Married name dilemma for koseki and passport

I am a Japanese national, living in the UK and my husband is Brazilian. We have not yet registered the marriage at the Japanese embassy yet. We married in the UK, less than 1 month ago.

My question is as follows: my husband has 3 surnames, but I am only taking 1 of those names. How straightforward is this name change for me in Japan? Or would I be required to take his entire 3 name surname?

I am also in the process of renewing my passport, which is very close to expiry, and my application is in my maiden name as I have not legally changed my name yet. In the UK you are allowed to use your passport in your maiden name until it expires, can you do the same in Japan or would I have to renew my passport?

Thanks in advance for any information!

Congratulations on your marriage!

To share my experience, I am Japanese, got married in the UK (while living there), and my husband is from continental Europe. Some time after that, we moved back to Japan.

In Japanese to non-Japanese marriages, if you don’t do anything about it, your family name remains as it is, (which is what I’m doing).

If you got married according to the UK law, I assume your marriage certificate simply has your name in your maiden name, because the UK authorities cannot change your surname.

So if you report the UK-based marriage to the Japanese authorities (either through the Embassy/Consulate of Japan in the UK, or by reporting it to the city hall in Japan), your marriage will be entered into the “remarks” column of your “koseki,” saying (just picking a random name) “(you) married Mr. Joao Gilberto Carlos Sopena Alvarez, Brazilian national, on (date) according to the UK law.” Just reporting it to the Japanese authorities does NOT affect your name.

After you’ve reported the marriage to the Japanese authorities, if you want to, when you apply for passport, you can have your maiden name, followed by your husband’s family name in parenthesis, so that you’d be able to show that you are married to him. Still as far as Japanese authorities are concerned, you will remain (again random name), Ms. Tatami Sato. But on the passport it will look like:
Tatami Sato (Alvarez).
You will purchase your air ticket with “Tatamki Sato” only, because that is the official name of yours.


Now if you WANT to change to your husband’s, you’d need to report both the (1) marriage and (2) your wish to change the name, at the Embassy/Consulate of Japan in the UK, within 6 months of your marriage. So if you want to, you might want to just call them to ask about the 3 names.


In our case, since we decided to move back to Japan, I must say I am glad I am keeping my maiden name, just by the way.

I have only one correction to the above answer. When you buy a ticket for international travel, the name on the ticket must match the passport. Therefore you need to include all the names (including husband's last name). However, Expedia and Orbitz will not allow the "(" so you just run both last names together. This is OK with immigration and there has never been a problem with my wife (Japanese) traveling anywhere in the world.

Bob,
The above is my personal experience; I have not changed my surname, but for convenience, I have my name on my (Japanese) passport as:
- Tamami Sato (Alvarez),
…with the understanding that in Japanese passports the name in parenthesis is just for convenience. Therefore, my official name remains “Tamami Sato,” so thus I purchase international air tickets with just that. I buy directly from airlines, and no problem at all.
(It is different from having a hyphenated name, or stringing together first name and middle name together.)

Thank you both of you for your responses!

And if I do change my name, does anyone have any experience of not doing a straight adoption of my husbands full surname- In my case, I do not wish to take my husband's full surname but only one of his multiple surnames! I'm not sure how flexible Japan is in this scenario. In the UK as long as it is clear in the marriage certificate how the new surname derived then there is no problem.

So for instance if is name is Alan de zenun rodrigues da Costa and I only wish to take Zenun, would it be straightforward?

Thanks again

you can get information in Japanese.
when you want to change your family name in Japan, you can get katakana name, because koseki only accepts Japanese letters.

also, they only accept the official name. i.e. if you want to change your family name to his family name, it should be the same to that in his birth certificate.

婚姻届書には省略等することなく、出生証明書等の公文書に記載されている正式氏名（フルネーム）をカタカナで記入し
https://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/j/koseki/konin_kinyu.htm

I am not familiar with the issue of using 1 out of 3 surnames – you might have to check with Embassy of Japan in London, or possibly one in another country where people tend to have more than one surname, to ask what people usually do.
I remember someone from Central America telling me about his multiple surnames, but I also remember that he would usually use just one in his everyday life. Best wishes that you find a satisfactory solution.

So, I went to the Japanese embassy yesterday and asked, yes it seems you are right! What she said was "it is best if you take the full surname". Surnames in Brazil are quite unique to the individual, for instance my Husband's surname is slightly different to his sister's, so it would be quite odd if I took it as it is. I've decided to stick with my maiden name in Japan. Although I will change it here in the uk. Let's hope that is allowed!

Thank you for your responses