Koseki name change as foreign US wife - which documents to submit as proof?
Hi Japanlife, I have a head scratcher of a Japanese bureaucracy question.
I married my husband 6 years ago in Japan. He is Japanese and I’m on his Koseki as a 特記事項/footnote in his entry, so I’m not a full person on the Koseki, as is the norm for foreigners. The issue is when we registered the birth of our baby, we discovered that my name in the Koseki is still my maiden name and was never changed to my new name after marriage. My name has been changed in the US on my passport and social security, and in Japan on all legal documents (residence card, my number, license, junminhyo, etc)
When trying to change the Koseki entry, the clerk at city hall told me I need to submit documentation showing when and why I changed my name, and that the documentation needs to come from my home country (USA). He suggested the proof of marriage eligibility document, but the embassy doesn’t issue them anymore and I don’t have the one from 6 years ago. He also kept telling us that there has to be something from the US that evidences we got married. I even pulled up the embassy website that says clear as day the only evidence of marriage is the Japanese Juri shomeisho but he didn’t care. Nor did he care that everyone else in Japan was happy to update my name with just my passport, or that the embassy used the jurishomeisho to change my passport.
He said that ultimately after we submit something it would be up to 法務局 to approve. So before I go directly there to ask, has anyone run into this issue and how did you resolve it? If I leave it as my maiden name, even though I have no more proof that’s me, will there be issues in the future? My top concern is that (god forbid) something happens to my husband, our house is in his name and it won’t transfer to me because my name is wrong in the Koseki and therefore I won’t be seen as a legal heir.
PS: it’s also silly to me that the Koseki people were happy to register our baby when the birth documents all had my married name on them, and my husband literally signed a paper that said “this is my baby” in front of them. The cognitive dissonance is strong with these guys.