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Living in Japan with multiple names

Recently, I faced a little bureaucratic obstacle in Japan. If people tell you Japanese people are very precise, they are probably right: they are very precise. Of course it is a good thing, but it can get annoying at times. A few times I had to be extra cautious to tell people the exact, and I mean exact, name in katakana, as shown on my bank card, because if they used the wrong name with a slightly different spelling, they won’t be able to send me my money, even if the target bank account number was correct.

Japanese people have a family name, and their own name, in that order, because the family is more important than their individual selves.

My full name is Wouter Kees-Jan Thielen, four names, not too uncommon back in Holland, but in Japan, they have never heard of middle names. Japanese people have a family name, and their own name, in that order, because the family is more important than their individual selves. And you address them with their last names, unless you are very, very close to them. So I figured my name would be Thielen Wouter in Japanese, and I use ティールン・ウォータ for the katakana version, just like it is pronounced, closely enough.

For my company to be able to wire me my salary, I had to open a bank account. I went to the bank, and during the registration process, I was asked to write down my full name, as shown on my passport, in katakana. Back then, I had barely arrived in Japan and I hadn’t really thought much about it yet. I put down ティーレン・ウォータ・ケース・ジャン in my haste. The worst bit is, it was spelled wrongly, directly from the Western alphabet, with a clear “e” in the last syllable of “Thielen” while it should be a schwa, like the “e” in “taken”. Also, the “Jan” part was transcribed with an English “J”, like in “jazz”, while it really should be like the “Y” in “year”. At first, I thought nothing of it, but the problems started later.

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