Fun fact – Japanese people don’t have middle names. This ends up having a surprisingly large effect on people that do.
Recently I’ve been working on getting what is called “permanent residency” in Japan. Until this year I have been living in Japan on a spouse visa, which is quite nice and has no restrictions on my economic behavior. The only downside is that I need to re-apply every five years, and my staying in Japan depends entirely on the continuing existence of my Japanese wife. The permanent residency visa is for ten years, and also carries no restrictions on what I do or how I make a living.
I was perfectly willing to continue getting my spouse visa every five years, but my company recently volunteered (without prompting) to support my application for permanent residency. They assigned someone to help me dig up all the papers, they let me leave work (on the clock!) to go to the various government offices and get official documents, and they even said they’ll pay all the fees on top of it. It was unexpectedly kind of them – and has done more to earn my loyalty than the quarterly bonuses that they dutifully pay out.
The official government documents have been a real challenge, too. It is quite simple for Japanese people, as they have just a family name and a given name, and it is effortless to match up their official identification and government records. But thanks to avarious factors it can be tough for me.
There are lots of ways to write my name in Japan. Here’s a few:
Bryan Fredricks, Bryan David Fredricks, Fredricks Bryan, Fredricks Bryan David, ＢＲＹＡＮ　ＦＲＥＤＲＩＣＫＳ, ＦＲＥＤＲＩＣＫＳ　ＢＲＹＡＮ, ＦＲＥＤＲＩＣＫＳ　ＢＲＹＡＮ　ＤＡＶＩＤ, ブライアン　フレドリックス, フレドリックス　ブライアン, フレドリックス　ブライアン　ディビッド
So I just listed about ten different possible combinations of my name, using various letter sets,word orders and languages. If I apply for a document with the wrong set then it means rejection, delays, and more time off needed to go back to the government office for another attempt.
One office had online access to the documents I needed – Great! However their website didn’t have a field for middle names, and so I would try one of the combinations above and receive a message saying that I would receive a postcard (in the mail) after five working days with the login/password for the site. After waiting anxiously for five days I receive a message in Japanese saying, “Your name doesn’t match our records. Please try again.” It is a bit like playing the lottery.
Another hiccup occurred back when I first joined my company. They told me that they couldn’t pay me (which got my attention rather quickly as you could imagine) because my bank account name didn’t match my passport name (see all the combinations listed above) and so in the end it turned out to be easier to go open a new bank account with the version of my name that matched my passport. I am happy to report that I could receive my salary in a timely fashion thereafter.
Actually I am simplifying a lot of things and these processes are quite a bit more complex than the way I am describing them here. But I am short-cutting in order to briefly illustrate the fact that having three names is burden here in Japan. I can’t imagine what it must be like for people with four or more names! But hopefully, in the next six months or so I’ll be classed as a “permanent resident”. I guess that means that I’ll be permanently stuck dealing with this maddening system.
