine, therefore he will have to use my wife's surname (indicated on the Koseki Tohon)?

I have friends in the UK and they were in the same situation as me but the UK government will accept using the 'natural' father's surname despite what the Koseki Tohon says, IF the father is clearly listed on the birth certificate and the surname matches.

Any feedback and advice is greatly appreciated but I feel like the only option we have is to legally change my wife's surname in court then register my son as an Australian to get around this...

Regards
Marcus
by MHV (guest)  

Re: Registering Japanese born baby in Australia 2020/5/4 08:07
Or register the current name and simply do a name change in Australia at a later date. Many people change names. Also note that in countries like NZ/Aus the convention for some people is to change their names on getting married, but it is not actually a legal name change - just an accepted convention.
by JapanCustomTours rate this post as useful

Re: Registering Japanese born baby in Australia 2020/5/4 12:44
Have you asked the proper authorities of Australia? I believe most countries would let you register your child with your name if your wife agrees to it.

If you already registered the baby with your wife's name in Australia, then maybe it will be more of a headache to change it now.
by . (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Registering Japanese born baby in Australia 2020/5/5 00:24
@JapanCustomTours - thanks for your contribution and advice. I investigated this method but to carry out a name change for my son he will require to live in Australia 3 years consecutively . Given the nature of my work and my current residency outside of Australia this makes things more complicated - so I'm trying to seek advice if anyone has experience or knowledge of trying to get the surname registered that is not on the Koseki Tohon - or there really is no way around it? (The UK and US you can do what I’m seeking from my research)

@. – thank you also for your response. I have asked the proper authorities but their answer was not clear (to me anyways). From what I gathered they only allow the surname on the Koseki Tohon which requires translation. They said whatever the translations is, is the information they will use. I will probably attempt another call to get clarity.

Hopefully someone who has gone through this before can share some insight and experience…
by MHV (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Registering Japanese born baby in Australia 2020/5/6 10:50
I really think you have nothing to worry about since it's the initial registration but please let us know how it turns out.

I do wonder how they will write your child's first name if they really only accept straight translations. If the name is Eric or Erick, it could be translated into Erikku or Eritsuku.
by . (guest) rate this post as useful

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