Surname after divorce

I am Japanese national living in UK and my husband is British. We have two children who was born in UK and also have Japanese koseki.
We are in a process of getting a divorce. I was told by my colleague that once the divorce is finalised you only have 3 months to change your surname back to your maiden name, if you don’t do so within 3 months, you have to keep your husband’s surname unless you go to court in Japan or you remarry. Is that correct? I was planning to keep my husband’s surname to keep the same surname as my children until they are 16 but if I have to keep my husband’s name forever I’m not too sure. Could someone advice me on this please

As far as I know, yes, after a divorce from a foreign national, whose surname you’ve adopted upon marriage: (1) you can change your surname back simply by reporting during the initial 3 month, or (2) you have to go through the family court procedure then report the change if 3 months have passed.

But it is a procedure at a family court, so it is not a big deal (though I have not done it myself).

Please search the web with key words like 外国人との婚姻　氏の変更　離婚. This will get you to some websites you can read up information on. Best wishes.

Changing names as a legal step in the UK system is pretty easy.
https://www.legalnature.co.uk/guides/how-to-legally-change-your-name-i...
It only costs £42.44 so you are hardly "locked" into using your ex-husbands name forever.
Depends if you want it for official/legal purposes, or simply convention to be known as.

Oh. I was assuming you were referring to the name on the Japanese Koseki. Excuse me if i understood your question wrong.
(I myself got married to an EU national while living in the UK, so my name didn’t get changed then - the UK authorities couldn’t do anything about my surname - and I kept my surname.)

Thank you so much for the reply. Apologies for my confusing questions.
I am Japanese with Japanese passport only. My surname has changed to my husband when we got married(married in UK only) now we are getting divorced, I’m confused of what to do with my surname weather to change it back to my maiden name or keep the husband’s name. I was planning to keep my husband name for my children but if I can’t change it back to my maiden name forever if not changed within the 3months of divorced been finalised I’m not too sure if I want to keep my husband’s name.
Has anybody have any informations on this or been through this??

Thank you so much

https://www.osaka-everest.com/blank-5/#%E5%AE%B6%E5%BA%AD%E8%A3%81%E5%...

if you look at your koseki, you will see:
there is no koseki for your husband, because he is not a Japanese.
you are 戸籍筆頭者 and your children's koseki will be attached.

you can change your surname at 家庭裁判所. the cost is very cheap and you can do it by yourself. if you want to change your children's surname, probably you need to show you are 親権者. or your children can do it by themselves when they become older than 15.

don't forget to report your divorce to city office where your koseki is there.

It looks like posters are telling you that you can change your name back to your maiden name even if it's more than 3months after your divorce, as long as you go to court. But, of course, the best way to confirm that is to ask the authorities such as your local embassy or the city hall of your honseki.

離婚から３カ月を過ぎても、家庭裁判所で手続きを踏めば比較的簡単に旧姓に戻せると、皆さん、おっしゃっていますね。もちろん、確実な情報を得るには、日本大使館や本籍の区役所にお問い合わせになるのがいちばんですが。

Asako-san,
So from what you are writing, you got married in the UK (according to the UK law), then changed your surname to your husband’s.
Question: did you report your marriage to the Japanese authorities after-the-fact, so that your marriage to him is mentioned in the “remarks” column of your Koseki in Japan?
Or, did you just report the birth of your child later to Japan, so that they appear as your “child” on the Koseki only?

The reason why I ask is if you reported the marriage to the Japanese authorities so that your marriage is reflected on the “Koseki” as well as your surname change, then after you get divorced and when you want to change it back after 3 months, you’d need to go through the family court procedure. (You’d need to report the divorce itself too.)
If not, the UK process mentioned by the earlier poster applies.

お話を聞く限り、UKで（UKの法律に基づいて )婚姻なさって、で、姓をご主人のものに変えられた、と。
お伺いしたいのは、その時に、事後に日本の（在英領事館なり本籍地に）UK法に基づく婚姻を報告し、姓の変更も届けましたか？届けていたら、「XXあさこは、？？国籍のAA BB氏と、英国法に基づき、C年D月E日に婚姻」と、あなたの戸籍の「備考欄」に入っているはずです。
もしかしたらそれはせず、お子さんが生まれた時に出生を届けただけですか？

もし日本当局に婚姻を届けていたら（そして姓の変更も記載されていたら）、離婚したのち、一定時間がたってから姓を戻したいと思った時には、日本の家庭裁判所の手続きを踏む必要があります。（そもそも、離婚した時点で、再度日本当局に届けることも必要です。）
もし、そもそも婚姻を届けていなかったら、UK国内での姓の変更（別の投稿者が書いていたもの）があてはまると思います。家庭裁判所での手続きは、難しいものでは無いはずです。詳しくは、在英領事館、または、本籍地に問い合わせてみてください。